Getronics Editorial Team
In this article:
Ford Europe has been an active Getronics customer for more than 40 years, beginning in 1980 with former Wang Global (which was acquired by Getronics in 1999). Flexibility, quality, and responsiveness are core to our DNA and these key factors enable Getronics to continue to build our success and provide assurance on a wide range of Global Network Services to our strategic global customer Ford.
Case study details
Solution
Network Onsite Support, Project Implementation Services, Second and Third Level Remote Network Expertise Support.
Company profile
Ford Motor Company is a global automotive industry leader, that manufactures and distributes automobiles across six continents. With US$155.9 billion (2019) revenue, Ford’s market position is No 5th, with plants in over 20 countries.
Locations
Ford is headquartered in Dearborn Michigan, the USA with 190,000+ employees worldwide. They also have a presence in 200 countries around the world and direct operations in 77 countries.
Challenge
At the end of 2010, Ford started their search to find a global IT support provider, capable to deliver On-site Network Services for data centers, offices, warehouses, and critical production facilities mainly in North America and Europe.
The highest required SLA is 24/7 2-hour resolution for critical sites with dedicated resources, followed by 4-hour resolution for Hubs and NBD for smaller local offices.
Service needed to support a total of more than 15,000 network assets spread over 290+ sites are supported including DCs in North America, APAC, and Europe.
The objective
Ford Europe has been an active Getronics customer for more than 40 years, beginning in 1980 with former Wang Global (which was acquired by Getronics in 1999).
Based on this long-standing, trusted, and proven relationship, Getronics was awarded the Maintenance Contract for Ford’s Global Network in 2011, covering more than 290 sites over a total of 26 countries in scope in Europe, the USA, and APAC. The scope of sites includes plants, warehouses, and offices as well as data centers and hubs.
The contract had an initial term of three years, and due to Ford’s positive service experience, Getronics has continued to provide these services to Ford for almost 10 years maintaining their confidence and quality of services along the way.
The global support services that Getronics provides to Ford under this contract comprise three functions:
- Hardware Break-Fix of supported devices
- On-site fault isolation supports network problems
- And implementation of physical changes to network devices
Services include both dedicated on-site resources in the major countries and per-incident dispatch resolution to local sites. Dispatch requests typically originate from Ford’s Global Service Desk if the network problem cannot be solved remotely.
Additionally, Getronics, won a second global RFP in 2016 to deliver Network Planning and Implementation Services including Wi-Fi surveys in over 35 countries in all regions. Getronics was able to win this RFP due to consistent service delivery excellence in the previous years, with continuous green SLAs reported and no escalations.
Along with the onsite services, Getronics expanded our service footprint within Ford in 2016 to include the delivery of a Remote Network Support contract to provide CNA support for Ford’s global layer 2 and layer 3 LAN and WAN across numerous technologies, as well as providing Network Management System (NMS) Tools to support their Global IP Network with a team of 10 people located at Ford’s offices in the UK and Germany forming the European arm of Ford’s follow-the-sun network support model.
The Getronics solution
- A single global provider for all countries
- Increased efficiencies and functionalities
- Cost savings
- Increased delivery performance with consistent quality
- A single point of contact and contract for all their global entities and IT business needs
- An ongoing governance model with a dedicated Getronics’ Service management
- Team interfacing and working hand-in-hand with Ford’s designated counterparts
- Ford can rely on Getronics’ expertise to ensure their networks are in good health, that any network issues are proactively managed and resolved, and that the critical network is available to Ford’s operations
- Optimized IT-support experience and cooperation with the Ford internal teams across the globe
Why Getronics?
The international Getronics Global Services team which is also built upon our Global Workspace Alliance (GWA) framework and operating principles, worked as the pillar to understand Ford’s business objectives, build key relationships, and pro-actively define future IT requirements.
Getronics provided the needed flexibility to Ford ensuring that our solutions were the best fit for their business. We are also working in close partnership with our specialized Network Services Partner in North America to fully support the requirements of Ford in this region.
Our successful Global Service Delivery Model including seamless transition and competitive pricing convinced Ford that Getronics is the right partner to deliver these important services globally. Flexibility, quality, and responsiveness are core to our DNA and these key factors enable Getronics to continue to build our success and provide assurance to our strategic global customer Ford.
