Brewer SABMiller has signed an infrastructure services deal with HP, as it standardises its IT.
The company, which produces brands including Miller, Pilsner and Grolsch, has been standardising systems around SAP enterprise resource planning and Infor supply chain management.
Under the new HP deal, for which a value was not disclosed, the brewer will consolidate and virtualise servers onto HP blades. The servers will be standardised on Microsoft Exchange 2010.
HP will also provide managed desktop, IT service management and service desk work to SABMiller. The providers said the systems will be “robust” and “standard-based”, introduced during a time of “complex change” at the brewery.
SABMiller said it wanted to cut costs by using the more regionalised systems and the outsourced services.
A year ago, the brewery said its ongoing ‘business capability’ programme will “simplify processes, reduce costs and allow local management teams to enhance focus on their markets”.
It stressed that finance, human resources and procurement operations would be “streamlined by deploying global information systems, establishing a global procurement operation and selectively outsourcing certain activities”. Sales, distribution and supply chain management are also being moved onto “common, regional systems platforms”.