Fonterra rings in changes to telephony services

Fonterra has gone live with the first of its direct telecommunications infrastructure services previously provided by third-party suppliers outsourced through EDS. Gen-i will provide WAN services for New Zealand and Australia Fonterra sites, and desk telephony for the 47 global sites. LAN services and WAN infrastructure for the New Zealand and Australian sites will be transitioned to Gen-i later this year.

AT&T has been contracted to provide direct WAN and LAN infrastructure and management services for Fonterra's sites located outside of New Zealand and Australia.

Fonterra's Chief Information Officer Chris Barendregt said the move to direct telecommunications infrastructure services would provide more flexibility and help reduce costs.  "It's important for Fonterra to be able to access market leading technology in order for us to maintain our strong global position in our industry. Our preferred partners have shown us that they understand the importance of delivering innovative, flexible and sustainable solutions as part of our telecommunications and IT strategy."

Barendregt said the introduction of the direct services was the result of changes to Fonterra's outsourcing contract with EDS.

"EDS has been very supportive of Fonterra's IT strategy. They will continue to be Fonterra's key supplier providing global services for core IT services hosting and storage, data centre management, desktop support, IT security and centralised help desk."