Johannesburg, 13 Apr 2007
International IT vendor IBM has secured a six-year, multimillion-rand services contract with South African Breweries (SAB). This is the company's second high-value services deal in the space of two weeks.
The company is expected to announce the details of the agreement later today. However, IBM's global technology services executive Mteto Nyati says no further information will be provided on the value of the deal.
Last week, IBM announced it had secured a R1.1 billion, three-year deal with retail bank, Absa. Through that deal, IBM would provide desktop, midrange, mainframe, storage, related services and business strategy consulting services to Absa.
The latest deal sees IBM continue its 15-year relationship with the brewer, despite a drop in service levels around three years ago.
"We went through a rough period with our service level agreements to SAB and had to pull out all the stops to get back on track again. A year later, SAB named us supplier of the year. It was a difficult turnaround, but one that we have learnt from and continue to apply throughout the company," explains Nyati.
The new contract, which became effective on 1 April, builds on an existing agreement between IBM and SAB, say the companies.
"IBM will establish a customer services centre and manage services, including hosting servers, storage and support for the SAP enterprise resource planning environment. In addition, IBM will provide IT security support for these services. As part of this contract, IBM will ensure SAB has a stable, reliable and responsive service, critical to the beer distribution business."
According to IBM SA MD Mark Harris, the company will share its intellectual property resources on global initiatives that address key issues in the beer industry, particularly the efficient use of water and energy.
"The significance of this contract is underpinned by the fact that SAB, as a client, has been a crucial part of the foundation of IBM's strategic outsourcing business in SA for many years," he adds.
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