Cable & Wireless gets the beers in

Cable & Wireless has announced a deal to provide brewery Scottish Courage with a national data network.

The three-year deal, in association with systems integrator EDS, is valued at £2.1m.

The contract will see C&W integrate 66 of Scottish Courage's manufacturing, distribution and sales sites onto a single data network. It is projected to cut annual running costs by around 50 per cent.

Scottish Courage is the brewing division of Scottish & Newcastle and makes well-known beers such as Fosters and John Smiths. The C&W IP-VPN will carry internal data as well as customer data from the many pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants Scottish Courage supplies.

According to C&W, increased capacity and traffic prioritisation functionality will help to streamline the supply chain.

Much like the UK's many motorways on which its lorries travel, the Scottish Courage digital traffic will have multiple 'lanes'.

Non-critical traffic, such as web browsing will use 'standard' bandwidth. Business-critical traffic will use 'enhanced' bandwidth and delay-sensitive applications such as voice and video will use premium bandwidth.

Scottish Courage shares a parent and a network with wine and spirit wholesaler Waverley TBS.

Jeff Jamet, MD of Waverley TBS, said: "The solution proposed by Cable & Wireless and EDS enables us to have a much clearer appreciation of additional demand for beer from pub managers and retailers, and will enable us to respond much more effectively to sudden changes."

"We have been able to improve our supply chain efficiency and reduce our overall network costs. The system should make it easier for us to keep the beer flowing this Christmas."

The news coincides with a report from Frost & Sullivan which predicts massive growth in the IP-VPN market over the next three years.