Customer: Serco Skynet

Location: Corsham

Requirement: After Paradigm Secure Communications signed a £2.5bn PFI contract with the UK Ministry of Defence - for the provision of all worldwide satellite communications services to UK Armed Forces - the organisation contacted Serco Skynet 5 Facilities Management to secure high quality accommodation for the project.

Solution: Having looked at various options, Serco and Paradigm agreed that modular construction would offer the ideal solution.

After meeting with three modular building providers, and going through a full procurement process, the project team at Serco decided that Portakabin was best positioned to fulfil its requirements, and the contract was awarded.

Paul Burridge, Design and Delivery Manager responsible for the project at Serco, said, ‘Time was a critical factor for our customer. As soon as the green light was given, we needed to get a building up and running as soon as possible. However, at the same time we didn’t want to compromise on quality. After extensive research, we were confident that a modular building could be constructed and ready for occupation far more quickly than a traditional building while still providing a quality-working environment.’

Within 30 weeks Portakabin designed and constructed a 1,800m², two-storey building with a central courtyard. Due to the nature of the work that will be taking place in the building, the design had to cater for high security access systems, environmental requirements and a range of other specialist IT measures.

The building also came with the unique Portakabin 20-year structural warranty and 5-year product warranty package, providing the team at Serco with complete peace of mind.

Paul continued, ‘The proposal put to us by the Portakabin team was sufficient for us to make a clear decision. This was followed up with further visits to the company’s head office in York, which allowed us, along with our key customer, to experience a Portakabin modular building first hand and the design that was to be developed. Everyone was extremely impressed with what they saw. The quality of the building really set the company apart from the rest of the organisations we met with.

‘The building has provided Paradigm with its own company identity, which the team is very proud of. It is 200% better than the buildings the majority of the staff were in previously and everyone is impressed and satisfied with their new surroundings.’