AT&T (NYSE: T) has been awarded a six-year, $100 million contract extension from UK-based global technology provider Smiths Group, illustrating the confidence the firm has in the telco's ability to serve its global networking requirements.
This agreement will bring all of Smiths Group's communications services under one roof, enabling it to connect all of its 23,000 employees across 450 offices in over 50 countries.
Under the terms of the new agreement, AT&T will provide Smiths Group with a set of enhanced global network speeds for its offices and locations. Complementing the higher bandwidth network connections, AT&T will also provide its suite of security services, including Security Event and Threat Analysis, which will help Smiths Group reduce risk and increase reaction and response times to security issues.
Another key element of the contract is application management. AT&T will manage Smiths Group's corporate content and applications so employees can access information from any location. These managed services include Smiths Group's enterprise resource planning and world-wide email.
From any location, employees can communicate with each other using their laptops or smartphone with the same interface. AT&T is also integrating Smiths Group's existing unified communications with the AT&T cloud-based voice platform, while an AT&T global Mobile Device Management platform helps secure all smartphones.
Smiths Group's Stuart Beesley, chief information officer, said that the AT&T solution will allow the company to be more agile by enabling employees to be more responsive to customers and resolve problems more quickly.
"The communications, hosting and security solutions will aid our global expansion and growth priorities, make us more agile and productive, speed up decision making, foster greater collaboration and help fuel greater innovation," he said. "We'll spend less on operating costs while enabling our employees to react more quickly to business demands and customer needs."
Gaining a renewal of a large contract, particularly one with a key customer like Smiths that is leveraging next-gen IP platforms, is important as AT&T looks to enhance revenues in its business services.
While the service provider won't release fourth-quarter earnings until Jan. 27, AT&T reported in the third quarter of 2014 that strategic business services such as cloud, Ethernet and VPN rose 14.3 percent to $2.5 billion.
For more:
- see the release
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