OUTSOURCINGISSUE 25
BIRDS EYE MAKES THE MOST OF MERGER WITH IT OUTSOURCING
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project management to ensure the applications were either migrated, replaced, satisfactorily retired or subsumed into SAP. It also devised a plan and implemented technical solutions to accommodate the constraints of 24-hour operations, allowing infrastructure changes to take place without delaying production. BEiG’s staff experienced the greatest
hen Birds Eye iglo Group (BEiG) changed ownership from Unilever to Permira in
November 2006, it faced an unenviable challenge: to separate all of its IT systems and infrastructure from its former parent, and establish a completely new IT environment. Limited in-house resource, strict
severance deadlines (with fi nancial penalties) and the need to minimise disruption to operations led BEiG to call in expert assistance from IT specialist outsourcer, Xantus.
Under new ownership BEiG required
a new, fl exible, scalable, ‘fi t-for-business’ IT environment to support its entire European operations; including sales, procurement, manufacturing, logistics and administration functions, while still improving effi ciency and minimising costs. But it had virtually no internal IT staff and the timing of developments was business critical; missing deadlines for its separation carried signifi cant fi nancial penalties.
BEiG required an entirely new application
and infrastructure suite, incorporating new applications using SAP New data centres, networks, desktop infrastructure and application, data and email servers, in addition to a new IT organisation to support the systems post implementation. The project comprised a highly complex 17-month programme involving the design, procurement, delivery and deployment of a complete IT infrastructure across eight countries. And, not interrupting the 24 hour factory operation and supply chain while replacing all IT and communications infrastructures became the most challenging element for Xantus, where functioned in the role of chief technical offi cer, as it is a likely point of failure in many similar initiatives.
BEiG chief information offi cer, Tania
Howarth, said: “Xantus has provided fi rst class programme management and strategic IT and vendor management skills throughout the life of our programme,” she added. “As such they have become truly trusted partners of the organisation and built productive relationships with our key technology delivery partners.” Under Unilever, BEiG had used over 400
business applications. Xantus analysed the business need for each of these, and provided
visible change in their working environments, in particular around the rollout of some 1,600 new PCs across eight different countries. This was coupled with simultaneous data move of more than 1 Terabyte from Unilever fi lestores into a new data centre. Xantus managed these activities, providing multi-lingual staff in key countries circumventing pitfalls of miscommunication, ensuring in-country management was able to maintain business as usual.
OUTSOURCING – THE IN-HOUSE CHALLENGES
James Cockroft, managing consultant for Xantus Consulting offers his views on how retailers can get the best out of an outsourcing contract. Historically, IT management outsourcing involved organisations “throwing everything over the fence” with whole departments being outsourced, he said. But that model has changed signifi cantly. “Now, monolithic contracts are being
broken down with a drive towards multi-contract, multi-sourcing. So the in- house role is much more about contract management. A good example is data centre services being outsourced to one supplier with desktop services and service desk to another,” he explained. With the outsourcing model changing, the culture, behaviours and skill set of in-house IT management teams has also had to change: “Outsourced suppliers do
a lot of things well, but what they are not so good at should also be recognised,” said Cockroft. “Strategy, commercial management, governance and contract management remain best suited to in- house departments. After all, a company will always know its business better than anyone else, regardless of how embedded outsourced suppliers are. “In Xantus’ opinion, where overseas outsourcing is an option, blended services are the best solution. An offshore or nearshore and onshore mix works, so that the onshore team can interpret and manage communication as well as being the ‘local face of the organisation,’ with any cultural and behavioural issues being managed internally by the supplier.” He also recommended: “There is also
a need for fl exible, changing, long-term contracts with the ability to change behaviours and priorities at any time.”
MARCH/APRIL 2010 RETAIL TECHNOLOGY
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