Quality and HMSHost International: worldwide collaboration

Quality works with a team of specialists: architects, consultants and engineers, who can translate daily and worldwide business needs into long-term organizational and technical solutions. One of those specialists is Alex Pechtold, Network Consultant at Quality. He is closely involved in the HMSHost International project.

Worldwide

HMSHost International, part of the international market leader the Autogrill Group, is involved daily and worldwide in devising, developing and facilitating innovative catering concepts for airports, train stations and shopping centers. Due to lack of internal capacity, the company decides to outsource the management of the entire network infrastructure. Quality guides the company in this, starting with the question: what exactly should be outsourced?

Clarity

Before the management can be handed over, this must first become clear. Only then can Quality really help to provide insight into the network infrastructure and standardize it as a whole. “HMSHost International is very familiar to me: I know the organization through and through. This allows me to provide a lot of background information about the company.' An enormous advantage, of course, when you map out a complete blueprint of the company vision and strategy for a client.

“A fun project. I can really help people with this.”

Stakeholders

'A fun project', says Alex: 'I can really help people with this.' Alex sits down at various consultations with the stakeholders and, together with the Solution Architect, maps out all the requirements, wishes and a future-proof vision for HMSHost International. He describes, among other things, the data center of HMSHost International on layer 1, 2 and 3 of the OSI model. The Open Systems Interconnection model is an ISO standardized reference model for data communication standards and a means to map the topography of infrastructures, as it were.

Inventory

In addition to the consultations with HMSHost International, Alex is in close contact with the Network Engineers of Quality. They carry out the as-is inventory; with this they collect all relevant information about the current network infrastructure. All inventoried information forms the input for a blueprint: the design of the technical and organizational set-up. Once the blueprint has been approved and translated into functional designs - high level designs (HLDs) - it is up to Alex to write the technical designs - low level designs (LLDs). ‘That is a challenging job for internationally active companies; one I love.”

Laws and regulations

Alex explains that due to its international character, a project like this is slightly different. For example, the laws and regulations of various governments must be considered. ‘Consider, for example, the influence of the Chinese government on the infrastructure within its own national borders.’ But working at catering locations behind customs mainly entails good things for Alex.’

“I visit impressive locations such as international airports and large shopping centers. Every time I find it challenging to be involved with the backend and high-level activities within a project in such a place.”

Quality

Alex finds challenge and job satisfaction in his role as Network Consultant on this project. Both the work-related issues and the atmosphere at Quality and HMSHost International suit him: working hard, being critical and doing cool things. But for Alex it's not just about the connection. Because Quality is vendor-independent, Alex can teach those involved and, above all, provide honest advice and appropriate solutions. "I'm growing tremendously doing this work. Quality does not stand still, and neither do I.' The company offers him many career opportunities and great variety. “I visit impressive locations such as international airports and large shopping centers. Every time I find it challenging to be involved with the backend and high-level activities within a project in such a place.”

Connection

The Network Consultant is a lucky man. The variation in the work, the challenge of the client and the connection he finds with the mentality that prevails at Quality, mean that he is completely at the right place. The fact that Alex can also manage two network colleagues makes it extra fun: 'That way I can really teach others.' 

Quality provides vision, expertise and involvement in the realization of IT infrastructure. With a team of architects, consultants and engineers, the company supports the transformation of the business strategy into a well-founded IT infrastructure.

Performance

Once the LLDs are complete, it is time for Network Engineers Bonnie Kol and Randy Matahelumual to provide the Change Implementation Plans (CIPs) with the correct information and start implementation. They map, among other things, the data traffic, all connected devices, the configurations, used commands and consistency of all connections and ports.

Management

Network Engineers Bonnie Kol and Izaak Tamaëla also act as network administrators on the project, to keep the current network running and to support the preparation, implementation, configuration and installation of completely new networks in locations that have yet to be opened. This also includes the necessary after care, including putting everything correctly in the monitoring and checking the services.