Sara Lee Corporation entrusts its desktop upgrade with solutions
provider Ultima Business Systems and finds it a painless one
The Sara Lee Corporation produces some of the world's best-known
household names, which can be found in almost any home around the
world. As with most companies, IT infrastructure plays a vital role
in operations, and the IT department's aim is to equip, effectively
support and maintain the company with the latest hardware and
software. To achieve this, Sara Lee Household & Body Care has
partnered with Reading-based IT solutions provider Ultima Business
Systems to supply, install and support networking and desktop
products and services for over 250 users at the Slough-based
headquarters.
For the past year, Ultima has assisted Sara Lee Household &
Body Care's 15-strong IT team by delivering effective desktop
solutions. "We don't usually respond to cold-calls, but when Ultima
contacted us we decided to give them the opportunity to supply some
PCs," comments Martin Mathieson, business systems manager. "We
initially used Ultima to fulfil a small order to assess its prices,
delivery and overall service levels. We were very impressed with
the results and since then, have rapidly increased our involvement
with Ultima and now use them for over 80 per cent of our hardware
requirements," he explains.Sara Lee Household & Body Care's
current network infrastructure is less than two years old, and
comprises of six Compaq servers and one Digital Alpha. There is
also a help-desk run by five in-house support staff, who are
responsible for the IT infrastructure and assisting with any user
queries. After reviewing its IT suppliers, Sara Lee Household &
Body Care selected Ultima to upgrade existing desktop applications
from Windows 3.11 and Lotus SmartSuite, to Windows '95 and
Microsoft Office '97. "Our existing tool-set was outdated and
didn't perform to the standard required to allow staff to achieve
the best results," says Mathieson. "The rest of the world seemed to
be using Microsoft, so we decided it was time to move on. We needed
a much more modern set of desktop tools, which would be suited to
everyone's needs - upgrading to Windows '95 and Office '97 seemed
the obvious choice."All the desktops have a standard front-end,
ensuring that all staff has identical programmes and desktop
lay-out for ease of use, enabling anyone to sit at any PC and see
the same desktop set-up. This uniformity also aids the job of the
help-desk support staff and, prior to implementing any hardware,
pilot tests are carried out on the new equipment to check the
impact additional kit may have on the network.
Compiled by Ajith
Ram(c) Ultima Business Systems 1998