VolkerWessels Telecom lays foundation for smart buildings

VolkerWessels Telecom designs, builds, and manages telecommunication infrastructure that enables multiple, complex communication flows. VolkerWessels Telecom is part of the close-knit network of VolkerWessels, a leading international company that plays a key role in projects and services that contribute to sustainable living environments. Indoor connectivity is now part of the company’s service offering, as VolkerWessels Telecom partnered with Nomios and Juniper Networks to deliver an innovative managed network service tailored to its customers.

“Connectivity is a necessity like water,” says Arjen Bakker, manager, business development at VolkerWessels Telecom. “Total connectivity is essential for quality of life and personal safety. But we can only create total connectivity together, in partnership with others.”

Open the smart building opportunity

VolkerWessels Telecom sees broad opportunity for commercial and residential real estate, shopping centers, elderly homes, and much more.

“The whole world is talking about IoT right now,” Bakker says. “It’s exactly the right moment to work together with Juniper and Nomios on smart buildings that deliver on our total connectivity mission.”

IoT sensors and automated systems make buildings more sustainable, cost-effective, and comfortable. When it starts raining, a building sunscreen automatically closes. When the sun is shining, the air conditioning is turned on. When no one is in a conference room, the lights are turned off. Comfort, safety, and security are automated through smart building controls.

To deliver on the company’s smart building vision, Bakker works not only with Nomios and Juniper but also Hyrde, the IoT company in VolkerWessels’ portfolio of 120 companies. “As a construction company, we can offer our customers a total connectivity solution that helps create a better, safer world,” he says.

“The synergy with Nomios energizes me and our technical team. Together, we create new opportunities to offer and implementservices to our customers.” - Arjen Bakker, business development, VolkerWessels Telecom

Smart buildings will be critical to create healthy and safe homes, workplaces, and communities. Location sensors and a reliable network can help monitor how many people are in an area and notify people if the space becomes too crowded. If a COVID-19 outbreak occurs, the same infrastructure can slow the spread of disease with contact tracing capabilities.

“I’m always looking for ways to make our jobs easier in deploying and automating our offices,” says Rene Lutjenkossink, technical consultant at VolkerWessels Telecom. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve been looking into several technologies to implement but felt we were missing something. Once we were introduced to Juniper and Mist AI, we found our missing puzzle piece. It gave us the opportunity to be flexible, open to connect to third-party vendors, to be agile and fast in deploying our new offices to the new Juniper infrastructure.

“I can truly say this technology is really helping us moving forward. It’s smart, fast, and a great experience!”

AI-driven Networks overcome complexity

VolkerWessels Telecom’s managed service relies on Juniper wired and wireless networking, driven by Mist AI™, to deliver exceptional digital experiences and streamline IT operations. “With Juniper, the capabilities of Mist AI and the focus on the client experience are unique,” Bakker says. “It allows us to deliver an innovative solution to our customers.”

Juniper® Series of High Performance Access Points, driven by Mist AI, converge Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and IoT under Juniper Mist cloud services, providing rich network and device insights in near real time. This enables rapid problem detection and root cause identifications with predictive recommendations and proactive corrections.

With 100% API-based programmability, Juniper Mist cloud services allows VolkerWessels to easily adapt network services to specific customer requirements. Juniper Mist User Engagement, the heart of indoor location services, can play an instrumental role in smart building operations, social distancing, and COVID-safe homes and workplaces. With Juniper Mist Edge, VolkerWessels Telecom can deliver on-premises microservices securely for desired locations without the need for legacy wireless controllers.

VolkerWessels has operations across the world, but its managed service efforts are starting close to home with VolkerWessels Telecom in the Netherlands. Plans are expansive and the company will extend its managed service offering to other industries and regions.

Keep employees safe on the job site

VolkerWessels Telecom is also deploying Juniper Networks in its corporate offices and job sites, where it will not only enable productivity, but also ensure safety with location services. Juniper’s contact tracing solution leverages Mist AI and virtual BLE to ensure enterprise safety with use cases including user journey mapping, proximity tracing, and hot zone alerting.

“Our mission is we work safely or we don’t work,” Bakker says. “We can put sensors in helmets and work clothes so we can see where our engineers and construction workers are onsite and protect their personal safety.”

An Inspiring Partnership

“We believe in value creation in the world of connectivity,” Bakker says. “We do not sit still and we constantly look for new possibilities and opportunities. Working with Nomios and Juniper makes this way of working a success.”

As a construction company for telecom providers, VolkerWessels Telecom is deeply experienced with network vendors. “Juniper’s mindset and way of working is a winning combination,” Bakker says.

That mindset is inspiring. “The synergy with Nomios energizes me and our technical team,” he continues. “Together, we create new opportunities to offer and implement services to our customers.”

Nomios & Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks brings simplicity to networking with products, solutions and services that connect the world. Through engineering innovation, Juniper removes the constraints and complexities of networking in the cloud era to solve the toughest challenges their customers face daily. Juniper believes that the network is a resource for sharing knowledge and human advancement that changes the world.

Nomios and Juniper Networks are committed to imagining groundbreaking ways to deliver automated, scalable and secure networks to move at the speed of business. We have a long relationship and complement each other. You can count on Nomios for the technical know-how and hands-on experience to accurately assess your networking requirements, and design, implement and manage a Juniper-based solution to suit your needs.