Dimension Data SA and Coca-Cola Sabco (CCS) have signed heads of agreement to form a joint venture to service CCS`s IT needs.
The venture is also to pursue opportunities in the broader Coca-Cola system and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market in Africa.
The initial seven-year contract has been valued at about $40 million.
Coca-Cola Sabco is the anchor Coca-Cola bottler for Africa.
The joint venture is to provide a full spectrum of IT services, undertake a significant upgrading of the CCS IT infrastructure, migrate CCS`s legacy systems to an integrated enterprise resource planning environment and expand the CCS satellite network into Africa.
CCS CEO Martin Jansen says the joint venture was formed after an extensive investigation into improving the service delivery and efficiency of the CCS information system and to enable more rapid system expansion into Africa.
"We were also motivated by the opportunity to create a separate business support group that is able to provide IS and other business services to CCS, other Coca-Cola bottlers and other FMCG companies in emerging markets.
"It also allows CCS to focus entirely on our core business, which is manufacturing, distribution and market development of Coca-Cola products," he says.
The joint venture will come into effect on 1 January, with a board equally representative of Dimension Data and CCS and with a CEO appointed by Dimension Data.
The majority of the existing CCS IS staff will be transferred to Dimension Data`s Port Elizabeth office and seconded to the joint venture.
CCS will continue to manage the gatekeeper role while the balance of services including IT strategy, business intelligence, infrastructure, service deployment, risk management and applications management will be provided by the joint venture.
Donovan Lawrence, DiData`s regional director for the Eastern Cape, says the joint venture highlights the group`s drive to form alliances and partnerships to provide full business solutions that meet the needs of its customers.
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