NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bidco Africa
Ltd. has chosen IBM (NYSE: IBM) to provide IT systems delivered as
a service and managed remotely to help drive the client's
investment in its core business and expansion across Africa.
Bidco is East Africa's leading
consumer goods manufacturer and marketer, focused on the production
of cooking oil and hygiene products. The company's products serve
consumers across 15 African countries touching over 100 million
people daily. The cost savings from shifting its IT infrastructure
management to IBM will free up capital for expansion into more
countries as part of Bidco Africa's 2015 growth plan.
The overall goal of the IT infrastructure and managed services
deal with IBM is to allow Bidco to improve its business application
performance by 40 percent, lower capital expenditure and improve
return on investment by 20 percent.
IBM will transition Bidco's current systems and applications to
four Power Systems servers, one V7000 Storage system, one Power
Systems Hardware Management Console, two IBM System Storage SAN
Switches, and two IBM Storage tape drives. The systems will be
located in Bidco's data center, but owned and operated by IBM,
which will provide the technology as a service to the client.
The first phase will involve the migration from existing
infrastructure and project management during transition. IBM will
then oversee remote monitoring, maintenance and overall delivery of
hardware provided as a service, all managed remotely via IBM Global
Delivery Centers.
The end-to-end managed services will offer proactive 24-hour
monitoring of the infrastructure to improve services, help
eliminate unexpected IT-related expenses by providing a predictable
billing stream, improve customer experience through enhanced
computing capacity and drive seamless performance to all of Bidco's
business users.
Entrusting IBM with the management of its technology
infrastructure and operations will enable Bidco to shift its
attention to extending its leadership role and to expanding to more
countries in Africa. The agreement
also will allow Bidco to benefit from continual productivity
improvements by 40 percent.
"For the last five years, IBM has been a critical technology
partner, providing seamless IT services supporting our business
operations, including sales and operations," said Vimal Shah, CEO of Bidco Africa Ltd. "Based on
that experience and faced with the need to upgrade our
infrastructure, we chose an IBM infrastructure-as-a-service
solution to support our rapid business growth in Africa."
As Kenya's flagship
manufacturer, Bidco first tapped IBM's infrastructure in 2010 when
it purchased IBM Power Systems servers and IBM DS3400 storage.
IBM's commitment to Kenya through
its investment in the first IBM Research Lab in Africa, the Kenya office and Africa regional hub based in Nairobi, were also critical factors in Bidco's
decision to continue and expand its services relationship with
IBM.
"Kenya's economy is at an
inflection point, and we are seeing many local companies choosing
innovative technology services to drive local and cross-border
expansion for their products and services," said IBM General
Manager for East Africa Nicholas Nesbitt. "Our engagement with
Bidco is a perfect example of the innovative technology services
IBM can deliver and the value we can provide in helping clients
benefit from the many growth opportunities emerging in Africa."
A growing number of enterprises across Africa have partnered with IBM to help drive
their expansion and overall business plans. IBM has announced over
20 banking deals throughout Africa
over the last five years. Within the health sector, Metropolitan
Health in South Africa and the
Zambia Ministry of Health have tapped IBM solutions to drive their
business models.
IBM has a long history in Africa, and is taking its role as a technology
leader seriously, helping to boost the capacities of Africa's people and institutions. In 2013, IBM
opened its first African Research Laboratory, the twelfth IBM
Research facility in the world, and within the last week announced
plans to expand its research network with a new lab in
Johannesburg, South Africa. In the past five years, the company has
set up offices in Angola,
Mauritius, Tanzania, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya and now has more than 20 subsidiaries on
the continent.
About Bidco
Bidco Africa Ltd (formerly known as Bidco
Oil Refineries Ltd) is an indigenous Kenyan Company, established in
1986. It has expanded its activities over the last 30 years through
expansion & acquisitions. Today the Company has a large number
of leading Brands like Kimbo, Elianto, Golden Fry, Chipsy, Biddy's and Pure &
Natural in the Edible Oils, Fats, Soaps and Detergents
categories.
To learn more about Bidco Africa visit:
http://www.bidcoafrica.com
About IBM
For more information about IBM
infrastructure services, visit: http://ibm.com/services
Contacts:
|
|
Leslie
Monreal-Feil
|
Jay Cadmus
|
IBM Media
Relations
|
IBM Media
Relations
|
720-430-8092
|
914-766-4966
|
lmonreal@us.ibm.com
|
jcadmus@us.ibm.com
|
|
|
Vera
Rosauer
|
Maureen
Wangare
|
IBM External
Relations
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Bidco Africa
Ltd
|
+254-710-537-030
|
+254-67-2821000
|
veraros@ke.ibm.com
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ccpr@bidco-oil.com
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SOURCE IBM