Chemical giant Huntsman has invested £10m in network
provision and security.
The investment, made over the past month, will enable the company
to move towards a common global network infrastructure and support
an ongoing worldwide SAP standardisation programme in 44
countries.
Earlier this month the company announced a $9m (£5.7m) deal with
AT&T to design, deploy and manage a global network for Huntsman
as well as hosting core applications at its datacentre.
A separate three-year $1m deal with Ubizen will see Huntsman
globally manage firewall infrastructure and intrusion
detection.
The network and its security provision will support mySAP
implementations across multiple Huntsman divisions. The company's
manufacturing, sales, financials and supply chain operations will
be linked worldwide and unified reporting will be given across
these areas.
Applications will be hosted at AT&T's datacentre, with employee
access provided via IP virtual private networks.
The establishment of access to common applications will enable
project teams at different locations to co-ordinate and integrate
their work.
Ian Machin, chairman of Huntsman's IT leadership team, said,
"AT&T's global scale and reach provide an excellent match with
our needs for a strategic partner to help design and manage an IT
infrastructure across all our businesses.
"By migrating to a single supplier we gain a standardised global
communications platform which reduces costs and supports our
growth-through-acquisition business model."