SPIE implemented communications and IT infrastructure for vaccination centres in the district of Osnabrück at short notice

Georgsmarienhütte, 3 May 2021– SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, deployed its experts from the SPIE OSMO to assist with the implementation of two vaccination centres in the district of Osnabrück. The teams set up the communications and IT infrastructure for the centres as well as video monitoring for a vaccine storage facility at short notice.

IP-based telephony from the “OSMO Cloud”

SPIE OSMO, a subsidiary of SPIE Deutschland & Zentraleuropa, equipped the vaccination centres with a complete peripheral IT infrastructure and implemented the communications system with several VOIP^[1] end devices, so that only a single infrastructure needed to be created there. The end devices are connected to the company’s own “OSMO Cloud” via a virtual telephone system. The advantage of this solution is that no additional physical telephone system is needed at the vaccination centres, and all configuration settings are made at a central point. “With a cloud system, we are very quickly able to connect locations such as the two vaccination centres with the rest of the world. All you need is an internet connection and you are ready to go,” explained Klaus Wirl, Sales Representative at SPIE OSMO. “This also means that in view of the – as things stand – time-limited operation of the vaccination centres, the district of Osnabrück gets by without investing in a physical telephone system.”

What was special about this contract was that the communications and IT infrastructure needed to be implemented within a very short time. Thus the first system was ready for operation within two weeks of the first enquiry. “We quoted for, supplied, configured and commissioned the entire communications and EDP infrastructure within a short space of time after receiving the initial enquiry,” reported Klaus Wirl. In addition, SPIE OSMO supplied the network connection to the mobile phone network, which has since served as a redundancy. Video monitoring for a vaccine storage facility was also installed.

Trust-based collaboration for project success

As part of setting up vaccination centres nationwide at short notice, the district of Osnabrück established two locations in Wallenhorst and Georgsmarienhütte in cooperation with the state of Lower Saxony. In the process, the district authority relied on cooperation with regional partners who reliably implemented the work for the various trades in a short time. “I am so pleased that through excellent cooperation between us, as a district, and the two aid agencies the German Red Cross and the Malteser Aid Service, and with assistance from a large number of professional service providers, we succeeded in producing two vaccination centres here in the district of Osnabrück out of thin air within just a few days,” said district councillor Dr Winfried Wilkens.

SPIE OSMO had already increased the authority’s telephony capacity significantly at short notice in the spring of 2020 so that the health service was prepared for the high volume of telephone enquiries from citizens. The new contract with the district of Osnabrück attested to its faith in SPIE’s performance and technical expertise. “We are delighted that with a good team performance, short decision-making channels and excellent cooperation with our customer, we were able to make a contribution to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Klaus Wirl.

_{[1] Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.}