When moving to new premises, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) set out to install a network that would make a clear contribution to its business performance and that would contribute to the company’s goal in establishing itself as one of the government’s most hi-tech organisations. Thanks to a solution from ProCurve Networking by HP, PSO now has a state-of-the-art network that has made a valuable contribution to the company’s performance.

When Pakistan State Oil (PSO) moved to new premises in Karachi in 1995, their new location was a ‘greenfield site’ and had no existing IT infrastructure. The company saw the move as an opportunity to build a new network specifically designed to meet the needs of the Oil distribution business and position PSO as being one of the most high-tech government bodies.

“Our vision is to establish PSO as not only Pakistan’s largest oil company, but also one of the government’s most tech-savvy companies. IT would be a fundamental element of our strategy to increase competitiveness,” explained Syed Nawaid Anjum Zaidi, Deputy General Manager (IS), Pakistan State Oil Co, Ltd.

Five vendors took part in the tender process for the installation of PSO’s LAN in their new offices. These were: Cisco, IBM, ProCurve Networking by HP and 3Com.

“After evaluating a number of competing solutions, we opted for ProCurve. It was an easy decision. ProCurve was unbeaten in terms of features and value for money. We were also won over by the customer service and technical expertise being offered by Mushko, the ProCurve dealer, ” said Zaidi.

“The Lifetime Warranty with advance replacement and minimal ongoing support costs also proved to be a winner. We needed the reassurance that if anything should go wrong, it would be resolved with minimal delay and the company as a whole would be oblivious to any problem, ” added Zaidi.

Mushko Electronics, ProCurve’s dealer in Pakistan, began rolling out the new network in July 2001. The installation took eighteen months to complete. The network consists of 30 switches, including two back-up switches located at Mushko’s premises. The new LAN supports around 900 users and is used for email communication, intranet and Internet access and to support PSO’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The new IT infrastructure has also contributed to PSO’s new paperless office policy. In the future, the network will be expanded to support an additional 200 users across 66 offices.

“Our new network had an almost instant impact on our business. We have achieved better response times, with lower downtime and minimal network problems. Employee productivity has increased and this contributes to company performance, so the network is doing exactly what we needed it to do. It has been a very worthwhile investment, ” commented Zaidi.

• Increased value for money by requiring minimal support fees and providing high functionality and expandability at very reasonable prices
• Maximised staff efficiency and effectiveness through minimizing network interruptions
• Contributed to corporate goals of business, achieving advanced IT capabilities and skills

The ProCurve Networking business unit of HP is a supplier of enterprise networking solutions comprising wired and wireless networking products, services and solutions-including WAN routers, Ethernet switches, routing switches, wireless access points and network management applications-which allow customers to build networks based on open standards that meet current and future needs for security, performance and reliability.

The ProCurve Networking Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ is a unique design strategy that creates a secure, mobile, multi-service network by placing intelligence at the edge-where users connect and policies are enforced. This innovative approach creates a dynamic network infrastructure designed to keep up with advancing technology and user needs while protecting business investments.

When you are ready to explore the benefits a ProCurve Networking solution can offer you, call HP at 1-800-975-7682.

To learn more about ProCurve Networking's Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ solutions, visit our home page.

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