"Constantly fine-tuning, confirming agreements and continuing to monitor"
Case study
"Everything now works anytime, anywhere"
Nimeto, the creative vocational school in Utrecht with about 1,500 students, has undergone a complete transformation in recent years. The school building has been renovated and expanded, and the WiFi network has also been completely renewed. For this, Nimeto chose the SURFwireless service. "Every day there was a new challenge," he says.
The existing Wi-Fi system dated from 2017, the network from 2010, and both were in urgent need of replacement. "For example, there were all kinds of cables, including the relatively slow cat5 capacity, criss-crossing the building," says Jelle van Baggem, manager Digitalisation & IT at Nimeto. That made the network unstable and led to many complaints from lecturers and students about the poor wifi. "They should just be able to walk into a classroom and work, without any hassle." A customer story in SURF Magazine about MBO Utrecht put Van Baggem on the trail of SURFwireless. "In it I read 'always problems with wifi, now no more'. Exactly what I wanted too!"
Communication was essential
As project leader for this wifi-as-a-service (WaaS) project, SURF maintained close contact with Nimeto and implementation partners Wentzo and Limpid Blue. "SURF had the building measured and, based on drawings, drew up a best estimated guess together with network supplier Wentzo as to where walls, glass walls and pillars might interrupt the signal," says Van Baggem. "Limpid Blue then laid the cables and SURF carried out another measurement. Then everything was connected, re-verified and fine-tuned. Communication was essential during construction: constantly fine-tuning, confirming agreements and continuing to monitor."
Jelle van Baggem from Nimeto
Flexible adaptation
As the renovation had to be done while the school remained open, the building was divided into four construction phases and tackled one section at a time. "In the remaining parts, the wifi therefore had to remain operational via the old system. Every day there was a new challenge: a room full of tables and chairs, which meant that access points could not be hung, a floor that was still wet, materials that were delivered late, dust everywhere because of the demolition work," Van Baggem outlines.
"To the surprise of the construction parties, the wifi was the first thing to be finished. Usually, that is precisely what is delivered too late."
"SURF had to be enormously flexible with the renovation, because sometimes schedules just didn't go as planned. Great that it succeeded and was finished on time." December 2022 saw the completion of the WaaS project, and April 2023 also saw the completion of the renovation. Just in time for the party in June for the entire Nimeto community. "To the surprise of the construction parties involved, the wifi was the first thing to be finished. Usually that is just delivered too late."
Going the extra mile
By now, Nimeto has a fast, reliable network. "Server room, access points, switches, cat6A UTP cables, everything has been replaced and even with a capacity of up to 10 Gbit. Furthermore, all cables are now identical, documented and neatly concealed in ducts. Thanks to drawings, we know exactly where they are and which port belongs to which socket," says Van Baggem, who is also delighted with SURF's service. "They think with you in a tremendously benevolent manner and go the extra mile in service. Moreover, with SURFwireless, they continuously monitor whether the network continues to work properly."
3D printers in the Making Room at Nimeto
Network can move forward another 10 years
With the new network, Nimeto can move forward for another 10 years. "Lecturers can teach undisturbed. And students have all the space they need to work on two devices at the same time via Wi-Fi with, for example, heavy creative Adobe cloud files. Our Service Desk no longer has to go to a room every moment to solve problems, but can invest time in the next improvement. Everything works anytime, anywhere, that's the direction we are currently heading," says a proud Van Baggem. "I now seriously get spontaneous compliments from lecturers about the good wifi. Count on our department building up a lot of credits with this."
Text: Wilma Schreiber
Photos: Vera Duivenvoorden