Consol extends partnership with T-Systems

Issued by T-Systems
Johannesburg, 12 Feb 2013

Gert Schoonbee, MD at T-Systems in South Africa.

Africa's largest glass manufacturer, Consol Glass, 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."

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 where 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 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.

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with over 129 million mobile customers, almost 34 million fixed-network lines and 17 million broadband lines (as of 31 March 2012). The group provides products and services for the fixed network, mobile communications, the Internet and IPTV for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has over 235 000 employees worldwide. The group generated revenue of EUR58.7 billion in the 2011 financial year - more than half of it outside Germany (as of 31 December 2011).

T-Systems

Drawing on a global infrastructure of data centres and networks, T-Systems operates ICT systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions. T-Systems provides integrated solutions for the networked future of business and society. The company's 48 200 employees combine industry expertise and ICT innovations to add significant value to customers' core business all over the world.

T-Systems generated revenue of around EUR9.2 billion in the 2011 financial year.

Since the inception of T-Systems in South Africa in 1997, the company has cemented its position as one of the most successful T-Systems companies outside of Europe. A leading ICT outsourcing service provider locally, T-Systems offers end-to-end ICT solutions in both the ICT operations and systems integration markets. Its extensive portfolio of services covers the vertical, horizontal, IT and TC space. T-Systems South Africa's head office is located in Midrand, with another major office in Cape Town, and 20 further representative offices in locations throughout southern Africa.

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