Page 3 - WIOCC Newsletter June 2019

WIOCC UK
WIOCC Offices Expansion WIOCC KE
The WIOCC UK Field Team consists of three staff members. Susan Collins joined WIOCC in 2015 and holds a Field Team lead position. James Hand and Daniel Matjasz joined earlier this year as Field Engineers to support the growing network. Shen Remzi works on an ad hoc basis and supports the UK team where necessary.
The small team originally operated from different sites including Global Switch and Telehouse. “We didn’t have an office and none of the sites we worked from provided offices for client engineers. We would sit in the Telehouse cafeteria, "Bytes", if we needed a desk and work from there,” says Susan. “The downside was the noise level; they had a TV broadcasting BBC news all day and the high traffic in the busy cafeteria contributed to the background noise. Not to mention the overwhelming temptation to eat one of the many cakes on offer.”
The new PoP LDN09 or Global Switch, where they now operate is large enough to accommodate three desks, storage cupboards for their equipment and a printing station. Due to the ambient noise of the air conditioning units, it is still too noisy to sit in for project meetings, but provided they wear ear defenders, the space provides them each a desk to work from without too many background distractions and a safe storage space.
As many of the staff know, WIOCC began as a one-man operation with Chris Wood working from a room at the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi.
WIOCC then acquired a space on the 2nd floor at Citadel Building, which quickly expanded from one wing to an entire floor. Ten years later the Nairobi office expanded, this time onto the 3rd floor to accommodate the growing number of employees.
From left is James Hand, Daniel Matjasz, Shen Remzi, Susan Collins and Verne Steyn at the UK office.