Cisco Systems Partner GFI Informatics Accelerates Networking for New UK Toll Road

January 14, 2005

By Cindy McDowell, News@Cisco

Cisco Systems Partner GFI Informatics Accelerates Networking for UK Toll Road

GFI Informatics Limited, a Cisco® Gold Certified Partner with headquarters in Staffordshire, England, recently helped make the country's M6 Toll Road one of the most high-tech roads in the country. The company was chosen by Midland Expressway Ltd., which built and runs the toll-based road, to provide the IT platform that carries data along the road's various toll stations, as well as to and between Midland Expressway's offices.

The 27-mile toll road includes two networks: an electronic tagging system, developed by French supplier Ascom, which scans cars as they pass through the various toll stations to help ensure quick payment and a smooth flow of traffic; and, the powerful high-speed network based on Cisco Systems® technology that was designed and deployed by GFI Informatics. The GFI-designed network provides the stability to carry crucial business systems, including closed-circuit television, for the toll road activity.. It provides "Five Nines" reliability, or up-time of 99.999 percent.

"Our up-front work for the Midland Expressway proposal was so in-depth that I was very confident we'd win the business," says Steven Skakel, sales director for GFI. "By working with our value-add and the Cisco value-add, together with our technology roadmap, we completely eliminated the competition."

Scott Wakefield, marketing manager for GFI, identifies outstanding customer service as the company's key differentiator. "We are number one in the UK market for customer satisfaction and that's a tangible measure that we're doing things right," says Wakefield. The company's main vertical markets are transportation, finance, and the public sector, which includes health. The balance of its business is a broad spectrum of other verticals.

"The first thing we did with Midland Expressway was have our sales team perform an initial qualification," says Skakel, "and Mark Petty, our account manager for the Midland Expressway job, worked with Cisco to engage a Cisco account manager early in the sales process." By working early with a Cisco account manager, Skakel says GFI gets independent validation and is assured it is on the right track with its bid and design.

Cisco AVVID Provides Platform for Powerful Network

For Midland Expressway's toll road, GFI Informatics recommended a network based on the Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data) platform.

"We knew that a Cisco AVVID solution would meet all of Midland Expressway's immediate needs, as well as grow with the business," says Petty. By providing data and voice through one solution, Midland Expressway was able to reduce costs while increasing resiliency with dual CallManager systems and dual modules in a core chassis to provide greater reliability and scalability.

This was important because the network carries crucial information along the toll road. "This network is absolutely critical for how information is used in the business," says, Neville Chilton IT manager for Midland Expressway Ltd. "Without it, the road would continue to run, but we would have no idea how many cars are using it, how they've paid, and whether they're using the electronic tags."

Petty and the GFI Informatics team put small routers with remote telephony in all of the toll booths within the 10 toll areas along the road, along with approximately five Cisco 7940G and Cisco 7960G IP phones in each of the 10 booth areas. Each booth runs Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) on a router to talk to the Cisco CallManager system at headquarters. There are also approximately 50 Cisco IP phones located at the headquarters. With Internet access and IP telephony at the tollbooths, operators now have access to crucial information, such as emergency situations and road conditions. The Cisco AVVID solution also transmits video images via closed-circuit television (CCTV) for additional information and security. GFI installed dual Cisco CallManager systems in different cabinets in different locations for additional security and safety.

"The entire solution is resilient and designed for minimal disruption; if anything fails, it fails-over to the next box," says Petty. "The IP Communications solution was provided over Midland Expressway's own fiber infrastructure, which gave them the functionality of a traditional PBX [private branch exchange] solution without having to pay for a PBX at each toll booth." According to Petty, The converged infrastructure saves Midland Expressway half in administration costs and on maintenance contracts.

The biggest deployment challenge was meeting the tight time constraints. GFI prebuilt the system in offsite labs so that any problems could be addressed in the lab rather than in the live environment, and customers could get trained on the system before it was deployed. With the smooth deployment of the GFI and Cisco solution, Midland Expressway is now moving critical information along the M6 Toll and effectively managing traffic congestion.

GFI's work for Midland Expressway, Ltd. is just one more example of its mission to provide the ultimate in customer service.

"To be successful in this business, you must be clear on your focus: namely, which advanced technologies you're working with and which markets you're serving," says Wakefield. "To be successful in the mid-markets, we make sure that we have specialists working in our focus markets and in our advanced technologies, in addition to working closely with Cisco. This guarantees success for both our customers and for us."

Cindy McDowell is a freelance journalist located in Santa Cruz, CA.