Special Report Wincanton
Vocollect as our provider and have
integrated Voice into our WMS,” said
Whelan. Additionally, he explained that the
company is gaining major benefits through
using vehicle tracking and transportation
management solutions provided by
Microlise and Isotrak. “These systems
“
Over the past 12 months we
have been looking very hard at our
channel partners and what value
we get from them; and we have
realigned some of these services
to drive better value and better
relationships.”
help us manage our fleets more efficiently;
from a security perspective in terms of GPS
tracking, through to the use of telematics,
which show us if we are fully exploiting
Wincanton’s transportation
the use of the vehicle to their best On the vendor front, IBM is beyond doubt
services take advantage of every
advantage.” Whelan added that Wincanton’s one of Wincanton’s most important suppliers.
available means; road, rail, air
workforce is also using a range of Symbol/ “The hardware we have acquired from
and intermodal systems.
Motorola mobile computing devices for the IBM amounts to around 800 servers in our
real-time data capture in the field; such as UK estates alone, and circa 300 servers
signature capture at the point of delivery. across mainland Europe,” said Whelan.
On the systems integration side, Wincanton
Taking the lead
as a group has standardised on Seeburger
Partner role as its integration platform. “From an IT
From a business relationship perspective,
perspective, integration is probably our
Whelan reflects that, while Wincanton
Whelan pointed out that Wincanton places biggest USP, and we integrate with every
likes its partners to work alongside the
its systems partners in two main categories; single client we operate with,” remarked
company during system installation,
hardware and software. “On the hardware Whelan. “We have an anything-to-anything
integration and general development, it
side we have just selected Camtek, who approach, and our Seeburger platform
would never ask a partner to take the
have taken over from our previous partner has given us this capability.”
lead. “We must always take clear
in this technology
ownership of the IT project because it is
area,” he said.
we who are ultimately accountable to the
“We chose Camtek
end customer,” he said. In terms of IT
primarily because
system choice, Whelan points out that
of its proven level
Wincanton always looks at the demands
of service and
and needs of its customers in the first
availability and cost
instance, and then works with its existing
of service. Over the
vendor partners to implement the right
past 12 months we
solution with the best functionality for the
have been looking
task. “We also competitively go to market
very hard at our
to find out what else is out there,” added
channel partners and
Whelan. “We’re constantly doing this almost
what value we get from
on a monthly basis to make sure we are
them; and we have
keeping abreast of the technological
realigned some of
advances in the IT industry from a hardware
these services to drive
and software perspective. We also use our
better value and better
findings it as a benchmark as to what our
relationships.”
competitors are or might be doing.” a71
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IT RESELLER – MARCH 2010 9
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