Virgin Grouphas awarded a three-year,
multi-million pound contract to Cable & Wireless to deliver
strategic data communication services.
Under the new contract, Cable & Wireless will provide Virgin
Group with IPVPN services to over 130 sites in the UK, as well as
managed security, WiFi and application monitoring services.
Cable & Wireless will take responsibility for delivering
datacomms services to Virgin Operating companies including
Virgin Management, Virgin Trains,
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Active.
Virgin Group said the increased bandwidth will allow Virgin
Atlantic's applications to work more effectively and Virgin Trains
to implement an IT refresh. Virgin Active also has an increasing
reliance on real-time systems for operational processes, requiring
a robust, reliable, secure and speedy network.
Cable & Wireless has been providing communications services
to Virgin Group for over seven years and currently delivers
hosting, security and contact centre services to different parts of
the Group.
Gareth Lewis, CIO, Virgin Group, said, "We are a complex
business, made up of a diverse number of different companies each
with very specific requirements - Cable & Wireless understands
this. We also valued its commercial innovativeness and flexibility,
as well as its strategic vision for the shared services model."