Wipro bags multi-million dollar Akzo Nobel deal

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Bangalore based Wipro Ltd, will help Dutch coatings and chemical maker, Akzo Nobel, better manage a string of data centres in the US and Europe, in a three year multi-million Euro infrastructure management deal.

Akzo Nobel will also offshore some related work, such as maintaing applications involving SAP based enterprise resource planning, a Wipro release said.

N S Bala, vice president, manufacturing solutions at Wipro Technologies, said, "We hope to design solutions which will help them take their strategy of shared services to the next level."

Gerard Helmink, chief information officer of Akzo Nobel Chemicals said, "Wipro was chosen for their ability to understand our idea of a shared IT environment and design a solution which would provide us with the best returns."

Helmink added, "In addition, the 'ease of doing business' with Wipro is recognized and appreciated highly. During all the phases of the bid process Wipro delivered adequate responses; they listen carefully and act accordingly."

Akzo Nobel NV, based in the Netherlands, serves customers throughout the world with healthcare products, coatings and chemicals. Consolidated sales for 2004 were Euro 12.7 billion. The company currently employs approximately 64,500 people in more than 80 countries.

RFID FOR PANTALOON: Meanwhile, Wipro Infotech, the Asia Pacific business of IT, consumer and lighting firm Wipro, has implemented a radio frequency tag based identification (RFID) system for clothing firm Pantaloon.

Chinar Deshpande, chief information officer with Pantaloon said, "We expect it to deliver higher operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. We see the use of RFID technology in improving the collaboration across our supply chain right upto the point of sale".

The system, built into Pantaloon's Tarapur warehouse and factory will make the garment business' processes more efficient by helping it capture "real time data" (on how the inventory was moving), a Wipro release said here on Wednesday.

The RFID application uses relational database vendor Oracle's middleware, Oracle 10g, and radio frequency hardware, which have been integrated into the existing IT infrastructure of Pantaloon, the release said.