With the threat of Covid-19 and the huge changes and challenges of the lockdown, it’s hardly been business as usual at Procol over the last three months. A far better phrase would be ‘busy-ness as unusual’. During what has been a very quiet period for some, we have remained operational throughout – and have been working extremely hard to help clients remain operational too.
Putting Procol’s promises to the test
We’ve a long-held ethos of creating working environments to a higher, more professional standard. One of the core benefits is that this helps protect your business by making it easier for you to:
- Comply with workspace regulations and legislation now and in the future
- Adapt quickly and efficiently to the need to change the size or use of space
- Prevent disruption and expense caused by avoidable technical problems or poorly specced equipment
Complementing this is our equally well-established commitment to providing clients with long-term support. Further to completion of a project, we’re always available to offer proactive advice and insight to keep people aware of new ideas, opportunities and technologies that could benefit their business. And if additional equipment or furnishings of any kind are needed, we’ll source them.
Of course, when we first set out these promises (which you can see in detail on the What we do and Why choose us pages of our website) we didn’t have the challenges of a global pandemic in mind!
But over the last three months, they have been put to the test with clients calling on us for emergency support with issues that were often business-critical.
We kept our cool – and so did our clients’ data centres
Nothing typifies the nature and importance of our work during the lockdown more than the assistance we’ve provided to a number of our clients with data centres and server rooms.
With telecoms businesses and government organisations on our books, some of the sites we deal with are part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Keeping them working is of paramount importance, but the lockdown – and its timing – were creating three kinds of challenge:
- A large increased demand on data networks in general
- Changed timing of the peak demand on data networks (for example, with millions of people suddenly remote working, networks set up to deal with demand in the evening were facing peaks during the day)
- There was a heatwave!
Data centres and server rooms need to be kept cool to function properly, but each of the above was putting intense pressure on cooling systems to a point where additional, temporary systems needed to be specced, sourced and installed as swiftly as possible.
And that’s where we came in.
Meeting such requirements during the lockdown was no mean feat, however. First off, when working on-site, we needed to ensure the health and safety of our team, and comply with the increased heath-and-safety demands of our clients.
With most hotels, lodges and the like closed, you can imagine the difficulty of finding accommodation for staff working on sites away from home. And with many manufacturers running at reduced production levels (but some facing an uptick in demand at the same time) sourcing products and equipment was often tricky.
However, in each instance, we’re proud to say that the Procol team – together with our sub-contractors and suppliers – have stepped up and delivered, and we thank all involved for their incredible efforts and professionalism.
While the last three months have been far from easy, we’ve risen to the test and are ready for whatever comes next. So if you have an office or technical environment facing challenge and change due to the Covid crisis, we’re here to help. For more details and to discuss your needs, just call us on 01225 701701 or email enquiries@procol.co.uk