Johannesburg, 10 Oct 2018
As part of its ongoing technology partnership with Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), the eighth largest Coca-Cola bottling business by revenue worldwide and the biggest on the African continent, Datacentrix has assisted the company in setting a new benchmark in technology refresh projects, seeing 595 notebooks replaced over 15 sites, with zero stock lost and both budget and timeline parameters met.
The upgrade process was closely managed from end-to-end using an asset management application and back-office support system. The system ensured CCBA management benefitted from the availability of centralised, accurate real-time information for decision-making, at the push of a button. Its integration with the organisation's central project management office (PMO) was another critical success.
According to Christian Cronje, CCBA's IT service delivery manager for Africa, the objective of the rollout was to identify, plan and execute the refresh of all laptops older than four years by site, location and user across South Africa.
"The environment was a challenging one. The combination of the bottling operations of The Coca-Cola Company and SABMiller plc, following the Competition Tribunal's approval of the merger in 2016, meant that it was difficult to identify which devices needed to be replaced. The mapping of locations and people to each device consumed copious man-hours to attain 95% accuracy," he says.
Francois Jacobs, senior account manager at Datacentrix, adds: "We tailored the project to ensure a seamless rollout, despite the challenges. Our approach alleviated wastage, while giving CCBA greater control of the project.
"The interactive system enhanced communication between all role-players, allowing end-users to directly confirm details and appointments, leading to increased satisfaction in their dealings with CCBA IT. In addition, the use of tablets by the Datacentrix site engineers simplified the management of the process and allowed for immediate, digital sign-offs by the end-users.
"The combination of a managed and manned system ensured that any inefficiencies were identified timeously and solved very quickly," says Jacobs. "With the entire process being run in real-time, we were able to provide CCBA IT a complete audit trail from beginning to end."
Cronje further states: "The project with Datacentrix enabled accurate stock management throughout the project, including the tracking of additional components, such as speakers and teleconferencing equipment. The improved reporting gave CCBA IT a clear status on real-time project deliverables."
Cronje notes it was CCBA's relationship with Datacentrix and the company's flexibility that underpinned the success of the notebook refresh. "Without this partnership, we would not have been able to deliver the project on time and at such a low risk. Datacentrix understands our environment and the requirements of our modernisation journey, which contributed to the project delivery according to scope," he adds.
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