18.09.2022
Operating critical technologies is a complex and technically demanding discipline that cannot function without reliable service and maintenance. Maximum system availability is essential for business continuity, and the constant readiness of service technicians plays a decisive role in crisis situations where every minute counts.
Tomáš Sedmihradský, the newly appointed Service Director, is a natural fit for the role. He began his career in the service division as an operator and now, from a leadership position, transforms his experience into continuous improvements in service quality.
You have recently taken over leadership of the Service Division, but you have been with the company for many years. What was your path to a management position?
I joined Altron as a student at around nineteen years old, when I was still exploring which industry to pursue. I have always been drawn to the idea of being prepared for crisis situations and being able to respond at any time of day, as well as contributing to the operation of technologies that are critical and must run continuously. For these reasons, working at Altron immediately resonated with me.
I started as an operator in our 24/7 monitoring center. I am certainly not someone who changes positions frequently, so over time I progressed through several managerial roles within the Service Division before being offered the position of Director. I see it as a very positive recognition of my experience, but also as a significant responsibility. Some clients still recall with a smile how I used to wake them up at night years ago to resolve technology failures.
What are your primary goals as Service Director?
My main objective is to maintain and further develop our strong customer base while continuously improving the quality and availability of our services. By Czech market standards, we have a large and stable team with extensive know-how. Nevertheless, we are constantly looking for opportunities to improve and accelerate our processes.
Which aspects of service do you consider essential for delivering high-quality performance?
In today’s challenging environment, it is crucial to continuously monitor current developments and respond quickly and effectively. This primarily involves ensuring the rapid availability of spare parts and maintaining a highly qualified service team with full 24/7 availability.
In the world of critical technology service, time and preparedness are everything. We have been working on these areas for the long term, anticipating potential scenarios and preparing for them in advance.
Many companies claim to provide 24/7 availability, but reality often differs. How do you approach round-the-clock service?
It is important to understand that simply answering a phone call at night to meet an out-of-hours response requirement is not enough.
We operate a fully staffed 24/7/365 dispatch center, including a remote monitoring workplace. Our colleagues are fully prepared to handle service requests at any time, or they proactively initiate service interventions based on monitoring data.
Effective incident resolution requires not only availability but also technical expertise and preparedness of on-call technicians. For this reason, we maintain year-round standby coverage across all service centers, ensuring that a specialist with expertise in the relevant technology is dispatched to the site.
High-quality service therefore depends on the coordination of technical readiness, administrative support, and the availability of critical spare parts — all maintained in continuous operation. We have long possessed this capability and continuously strive to enhance it in response to evolving customer requirements in emergency services.
Altron provides Critical Facility Management (CFM) services. What does this involve?
Data center operations are complex and technically demanding, due to the diversity of technologies and their absolute criticality in continuous operation environments.
For this reason, particularly for customers operating critical state infrastructure, we provide Critical Facility Management (CFM) services. These services are based on the availability of facility technicians with in-depth knowledge of the specific data center — either permanently on-site in a 24/7/365 mode, or on standby with extremely short response times.
Data centers operating in CFM mode undergo continuous monitoring via supervisory systems, measurement and control systems (M&C), and regular visual inspections. The primary outcome of CFM services is a fast and effective response to operational incidents under all circumstances.
At the same time, CFM acts as an integrator of various services and deliveries related to the data center, aligning them with current operational needs. Regular reporting and continuous updates regarding status and capacity are, of course, standard components of the service.
Can you provide an example of a data center operating in CFM mode?
A typical example is the operation of data centers for telecommunications companies. One of our largest clients is CETIN a.s., the operator of the largest telecommunications network in the Czech Republic, serving approximately four million connections.
Through CFM services, we cover multiple data centers for CETIN, spanning several hundred square meters and operating with power consumption in the megawatt range — where speed and reliability are absolutely critical.
Altron primarily uses its own AIMON platform for remote monitoring. What are its advantages?
Remote monitoring of continuously operating equipment is now indispensable for the efficient management of critical technologies.
Altron has operated its monitoring center in continuous mode for many years. At the same time, we continuously improve its efficiency and enhance monitoring and customer notification services.
Monitoring should be understood as one of the fundamental pillars of critical infrastructure operation, primarily due to the need for accurate and real-time data. The collected data enables rapid preventive or emergency service response and ensures sustainable 24/7 operations.
For this reason, it is essential that the monitoring system itself — including its peripherals and data connections — remains under supervision and in optimal condition.
Our proprietary AIMON platform serves as the primary tool for remote monitoring. AIMON includes built-in diagnostics, advanced user notification functions, and continuous network monitoring by our control center to ensure data integrity.
This solution provides a high level of visibility into the real condition of equipment “at the other end.” For us, AIMON is a decisive advantage in a field where minutes matter.
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