Sodexho selects IBM for business process and application transformation work

IBM Australia today announced it has been awarded a multi-million dollar, five-year business consulting, e-business hosting and support services contract with Sodexho.Sodexho is a leading provider of Total Support Services - food and management services, facilities management and multi services - with clients in Education, Healthcare, Business & Industry, Remote Sites (onshore and offshore), Defence and Special Events.

IBM will implement Sodexho's new Asia Pacific financial and accounting systems and host the supporting technology and applications. The project will help Sodexho improve efficiency and reduce its fixed business and IT costs, freeing funds and internal resources to focus on its clients, customers and core business activities.

Garen Azoyan, Director of Finance and IS, Sodexho Asia Pacific says, "Sodexho has invested in IBM's consulting and e-business hosting expertise to improve the efficiency of its operations and to maximize its bottom line. We will realize significant financial benefits as well as utilising better finance and accounting processes. This will improve our ability to respond quickly to changing business conditions, to focus on our clients needs, and to continue improving the quality of daily life of our customers."

IBM's business consultants will work with Sodexho's Asia-Pacific finance team to remodel and integrate accounting and financial processes into an existing Australian SAP system. The revamped SAP system will then be rolled out to 17 of Sodexho's companies across six Asia Pacific countries, replacing six disparate systems that were acquired or developed during past acquisitions, mergers and internal initiatives.

The second stage of the agreement involves migrating Sodexho's SAP infrastructure to an e-business hosting environment, managed and supported by IBM Global Services. IBM will deliver the hosted solution to Sodexho on demand, on a pay-per-user basis. IBM's hosting model will allow Sodexho to shift its fixed IT costs to variable costs, in line with its contract-based business model.

Andrew Stevens, Managing Partner for IBM Business Consulting, in Australia, says, "Working with IBM allows Sodexho's Asia Pacific management to release both resources and funds to focus on its core business. The realignment of its business processes and information technology infrastructure will deliver value to Sodexho's bottom line."

Sodexho will transition the expanded SAP system to IBM's eServer pSeries servers. SAP application outsourcing support and e-business hosting for the Asia Pacific region will be delivered from IBM facilities in Melbourne and Sydney. Sodexho is also replacing its current fleet of computers with IBM ThinkCentre PCs.

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