OCS ENGINEERING WIN ACCOLADES FROM MITSUBISHI UFJ SECURITIES INTERNATIONAL

OCS Engineering, a division of £600 million OCS property support services group, has been highly praised by Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International plc (“MUSI”) after successful completion of an ambitious multi-million pound total refurbishment of the international trading floor at its London headquarters. MUSI is part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, one of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Graham Yellowley, Director of Technology at MUSI said, “OCS Engineering has been magnificent. The project has been a major success and this is principally down to the teamwork ethic demonstrated throughout the programme. The trading floor looks superb and the traders are extremely pleased with their new environment. But this is just the visible part of the works. OCS Engineering has also delivered on both the M&E engineering and the necessary associated building works to the highest standard; similarly they have worked hard to deliver the allied infrastructure works within a very tight timeframe. All credit to them for their tremendous efforts on this achievement.”

The contract, valued at more than £5 million, included the building of a new 51,000 square feet trading floor, enabling the company to expand and increase capacity to almost 400 traders. This included the installation of new hydraulic trading desks throughout and twelve new meeting and management rooms.

The OCS project included strip out; cellular completion; ductwork for all services; comfort cooling and electric/power distribution. OCS were also responsible for building dedicated computer rooms to house upgraded UPS support; network and cabling equipment; APC technology with state-of-the-art Blade servers utilising in-row cooling and the provision of a fire suppressant system and energy proficient cooling units to the computer rooms necessitating a new roof-based chiller.

OCS were involved in the project planning process from the outset developing the design with their appointed design partner Cundall Johnston & Partners to ensure that the project was developed with speed and accuracy in accordance with a strict yet strategic delivery programme. OCS Engineering, through its specialist BES Projects division, has previously undertaken similar projects as well as ongoing comprehensive maintenance for MUSI and this contract builds upon this existing strong relationship.

“The teamwork between us and OCS Engineering is much stronger than the usual ‘partnering’ relationship. This makes for clearer decision-making, understanding and sharing of risks”, said Mr Yellowley.

The need for this work reflects MUSI’s continuing global success. Without a major refurbishment the projected headcount at its Broadgate headquarters would have exceeded the space available. The London trading floor links with the company’s highly successful trading network covering North America, Europe and the Far East. In order to maintain continuing critical links with dealing offices across different time zones, OCS Engineering managed the project within a phased programme that required minute planning to ensure complex service issues were addressed at every stage to deliver phased occupation as each location was completed.

Commenting on the contract completion, Richard Burl, managing director of OCS Engineering, said, “MUSI demonstrated trust in our strategic approach and in our disciplined and professional approach in developing and managing an extremely challenging and difficult programme of works. The on-site team are an exceptional group of quality engineers who committed enormous effort, energy and a steely determination to achieve the impossible - it would be very hard to find a more dedicated and professional unit. The project was achieved against extremely tight time constraints with all credit to both MUSI and OCS who combined to operate as one.”

Congratulating the OCS Engineering team, OCS group chief executive Chris Cracknell said, “The design and installation of such a complex refurbishment programme utilising leading edge technologies required painstaking attention to detail and completion within a critical timescale. Our team have demonstrated not only that they are capable of such a project but that they can work seamlessly with the client to ensure that real value and professionalism is added.”