Consol extends partnership with T-Systems
Africa’s largest glass manufacturer, Consol Glass (Pty), Ltd has extended its contract for five years with T-Systems in South Africa, one of the country’s leading ICT outsourcing service providers.
The extension underscores a very successful six-year partnership which has, among others, seen Consol migrating its SAP business application infrastructure (a first for South Africa) to T-Systems’ cloud computing platform in 2011 in a deal worth R25 million.
Comments Johan du Plessis, CIO of Consol Glass: “We have worked with T-Systems for the past six years therefore our extension of the contract was a natural choice. Our working experience together provides them with a richer understanding of our organisation and thus enables us to effectively plan for our future requirements. They have proven to be a stable partner that has demonstrated their ability to deliver. ”
“There was no compelling reason to go to market again as our contract features a comprehensive business review process which also forms part of the new, extended partnership ensuring optimum value.”
The strength of six years
Consol, headquartered in Johannesburg, and T-Systems’ six-year partnership is underscored by a number of important milestones which include the smooth transition from an in-house IT environment to a complete end-to-end outsourced service.
Adds Gert Schoonbee, MD at T-Systems in South Africa: “The success of our relationship lies in our mutually beneficial business contract which is based on T-Systems’ history of innovation leadership. Consol is an early adopter of appropriate technology and together with our leadership position in technology and consistent delivery, made excellent business sense. The relationship is one of a valued partner were both not only benefit but are also willing to go the extra mile for one another.”
Furthermore, T-Systems’ has successfully standardised, consolidated and virtualised Consol’s server architecture, which also included the virtualisation of its SAP environment; ultimately moving it to the cloud. Numerous enhancements have also been made to SAP, making it the backbone for all Consol’s business transactions.
Consol also features a comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) platform which includes the recent deployment of the first SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated platform with in-memory computing in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa).
The platform allows for the analysis of business operations based on large volumes of detailed information in real time. Consol, therefore, benefits from flexible analytic models based on real-time data without affecting back-end enterprise applications or databases.
Comments du Plessis: “Making glass products is our core business. Outsourcing all our IT services allows us to focus on making the glass business even better instead of being distracted by IT commodities, operations and support. In T-Systems we have a partner with excellent international resources and experience we can draw on when required.”
Looking Ahead
T-System is well positioned to support Consol’s strategic drive in the local and African markets. “We will also be looking at driving down the cost of business through the utilisation and exploitation of systems and technologies. A good example is using cloud computing to allow for shared services on the SAP platform as well as other technology areas; gaining the most from Consol’s investment in IT,” says Schoonbee.