OCS successfully completes first phase of a five-year IT infrastructure partnership with eLINIA

11 July 2012

International facilities services provider OCS is working with eLINIA to deliver world class IT infrastructure, maximising back office performance, efficiency and scalability of its IT infrastructure

OCS Group Limited, one of the world’s largest privately-owned facilities services companies, today announced that it has successfully completed the first phase of an IT infrastructure outsourcing deal with managed services specialist eLINIA.

The first phase required the movement of IT infrastructure from the old OCS headquarters in Crawley to eLINIA’s data centre in Slough. The second phase entails the adoption of the OCS IT estate into managed services provided by eLINIA. Finally, OCS and eLINIA will consolidate and drive efficiencies in the IT estate to provide long-lasting financial and operational benefits to OCS.

eLINIA, part of the Adapt Group, was originally selected following a competitive RFP tendering process and the deal will see OCS house all its business applications in eLINIA’s green data centre in Slough. The five-year contract will be one of the key enablers for OCS to continue its strategic goal to establish world-class global facilities management supported by best in breed IT systems.

eLINIA’s green credentials were of particular importance in the selection process given the commitment of OCS to a sustainable environment. Seventy per cent of eLINIA’s data centres around the UK are currently powered by renewable biomass energy sources. This ethos is also visible at eLINIA’s Cardiff headquarters and its Network Operations Centre, which rely entirely on energy from renewable sources.

Employing over 56,000 people worldwide, OCS Group’s portfolio spans a broad range of services including engineering, security, catering and horticulture. Headquartered out of the UK, it operates across a range of territories in over 30 countries worldwide.

Following a review of its internal IT infrastructure, OCS took the opportunity to invest in IT infrastructure outsourcing when it moved into new headquarters in Tilgate, Crawley. Explaining the company’s decision, Brian Horsfield, Group IT Director said: “As part of our move, we recognised there was a need for us to outsource our key business application infrastructure in order to achieve greater scalability and support for our global business operation. As a multinational conglomerate, we naturally needed an ICT service provider able to effectively manage the vast amounts of data created by our business globally and eLINIA has so far surpassed our expectations.”

Horsfield continued: “This is a complex project and thanks to the expertise and dedication of the eLINIA and OCS project teams, we are set to be up and running with the completed solution in accordance with our project timeline. This will then give us a more efficient platform to support the aggressive expansion in business.

John Jones, CEO at eLINIA, added: “We were delighted to have been chosen to help OCS outsource its IT infrastructure and are confident that we have delivered a solution that marries the company’s need for growth and flexibility with its desire to safeguard its data security. Given the scale of OCS’ operations across 30 countries and 200,000 clients, it is a challenging project, but when the final rollout is complete OCS will have a scalable IT platform in place capable of handling its growing volume of data.”

www.ocs.co.uk