New US telecommunications initiative for Deutsche Post DHL
Deutsche Post DHL has announced the signing of a five-year agreement with AT&T to provide telecommunications services to Deutsche Post DHL businesses in the United States and Puerto Rico. Deutsche Post DHL has announced the signing of a five-year agreement with AT&T to provide telecommunications services to Deutsche Post DHL businesses in the United States and Puerto Rico.
The agreement is part of a worldwide Deutsche Post DHL group initiative to realise opportunities for service enhancement and cost optimisation in the provision of telephony and networking services, said the company in a statement.
“The opportunities for reducing telecoms costs while improving service and network performance are significant,” said Stephen McGuckin, managing director of IT services at Deutsche Post DHL. “This initiative will help us pave the way for more cost efficiency throughout our U.S. operations and provide a next generation platform to transform and enhance our network services in the U.S. over the next five years.”
The new contract with AT&T covers Deutsche Post DHL’s Express, DHL Supply Chain, Global Forwarding, and Global Business Services divisions in the U.S. The service is expected to go live by late 2009.
Through telecommunications agreements with providers in the U.S. and Europe, Deutsche Post DHL is expected to save more than €170m over five years. Related programs focused on rationalizing, harmonising, and improving inter-operability of telecoms services across business units are also underway in DP DHL’s Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets regions and throughout the Americas. These are expected to lead to significant additional cost savings in 2009.
“We’re focused on helping DP DHL achieve its business and cost-cutting goals while enhancing its telecommunications network,” said John Finnegan, senior vice president of signature and global client groups at AT&T. "We're confident in our ability to facilitate increased network manageability and performance while providing DP DHL network flexibility and cost efficiency.”
A company statement read:
Deutsche Post DHL has selected AT&T to provide secure telecommunications services including new technologies for DP DHL sites and end users in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. A key objective of the agreement is for AT&T to lead the transformation of Deutsche Post DHL’s Internet Protocol (IP) network services across the U.S. over the next five years and enable greater cost efficiency throughout company operations.
In scope of the agreement are the latest state-of-the-art telecoms technologies and proven services including wide-area network (WAN) services, local-area network (LAN) and wireless LAN services, mobile voice and data services, network security and service management.
The agreement includes a commitment to continuous innovation and strict service level agreements to both assure further network performance optimisation and cost savings over the lifetime of the contract.
As part of its Roadmap to Value capital markets program, Deutsche Post DHL continues to identify and implement measures to reduce costs and derive more value from its businesses. A key objective of the program is to take 1 billion euros out of the Group’s indirect costs by the end of 2010.
Deutsche Post DHL is the world’s leading mail and logistics services Group.
The Deutsche Post and DHL corporate brands offer a one-of-a-kind portfolio of logistics (DHL) and communication (Deutsche Post) services. The Group offers its customers easy to use standardized products as well as innovative and tailored solutions – from dialog marketing to industrial supply chains. Over 500,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories form a global network focused on service, quality and sustainability. The Group is socially responsible, with programs in the areas of climate protection, disaster relief and training. In 2008, Deutsche Post DHL revenues exceeded €54bn.
