SYDNEY – AT&T announced today that it had successfully implemented a network-based IP Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution for Campbell Arnott’s.
Campbell Arnott’s, a unit of Campbell Soup Company, selected AT&T to provide a communications network linking its sales, distribution, manufacturing, warehousing and administrative operations throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Under the three-year, US$3 million contract Campbell Arnott’s has also outsourced the management of the network to AT&T.
The network is based on AT&T’s IP based VPN and connects 28 locations in Asia Pacific and interconnects the other Campbell’s Enhanced VPN networks in Europe and North America.
The network provides employees across the Asia Pacific region with access to critical business applications residing in the company’s Asia Pacific head office located in Sydney. Additionally the network supports a number of other applications including e-mail and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The network is currently carrying live VoIP traffic between several of Campbell Arnott’s Australian offices.
“Our regional sites in Asia were challenged for bandwidth,” explained Craig Garvin, Chief Information Officer, Campbell Arnott’s Asia Pacific. “Response times accessing our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system have generally been slow. By using AT&T’s VPN services we prioritise our core business applications over less critical applications and improve the productivity for our users. We are also leveraging the network to carry VoIP traffic, which allows us to converge voice and data traffic over a single network for greater flexibility.”
“We determined that the supplier needed to provide an end-to-end solution for us,” Garvin said. “We were not interested in suppliers who used ‘bolt-on’ solutions. We were very interested in the technology, how it was deployed and the capacity of the vendor’s network. Furthermore, we wanted a vendor with a presence in all of our key regional locations as well as areas where we may consider future business expansion. With that in mind we have recently connected one of our offices in Guangzhou, China to our network.
“We received many responses, but some of them were patchwork solutions – basically two MPLS vendors with different interconnected solutions for Australia and Asia. This is not what we wanted. Our objective was to achieve a seamless network throughout Asia Pacific, since our employees in Asia have the same business needs as those in Australia.”
Garvin added one of the key differentiators was the flexibility, which AT&T was willing to show in its approach to the design and on-going management of the network.
“AT&T was always willing to adapt to our business needs,” he said. “Flexibility is extremely important to us and AT&T was offering total flexibility within the bounds of the technology. Our environment has some complexities and it was important that the network was architected to meet our requirements. During the discussions with other vendors we found that they required us to adapt our requirements to their network.”
Garvin explained that AT&T was able to demonstrate that its global MPLS backbone network was extremely stable and had ample capacity as well as points of presence (POPs) in all of the locations where Campbell Arnott’s needs network access. Campbell Arnott’s Asia Pacific is an existing user of the AT&T Remote Access Services and Global Managed Internet Service (GMIS) utilising store and forward email backup and primary domain name system. Campbell’s operations in North America and Europe also use AT&T Enhanced VPN services. With the changes implemented to Campbell Arnott’s Asia Pacific network, Campbell’s now has one consistent global network. This connectivity provides Campbell’s with the opportunity to realise considerable cost savings.
About Campbell Arnott’s
Campbell Arnott’s is part of Campbell Soup Company, one of the world’s largest food manufacturers. Campbell Arnott’s comprises four business divisions operating throughout Asia Pacific: Campbell’s, Arnott’s Biscuits, Arnott’s Snackfoods and Asia. Its portfolio of market-leading brands includes icons such as Tim Tam, Shapes, Tiny Teddy, Kettle, Thins, Cheezels, V8, Country Ladle and Velish. Headquartered in Sydney, Campbell Arnott’s employs more than 8,500 staff and operates 11 manufacturing facilities throughout the region.
About AT&T
For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE 'T') has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.
