Globus family of brands

Client

As one of the largest global tour providers, Globus has been operating for over 90 years. The family of brands, which includes travel groups Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways, offer unparalleled holiday experiences across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. What distinguishes Globus as a forerunner in the tourism and travel industry is that it provides authentic experiences through hassle-free planning and by using tour directors and local guides. They also personally handpick and test the hotels and inclusions to ensure their travel base have exceptional travel experiences.

Opportunity

Globus required an update and complete redesign of their existing infrastructure, security, virtual platforms, and data centre. They needed a reliable backup and storage solution, as well as updates to numerous security processes and outdated systems. After a re-evaluation of their IT environment, we discovered they also needed a brand-new IT network, environment, and system upgrade. As their staff were primarily office based and working on desktops, they required an innovative solution which would not only give them the ability to move their staff onto laptops, but also allow their staff access to a secure network environment at the same time.

Solution

Outcomex deployed Cisco SD-WAN across the tour group’s head office and branch locations located in ANZ. SD-WAN gives staff the ability to connect to core business applications across all their office locations any time, from anywhere. We also employed an end-to-end Cisco security solution to meet Globus’ requirement for increased security. This included Cisco AnyConnect VPN, Secure Endpoint, Email Security, Umbrella and Firepower, which not only provides advanced security features (such as anti-malware and email protection), but also enhances endpoint security.

We implemented a refresh of Globus’ Cisco Unified Contact Centre Express (UCCX)/Call Manager, migrating the software to its new platform, which ensures business continuity and allows Globus staff to access a secure and easy-to-deploy customer interaction management solution. It also allows for an increase in software capability, providing high availability functionality, which means they are now able to handle high volumes of calls while reducing the risk of loss of business operations.

During our design and implementation of Globus’ network and infrastructure upgrades, we added a failover mechanism with SIP trunks. This reduces the risk of agents losing access to the CRM and not being able to receive and make phone calls, which protects the business’s bottom line. This was particularly beneficial to the tour group as the volume of calls they received for cancellations increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic due to travellers cancelling tours.

Additionally, we enabled data centre stability and modernisation by implementing an updated production infrastructure, which is located at a new data centre, Equinix SY4, and a Disaster Recovery infrastructure, which is hosted on-premise at the existing server room at Globus’ head office. We also implemented Commvault’s Complete Backup and Recovery giving the tour group simple-to-use data protection, as well as intuitive reporting and intelligent automation/diagnostics.

Lastly, we offered Managed Services to Globus, which will give them access to unlimited break/fix support. Through this service, the travel group will have the ability to proactively manage the network and infrastructure redesign. As a result, Globus will benefit from a high performing and secure platform that is simple to operate and enables reliable services for business-critical applications.

“All of the improvements Outcomex set-up and implemented enabled us to work from home with little or no disruptions to our business,” says Karl Merckel, Head of IT ANZ at Globus. Given what we were working with, “it was an interesting and challenging project, but we were able to make through it with our partner [Outcomex]”.

Technologies used

• Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
• Cisco Firepower
• Cisco SD-WAN C1121X-8P
• Cisco Secure Email
• Cisco Secure Endpoint (AMP)
• Cisco Umbrella
• Cisco Unified Contact Centre Express (UCCX)
• Commvault Backup & Recovery
• Equinix SY4

Impact

Outcomex provided Globus with the modernisation of their network, infrastructure, data centre, security and virtual platforms upgrade and redesign. This timely solution allowed staff to work remotely from the start of COVID-19, and has ensured that operational services remain unhindered, across their three locations in NSW and New Zealand. Globus now has a network that is stable, responsive, efficient, and secure.

The next step for Outcomex and Globus is to deliver Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), and Meraki video cameras and access points.