Swedbank

In 2014, Swedbank moved its head office from Brunkebergs square in central Stockholm to a newly built 45,000-square-meter office property in Sundbyberg (near Stockholm). The move was made to create a new, more modern workplace for the bank’s employees to meet the requirements characterized by a modern bank operation as of today.

Background

Construction and moving strategies were in place years before the actual move. One of the key planning components dealt with ways in which the entire IT infrastructure would be secured and correctly dimensioned for current and future operations.

Swedbank commissioned Coromatic to analyze the bank’s needs and deliver physical infrastructure solutions. The challenge was to accurately account for these factors: future capacity requirements, appropriate security levels, energy efficiency, and functionality that meet today’s needs.

Needs analysis encompassed future needs

Coromatic became involved in the project in 2010. Thanks to early involvement, Coromatic’s expertise could influence the building’s interior design – so that the facility was optimized for the IT infrastructure. This initiative included capacity plans for future needs.

— Swedbank is a textbook example of how companies should perceive the entire office as a critical facility, because all key functions totally depend on data communication and power supply, said Patrik Sundberg, Coromatic’s account manager for Swedbank.

— For everything to work, the physical IT infrastructure must be built into the facility in a smart way right from the start – a critical success factor.

Rigorous analysis and inventory of the bank’s operational needs kicked off the project. These processes accounted for the IT infrastructure and weighed in all possible factors such as security, risks, and modern business requirements associated with top notch energy efficient solutions.

Because the bank’s entire business is digital, it is extremely crucial to secure 24/7 internet access and power supply.

— In complex, comprehensive projects like this, said Sundberg, success depends on exhaustive needs analyses that include everything from the amount of power an individual workplace requires to ways in which data communication will be secured for the 400 people who work with the trading that puts big demands on availability and response times.

IT infrastructure – part of thearchitect’s blueprint

Thanks to Coromatic’s early involvement in planning Swedbank’s new head office, design of the physical IT infrastructure went into the blueprint from the start. The result was 4 server rooms and 24 cross-connection rooms.

The facility’s power supply system contained redundant, dedicated transformers, UPSs, and standby power units. Because all IT infrastructure details were in the blueprint, installation went very smoothly; Coromatic delivered a physical IT infrastructure that meets all needs for power supply and data communication – plus landline and wireless telephony.

— Coromatic played a coordinating role throughout the entire project and assumed responsibility for data, IT, and telephony,” said Yvonne Palm, Swedbank project manager in charge of the move.

— Operations interruptions could not happen and they didn’t. This is very important because the heart of our trading activities is in the main office.

Support 24/7

After completing the installation and relocation, Coromatic continues to honor a service and maintenance agreement with Swedbank for data communication and power supply – in case something occurs that could disrupt business operations managed by the 3,000 people who work in the new head office in Sundbyberg.