A Global Data Centre and Cloud Strategy

A joined partnership with a global brand to create an unified IT systems to support their operation

Our client is a global loyalty and benefits company which works with major international brands to acquire, engage and retain customers.

Offering products that range from loyalty and travel priority schemes to insurance and travel assistance, it has brought value to leading companies across the world for nearly three decades.

With over 25 locations, in 17 countries, +2000 employees and +20 million end-managed customers, the company is a leader in the market and has extensive expertise in partnerships, technology and product innovation.

The challenge for the client was to evolve its business structure from being a network of formerly independent SMEs to a seamless global enterprise.

Creating unified IT systems was central to this mission. To highlight one fundamental problem, the company’s data centre services were being delivered from 17 internal facilities, alongside 38 separate contracts with 20 external providers.

This meant the group’s data centre services were being delivered from 56 different locations!

Similar fragmentation of IT systems was apparent across the company’s legacy structures.

For example, dozens of different HR, finance and sales departments relied on a huge range of different software, hardware and hosting.

It was business critical for the company to unify and rationalise its IT structures, giving it more collective bargaining power when negotiating contracts, allowing it to leverage preferential pricing and giving it a joined-up view of its own data.

To create the foundation for this group mission our client needed a Data Centre and Cloud Services strategy to transform its IT systems at every level.

The client needed a trusted advisor to work with the business globally and lead the creation of the Data Centre and Cloud strategy. It turned to Intergence.

Our team’s key priorities were to gain a detailed understanding of the client’s complex supplier arrangements, data centre hosting, cloud services, applications and infrastructure, budget structures and compliance obligations.

A detailed understanding of the market landscape and developing Cloud Services was critical to success.

The next task was to create a vision and strategy to transform the organisation’s IT, drawing on our strong market knowledge and experience.

To deliver the strategy, Intergence undertook a three-step process.

The Global Data Centre and Cloud strategy underpins the company’s goal of operating and coordinating as a group by delivering a balanced portfolio of data centre services.

The services meet all necessary rigorous compliance requirements while offering the agile, flexible and cost-effective value of the cloud.

The strategy has driven the understanding of Cloud Services and broken down the barriers of adoption. It also drives the ongoing realisation of the following business goals.