Deutsche Telekom claims a €160 million ($211.6 million) deal to migrate British American Tobacco’s (BAT) business software to the cloud is one of the biggest in the history of its T-Systems subsidiary.
The seven year contract forms part of a significant investment by the tobacco firm in consolidating its business software, which aims to leave it with a single version of its current SAP platform for 65 global markets by 2016. T-Systems will handle the reduction of ten global BAT data centers down to three sites in Europe, Asia and South America, and transition BAT’s business software into the cloud over the next two years, to ensure the tobacco firm’s SAP services exactly mirror its real usage requirements.
Phil Colman, British American Tobacco’s chief information officer, explains the firm’s IT strategy “focuses on a single portfolio of connected applications running on standardised contemporary technology.”
T-Systems chief Reinhard Clemens says the deal validates his firm’s expertise in transitioning “traditional IT into the cloud and operating it in a safe environment.”