Alpro

The challenge
When Alpro was sold to the American Dean Foods Company, the company was forced to go in search of a whole new ICT infrastructure. Up until then, Alpro had been using the infrastructure and applications that were available to them within the Vandemoortele Group, the previous owner of the food supplier.

The solution
Skillteam wanted a pragmatic solution for setting up a high-performance ICT infrastructure. So it was vital that the solution not be a drain on Alpro's resources and that downtime of services during the transition be avoided. Performance and continuity were the most important criteria upon which the new infrastructure would be judged.

The Skillteam ICT plan involved:

• design, configuration and implementation of a server and storage platform
• virtualization of servers
• centralized data storage & backup solution
• high availability & disaster recovery solution for a second data room
• a secure and redundant network infrastructure core, including a redundant security perimeter (firewall, proxy servers, anti-virus/anti-spam gateway)
• Standardization and migration to Windows 7 for all 600 workstations
• Implementation, training and ongoing support by on-location specialists

The result
By consolidating and standardizing as many things as possible during the architecture design phase, Skillteam was able to erect a high-performance ICT infrastructure from the ground up. Alpro had only to retain the services of one additional system engineer, as opposed to the 5 or 6 specialists they had initially intended to hire. This afforded the company substantial savings in the way of personnel and operational costs.

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www.alpro.com

Alpro is the European pioneer in soy products. For more than 30 years, Alpro has been focusing on health and well-being, and on the sustainable manufacturing of good-tasting products that retain the unique nutritional value of soybeans. Today Alpro is the European market leader in soy products with its Alpro soya® and Provamel® brands. Alpro has around 750 employees and enjoys sales of approximately EUR 260 million. Alpro has 4 production facilities in Belgium, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands.