HJ Heinz company started life in 1869 producing horseradish sauce. Since then the business has grown to become a £4.3 billion enterprise with approximately 100 major locations worldwide and leading brands on six continents. Its "57 varieties" have fed generations of hungry people who relish the Heinz taste.
Making the business case for managed services is relatively straightforward. Hiring a specialist firm to manage voice and data networks, along with the services that they carry, enables an organisation to concentrate on its core business. And by switching to IP-based services, firms can increase productivity, free up their own technical staff for other projects and reduce the cost of running their communications networks.
Of course, get this wrong and even the most compelling case for managed services isn't worth a row of beans -- even if the client happens to be food giant Heinz. Which is why developing a close working partnership is essential if managed services agreements are to thrive.
Cable & Wireless' relationship with Heinz dates back to 2000 when it began rolling out a converged IP-based infrastructure connecting nearly 50 sites in the UK, Europe, USA, Asia and Australia. Today, Cable & Wireless is responsible for running Heinz's entire global core backbone linking dozens of countries. In some cases, as in the UK, Benelux, China and Russia for example, Cable & Wireless also operates the country communications network for Heinz.
For Heinz, this new network has helped reduce operational running costs by around half, while at the same time doubling bandwidth. Indeed, a report by the Yankee Group found that, since the original installation of the converged Cable & Wireless network in 2000, Heinz has recorded a 10% operational saving attributed to the European network alone.
Aside from the cost savings, the new network is also flexible. And it has to be. Heinz is a highly acquisitive company. It is committed to developing its business in the Far East. In particular, China is of strategic importance both as a market for its products and also as an export base to the rest of the world.
Heinz already has seven factories in China, employing some 4,700 people.