Panalpina Chooses BT to Transform Global Communications Infrastructure

IRVING, Texas, April 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BT today announced a contract with Panalpina, one of the world's leading freight forwarding and logistics companies, to transform and manage its global communications infrastructure. The transformation will enable Panalpina's 15,000 employees to better communicate and collaborate internally and with their customers. This supports the company's vision to work closer with its clients to build smart and efficient end-to-end logistics solutions.

BT will overhaul Panalpina's network infrastructure, currently sourced from more than a dozen domestic and regional providers, and migrate it into a single integrated platform, connecting 500 offices in more than 75 countries. BT will also provide services from its BT One Voice portfolio, to converge voice and data on a single platform.

The new network will be a hybrid infrastructure, based on BT's IP Connect and Internet Connect services, combining the reliability and security of IP-based Virtual Private Networks (VPN) with the flexibility of Internet connections. BT's services will underpin the continued implementation of Panalpina's new global enterprise resource planning (ERP) and transportation management systems, which require optimal end-to-end control of the infrastructure.

Additional services, such as BT Connect Intelligence, will provide an application-aware network architecture designed to support strategic business applications.

"This agreement with BT is a major milestone on our way to becoming the most customer focused global provider of freight forwarding and logistics solutions," said Ralf Morawietz, Chief Information Officer at Panalpina. "As our single point of contact for communication services, BT will take away the burden of managing a multitude of different suppliers, and will make it easier for us to implement new services and to support our employees and customers around the globe."

Corrado Sciolla, President Europe & Global Telecom Markets at BT Global Services, said: "In the new digital world, customers and employees are becoming more demanding, ecosystems are evolving and the established rules are changing. We are very proud that a global leader such as Panalpina has chosen BT to manage their communication services in this changing environment. We will build on our long-standing expertise in serving the needs of the logistics sector to make sure that Panalpina's employees and customers around the world can collaborate better and more easily. The intelligent features of our network services will also help Panalpina improve the performance of its business-critical applications and constantly adapt the whole communications infrastructure to its rapidly evolving digital needs."

About Panalpina

The Panalpina Group is one of the world's leading providers of supply chain solutions. The company combines its core products of Air Freight, Ocean Freight, and Logistics to deliver globally integrated, tailor-made end-to-end solutions. Drawing on in-depth industry know-how and customized IT systems, Panalpina manages the needs of its customers' supply chains, no matter how demanding they might be. Energy Solutions is a specialized service for the energy and capital projects sector.

The Panalpina Group operates a global network with some 500 offices in more than 75 countries, and it works with partner companies in a further 90 countries. Panalpina employs over 15,000 people worldwide who deliver a comprehensive service to the highest quality standards – wherever and whenever.

About BT

BT's purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world's leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services. As of 31 March 2016, BT consisted principally of six customer-facing lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, EE, BT Wholesale and Openreach. With effect from 1 April 2016, the group has been reorganized and the customer-facing lines of business are now: Global Services, Business and Public Sector, Consumer, EE, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2015, BT Group's reported revenue was £17,979m with reported profit before taxation of £2,645m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.btplc.com

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SOURCE BT