EMC networked storage is chosen by Benetton to consolidate information assets, reduce costs

EMC Corporation today announced that Benetton Group SpA, worldwide leader in casual, sportswear and equipment sector, has consolidated its product design, enterprise e-mail, inventory management, sales and financial information onto an EMC CLARiiON storage area network (SAN). The new EMC infrastructure will allow Benetton Group employees and vendors to share information more easily and reliably, increasing speed and reducing costs for product design, sales and distribution.

Terry Phipps, Benetton Group`s Consulting Chief Information Officer, said: " Our goal is to achieve global data integration of product design, industrialisation, manufacturing, commercial activities and distribution, which requires seamless information sharing among multiple departments in geographically diverse locations. Consolidating our information onto an EMC CLARiiON SAN has been an important part of our efforts to bring products to market more quickly and to reduce our product development costs."

Benetton Group`s EMC SAN is based on EMC CLARiiON Enterprise Storage storage systems and Connectrix Fibre Channel switches. MirrorView, SnapView, Access Logix and Navisphere Manager are implemented across the SAN to simplify data management and improve information availability. EMC Global Services designed and implemented the CLARiiON SAN in only few weeks and without an interruption to daily business. The company chose EMC over the competition because of its proven software, openness and extensive customer service and support.

The CLARiiON SAN is central to Benetton Group`s applications, allowing the consolidation of 1 500 Lotus Notes users in five geographically dispersed departments to one centralised location at Benetton`s headquarters in Ponzano, Italy, as well as the centralisation of DWH, Oracle and Netware databases, which allow designers to choose colours, models and facilitate the creation of prototypes. Benetton Group will also consolidate new ERP applications on the CLARiiON SAN.

"EMC allowed us to dramatically decrease the number of servers in our environment and provide better service for our employees. CLARiiON`s extensive interoperability allowed the installation and migration of data in a seamless way, without service interruption. With a consistent and scalable infrastructure, we will be able to incorporate new technologies down the road," said Phipps.

Renato Cerutti, EMC Italy Country Manager, said: "EMC CLARiiON is the Enterprise Storage Infrastructure solution for companies wishing to combine lower operational costs, high availability and simplified information management into a single solution. Benetton Group selected CLARiiON to meet its demands for ultimate flexibility and reliability as it launches advanced information-intensive applications."

Today, the Benetton Group (www.benetton.com) is present in 120 countries around the world. It operates in the clothing sector with the well-established United Colors of Benetton and Sisley brands, and in the sportswear and equipment sector through the leading brands, Playlife, Nordica, Prince, Rollerblade and Killer Loop. The group`s commercial network of 5 000 stores around the world is increasingly focused on large floor-space megastores offering high quality customer services and now generates an annual turnover of 2.1 billion euros, net of retail sales.