United Utilites taps into Cable&Wireless Worldwide Managed Services
31 March 2010: United Utilities, the largest listed water company in the UK, has signed a £30 million, five year deal with Cable&Wireless Worldwide to provide converged voice and data network services to its 300 UK sites including data centres, water works and two key contact centres.
With this deal C&W Worldwide, which has managed the United Utilities private voice infrastructure for some years, becomes the largest provider of communication services to the business. C&W Worldwide will also manage the transformation of United Utilities legacy voice estate, replacing aged technology with best-in-class IP telephony services.
Now when United Utilities colleagues access core business applications, such as SAP, they will connect over C&W Worldwide’s resilient, high bandwidth next-generation Multi-Service Platform (MSP). By converging voice and data services onto the MSP platform, United Utilities will benefit from reduced cost of ownership and the flexibility to access a range of innovative data applications such as High Definition Video Conferencing, IPCCTV and IP Telephony.
Customer experience is a key driver for UU and through this contract with C&W it will help it further improve its operational infrastructure. The increased delivery speed and service reliability offered by the MSP will support United Utilities contact centre activities, including during periods of heightened call rates.
Mike Naden, IT Operations Director, United Utilities commented: “Our expertise is in operating and managing utility networks. We needed the same level of expertise brought to the management of our communications network, and C&W Worldwide was the obvious choice. We’re very pleased with the total customer experience we’re receiving from C&W Worldwide and look forward to continuing our relationship.”
Jim Marsh, Chief Executive Officer, Cable&Wireless Worldwide, added: “United Utilities performs a critical service and having the right telecoms infrastructure and services in place is crucial. For us, managing its voice estate and keeping its sites in constant contact means United Utilities can do what it does best; keeping its public in water, gas and electricity supplies.
Our secure, resilient network, applications and services, together with our expertise, put us in a strong position to help our customers carry out the often vital services they provide. We believe we’re the first choice for mission critical communications. It matters to us because it matters to our customers.”
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Contacts:
CABLE&WIRELESS Worldwide
Natalie Easson
PR Manager
+44(0)7717 427 418
C&W Press Office
+44 (0)1344 818 888
About Cable&Wireless Worldwide
Cable&Wireless Worldwide (LSE: CW.) aims to be the first-choice provider of mission critical communications for large users of telecoms. Cable&Wireless Worldwide is one of the world's leading critical communication companies, providing a range of high-quality managed voice, data and IP-based services and applications to large corporates, multinational companies, governments, carrier customers and resellers across the UK, Asia Pacific, India, Middle East & Africa, Continental Europe and North America.
Stretching to more than 500,000km, the Cable&Wireless Worldwide global next-generation network (NGN) includes the UK's largest fibre network for business communications, and provides connectivity to 153 countries. The Company’s Multi-Service Platform, an IP-based next-generation platform that operates across the NGN, offers a single environment on which voice and data applications can be converged to drive business efficiencies.
To find out more, visit www.cw.com
About United Utilities
In 2006 United Utilities was the first UK water company to announce an integrated strategy with the aim of reducing its carbon emissions. The company seeks to achieve a 26% reduction on its 2005/06 emissions baseline by 2012. This will be achieved by cutting its own emissions by 8% and the other 18% will come from renewable energy contracts. These reductions will continue beyond 2012 with the aim of halving the current level of emissions by 2035. United Utilities is a FTSE-100 company and the largest listed water company in the UK, with 9,000 employees, and a turnover of more than £2 billion. Its headquarters are in NW England where it looks after the water and wastewater needs of seven million customers, as well as providing major environmental and infrastructure investment for the region. The company is also the UK’s market leader in operating and maintaining services and plants for other utilities’ companies, including gas and electricity as well as water and wastewater. Such engineering and planning expertise and experience has led to a further range of contracts internationally, with United Utilities providing services to a total of 20 million people across Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. The company has a strong corporate and social responsibility programme, investing £3 million a year in community activities, and frequently setting the industry pace on carbon reduction measures. In February 2010 United Utilities announced a GBP 3.6 billion water and wastewater investment plan for the NW of England for the period 2010-2015.
Visit us at www.unitedutilities.co.uk
