Case Study: How Mersive Solstice Smooths and Secures Information Flow at BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas
With more than 100 years of activity, BNL is one of Italy’s leading banking groups and one of the most well-known brands as well. With banks throughout the country—Agencies, Private Banking Centres, Business Centres “Creo BNL per l’Imprenditore”, Corporate Centres and Public Administration—BNL offers solutions, products, and services, both traditional and more innovative, aimed to individuals, companies, and institutions. Since 2006 BNL has been part of BNP Paribas, an international banking group, present in more than 70 countries with over 198,000 employees, 149,000 of whom placed in Europe where it has four domestic markets: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg.
BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas has deployed over 100 Mersive Solstice Pods in meeting rooms and spaces in its new and award-winning 75,000 m2. headquarters in Rome. ©BeppeRaso
The Challenge
With a floor area of 75,000 m2, 12 stories and four underground levels, the building developed by BNP Paribas Real Estate and designed by architects 5+1AA, has an original and innovative design that integrates it into the surrounding urban environment. The building houses up to 3,300 workstations, as well as a training center, an auditorium, and other facilities. The project is also distinguished by the building’s high level of environmental sustainability. In July 2016, the building received “The Plan 2016” award, as the best property development for office use. It was also selected as a finalist at the 2017 MIPIM Awards.
Antonio Amoroso, Technical Architect at BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas said, “In our new headquarters, we wanted to offer our co-workers access to the very latest technology, to maximize collaboration and to make information sharing fast and simple. Plus, being in the financial industry, data security and centralized management are paramount. We sought the right wireless solution to create a clean, easy and inclusive working environment. Our vision was that anyone in a meeting could securely share content from any device quickly and easily including smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other devices. Mersive Solstice Pods were the perfect solution as they allow for a number of devices to be connected to one screen without any risk of data breach or viruses. It enables a truly interactive meeting whereby all participants can contribute content to the display as part of the discussion”.
The Solution
BNL commissioned IT System Integrator Reply Spa to identify a suitable solution, and they quickly realized that Solstice Pods delivered everything that the bank needed. Alessio Taverni, Project Manager at Reply Spa said,
“Mersive stood out at every level. From the perspective of the meeting user, the technology is exceptionally easy to use. Once a simple and intuitive app has been installed on the device, any screen can be accessed quickly and simply just by entering the code on the display. The user then has the choice to share all content on the device screen or simply a single window. The App is available for all popular platforms: Windows, Android, iOS”.
BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas deployed 115 Solstice Pods in meeting rooms and spaces in its award-winning 75,000 m2. headquarters in Rome. Solstice has been installed as the standard in meeting spaces at the 16 story building. These range from informal areas for just two people to larger meeting rooms accommodating up to 20 participants. In the larger rooms, there are video conference facilities with Solstice configured so that content on the display can be shared over the video conference link.
The Reply Spa team was impressed with the ease of installation of the Solstice Pods. Alessio Taverni said that “The units really were plug and play. Connect them to the screen and the corporate network and they appear in the central management interface and are essentially ready to use. This is our first install of Mersive and we encountered no issues or difficulties of any kind”.
Since the building opened, BNL has installed another 15 Pods in its HQ in Milan, and 20 in a separate building in Rome.
The Results
Antonio Amoroso states,
“We were impressed by the central management facilities offered by Mersive. We are allowing a massive number of devices including employees’ own phones to access screens on our corporate network across over 100 rooms. In evaluating the solution, we were very impressed with the consideration given to the security implications by Mersive. Solstice Pods are an enterprise-grade solution that is designed to support central management by an IT team. For example, we are able to use the Solstice management interface.”
“Solstice has exceeded our original expectations,” Antonio Amoroso concluded. “Because Solstice is essentially an in-room software platform, we can continue to develop new use cases. For example, we are now able to display corporate messages of our choice in meeting rooms and public areas—reminding staff of promotions or events for example. We look forward to future releases of the software so that we can continue improving ways we can share content and collaborate.”
Mersive Solstice Pods have been installed as standard in meeting spaces at the 16 stories BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas building. ©BeppeRaso
About BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas
BNL, with over 100 years of activity, today is one of Italy’s leading banking groups and one of the most – known brands as well. With banks throughout the country – Agencies, Private Banking Centres, Business Centres “Creo BNL per l’Imprenditore”, Corporate Centres and Public Administration – BNL offers solutions, products, and services, both traditional and more innovative, aimed to individuals, companies, and institutions. Since 2006 BNL has been part of BNP Paribas, an international banking group, present in more than 70 countries with over 198,000 employees, 149,000 of whom placed in Europe where it has four domestic markets: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg. BNP Paribas holds a key position in two of the major business areas: Retail Banking & Services and Corporate & Institutional Banking. BNP Paribas Real Estate, one of the leading international real estate providers, offers its clients a comprehensive range of services that span the entire real estate lifecycle: property development, transaction, consulting, valuation, property management, and investment management.
