IT consultants from IBM are set to take over the development and management tasks of operations in Denmark and Sweden-based company Arla Foods starting on July 1. As part of this agreement, IT consultants will provide consulting services, development and facility management for IT operations for seven years. 130 members, 100 Danish and 30 Swedish members of Arla’s IT staff will move to IBM. Approximately 30 It consultants will stay with Arla in order to assess the company’s needs and report them frequently to IBM, acting as negotiators between the two companies as part of the outsourcing agreement.
Experts are not surprised Arla chose IBM, as the food services company has already worked with the computer business by allowing it to run its servers. IBM is currently the leading provider of IT services in Denmark, having overtaken the Danish provider Maersk Data in the summer of 2004. In the past two years, IBM has secured deals for IT consultants with companies including Carlsberg and Lego.
Arla is a global company with production centers in Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Germany, Poland, Canada, the U.S. and even the Middle East and China. Because of its scope, company leaders were looking for a more globally-minded IT service provider. The current deal with IBM is mainly a method to support IT infrastructure at Arla’s headquarters, but the company hopes to be able to apply IT support strategies to other regions and areas as well.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
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