CBG began life in October 2000 as a small insurance broker with big ideas. They set about establishing themselves as a leader in the local field, in and around Manchester. The approach has always been to expand through acquisitions, and the first opportunity came just 3 months after setting up, which put them in good stead for future growth.
Since 2001, CBG have acquired 18 carefully considered businesses, and always strive to preserve their legacies and put their expertise into practice. In 2003 CBG was floated on the stock exchange and became AIM listed.
Over the years, CBG have been through a number of name changes, from The Community Brokers Ltd, to Community Broking Group to CBG Group plc. And they’ve expanded in terms of size, spread and expertise. Based in South Manchester, CBG now employs just under 130 people, welcoming clients nationwide and specialising in a broad spectrum of insurance and financial planning services for professional and private clients.
BACKGROUND
When CBG Group moved to a new Head Office location they contacted SICL to provide assistance in designing the new LAN infrastructure. SICL recommended the deployment of a Cisco based LAN switch infrastructure to support the current and future requirements at the new Head office location.
SOLUTION
The proposed LAN infrastructure was based on the best practice Cisco ‘Campus Model’ network design which is based on a three layer architecture: Core, Distribution and Access. In a network of this size, the Distribution layer was collapsed into the Core layer, leaving two layers of switching to consider, Core and Access.
The fact that the solution was to be deployed in a ‘Greenfield’ site enabled SICL to complete the work during office hours with the only downtime being required during migration of users to the new network
RESULTS
“The project was completed within the timescale and we were satisfied that what had been promised, had been delivered.
Furthermore, Veloxum, an independent software performance company, went on to test our network efficiency and the results proved extremely impressive, indicating that our network had produced the BEST results they had ever seen!”
Peregrine Lux, ICT Director - CBG Group PLC