City of Beverly Hills

Location:
Beverly Hills, California 90210

Size and Industry:
Approximately 34,000 residents. Beverly Hills is one of the world’s most glamorous places to live, eat, play and shop

Service Type:
 •Physical Infrastructure Consulting, Design and Project Management
 •Network Infrastructure Consulting, Design and Integration

Contract Initiation:
2002

Major System Upgrades and Additions:
 •Design Municipal Area Fiber Optic Network
 •Connect remote facilities to the main campus
 •Implement the system
 •Project management
 •Maintain and monitor network

Objective: Designing and Building a Municipal Area Fiber Optic Network

The City of Beverly Hills is one of the most glamorous places in the world to live, eat, play and, especially, shop. The Golden Triangle, as it is known, with Rodeo Drive at its center, is identified as the shopping destination for the rich and famous. Many glamorous buildings also mark the city, notably the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, attracting visitors from all over the world. The City’s iconic image has been proliferated through television and movies. As one of the world’s most famous locations, the Beverly Hill’s infrastructure is scrutinized and held to the highest standards.

Challenge: Building a Better Infrastructure

The City’s infrastructure was not as well planned as the designer boutiques and five-star hotels. The infrastructure was initially built on the cable company’s infrastructure, but with the water telemetry-based communications infrastructure experiencing 45 percent failure rates, City officials had to make a change. This was also a good opportunity to develop a system that offered more services than the current infrastructure. After consulting with Network Insight, Beverly Hill’s utilities managers decided, and the residents agreed, that a Municipal Area Fiber Optic Network would be the best alternative to handle City communications.

After evaluating the RFPs from responding companies, City engineers and planners were impressed with Network Insight’s up-to-date knowledge of current applications and their ability to provide the highest quality services at the best price.

Solution: Network Insight’s Physical Infrastructure Consulting Team

“Network Insight delivered a superior product at the most feasible price. We are profiting from benefits like added functionality, increased reliability and better services. ”

- Shana Epstein
Utilities Services Manager
City of Beverly Hills

City officials stressed the importance of implementing the solution in phases to allow modifications to be made as the engineers and planners received feedback from customers. Network Insight consultants designed a cost effective and scalable system for the City of Beverly Hills.

Due to their thorough understanding, exceptional interpersonal skills, and proven project management processes, Network Insight project managers were able to demonstrate the benefits of a Municipal Area Fiber Optic Network to the community and gain widespread approval for the initiative. Network Insight took the lead, designing a two-phase network and managing the project. Network Insight first installed the North Phase, which connected such City services as: water, fire, radio services, civic centers and parks.

Result: Increased Functionality without Increased Costs

The North Phase of the new fiber optic network connects 13 remote sites to the Beverly Hills main campus and provides added features for communication and functionality. The network now runs at 99.999% of uptime, a measurement in the industry equivalent to approximately 5 minutes of downtime per year. Although the project will take several more years to show a return on investment, City of Beverly Hills Utilities Services Manager Shana Epstein says, “Network Insight delivered a superior product at the most feasible price. We are profiting from benefits like added functionality, increased reliability and better services today even if they are hard to quantify on paper.”

As a result of the outstanding job Network Insight did on the North Phase, the City of Beverly Hills is now using the network infrastructure team to design and manage the RFP process as well as providing engineering implementation assistance for the South Phase. In this segment, Network Insight is providing engineering assistance to convert the aging traffic control systems to become part of the IP network. The traffic system will include new technologies like IP based CCTV surveillance and Wi-Fi access points while routed via the fiber optic backbone. This improves the ability to streamline traffic flow patterns and provide real-time management of the City’s grid while integrating with neighboring city’s systems. In addition to traffic, the South Phase will also add fire services, schools and parks to the new communications infrastructure. “ The dynamics of the City are always changing with new buildings and different clients. Network Insight impressed us with their flexibility and were able to successfully deal with these changes. They met all of my expectations very well,” said Epstein.

Thanks to the new network infrastructure with state-of-the-art technology, Beverly Hills residents are now able to utilize City services in the same top style as they do their shopping.

Network Insight: The Right Choice for Physical Enhancements

Founded in 1998, Network Insight, LLC, is a world-class network services and management company offering a unique, vendor neutral approach to serving its clients. Our team of highly skilled engineers and project managers works closely with clients to develop the best network solutions to serve each company’s unique business goals and strategies.

Network Insight provides a comprehensive range of network services to address the complete lifecycle of network development and management including consulting and project management for network infrastructure, systems and physical infrastructure requirements, and outsourced or co-sourced network management services.

Download a PDF of the case study (780 K)