The Co-operative Bank

Case Study

About

The Co-operative Bank are the original ethical Bank. Founded in 1872 and with its headquarters in Central Manchester, they now have over 3.2 million personal customers, 95,000 commercial clients and 50 branches across the UK.

No. 1 Balloon Street has been the home of the Co-operative Bank for many years. The offices are in a recently renovated eight floor building in the heart of Manchester.

The Brief

As hybrid working is becoming increasingly popular, The Co-operative Bank have decided to move to a more flexible way of working, allowing staff to work from home for part of their working week. With these changes the decision was made by the Bank to reduce the number of floors occupied, and hand five out of the eight floors back to the Landlord.

The building’s existing access control solution covered access to all parts of every floor in the building and was centrally managed by one of The Co-operative Bank’s remote sites. As the Bank had relinquished five floors of the Balloon Street office, the newly installed central access control system was to belong to the Landlord with the Bank requiring access cards for the Landlord’s managed solution to control access to their remaining three floors.

All works needed to be completed within a four week period.

The Project

The project consisted of;

• Removal of existing access control system
• Installation of the new Paxton Net2 controller in a double door enclosure
• Installation of Net2 door entry system
• Installation of a new PC with Paxton Net2 pro
• Installation of a desktop reader to valid cards.
• Connect the existing FIA so all doors open on fire
• Commissioning and testing of all doors
• Installation of Switches.
• Installation of Cat 6 data links for the net2 entry system and PC
• Training of all staff & co-ordination of card validation

Conclusion

Sudlows designed a new Paxton door entry system utilising the existing cabling network throughout the building and all card readers to help reduce the costs.

We installed 51no. control panels, main server, enrolment PC, ID card printer, video intercom system, fibre header switch and new network switches through the building’s existing infrastructure.

The entire project works were designed, installed and commissioned within four weeks of the project coming to light.

Testimonial

Ben Downer, Service Delivery Lead at The Co-operative Bank, said;

“The Co-operative Bank has relied upon Sudlows for technical support with its IT infrastructure for several years. In a year when COVID has forced the Bank to rapidly react & adapt to new ways of working, Sudlows have stepped up to facilitate much of the technological change.

“It became apparent that our security specialist was unable to deliver a necessary upgrade to an access control  system and during a chance conversation, Sudlows offered their help to find the Bank a suitable alternative offering. Within a week they exceeded all expectations by producing a workable solution with a high-quality design and committed the resource, with a reduction in cost as well, a great result!

“The work was promptly delivered within the deadline to the satisfaction of the client. Sudlows demonstrated a level of agility & flexibility that is rare in this marketplace and turned what was a critical problem into an improved outcome. Needless to say we’re now in serious discussions about other ways that Sudlows can widen their support package to the Bank throughout its estate.”

Location

Manchester, UK

Sector

Banking & Finance

Duration

4 Weeks

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