Computacenter

Computacenter

Type	Public (LSE: CCC)
Industry	Information technology IT Services Consulting
Founded	1981
Founder(s)	Philip Hulme and Peter Ogden
Headquarters	Hatfield, UK
Key people	Greg Lock (Chairman) Mike Norris (Chief Executive) Tony Conophy (Finance Director)
Products	Supply, implementation, support and management of IT systems
Revenue	£2,676.5 million (2010)[1]
Operating income	£65.9 million (2010)[1]
Net income	£50.3 million (2010)[1]
Website	Computacenter.com

Computacenter plc (LSE: CCC) is the parent company of a group of European companies which provide computer services to public and private sector customers. Despite the spelling of the word "center", it is a UK company based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its competitors include Fujitsu, Getronics, Capgemini and CSC, as well as resellers such as SCC. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

Computacenter was founded in the UK in 1981 by Philip Hulme and Peter Ogden.^[2] In 1990, it opened Europe's largest PC outlet; in 1991, it was listed by The Independent newspaper as one of the fastest growing independent companies in the UK and, by 1994, it had grown to became the largest privately-owned IT company in the UK.^[2] Computacenter was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1998.^[2] In 2006 the company extended its service facilities to include a new International Service Centre in Barcelona, Spain, and a customer help desk and remote management facility in Cape Town, South Africa.^[2]

The following year the company won BT’s inaugural Supplier Innovation Award for its work on virtualising and consolidating a number of their UK datacentres, helping BT reduce the carbon footprint of its Windows datacentre estate by 85%.^[3]

Principal activities

The company is engaged in the supply, implementation, support and management of information technology systems.^[4]

Computacenter advises customers on their IT strategy, implements appropriate technology from a wide range of vendors and manages their technology infrastructures on their behalf.^[5]

Operating countries

•  United Kingdom
•  France
•  Germany
•  Belgium
•  Luxembourg
•  Netherlands

Service facilities

•  United Kingdom
•  Germany
•  Spain
•  South Africa
•  Malaysia

Computacenter also runs a partner network that covers 120 countries worldwide.^[6]

Strategy

Computacenter's strategy to "ensure long-term earnings growth"^[7] is to focus on five goals:

• Accelerated growth of its contractual services business
• Improved efficiency of its service operations
• Broadened range and depth of its service activities
• Extended presence in markets that offer greatest growth opportunity
• Reducing the cost of sale in its supply chain activities

Clients

Computacenter's customers include:

• Amey
• Lloyds Banking Group (their largest customer account)
• Deutsche Bank
• Santander
• Logica
• TDG Ltd
• WM Morrison
• Marks & Spencer^[8]
• British Telecom^[9]
• BAA^[10]
• Reuters^[11]
• Unipart^[12]
• Channel 4^[13]
• BMW Group^[14]
• EDF^[15]
• Air Liquide^[15]
• The UK Government's Department for Transport ("DfT")^[16]
• Oaklands College^[17]
• Doncaster College^[18]

Careers

Computacenter is a major employer, with over 4,000 staff in the UK and around 10,000 across Europe.^[19] Because of the company’s managed services/outsourcing business, many of these people work on customers’ sites. Computacenter employs technical consultants, project managers, field engineers, sales admin and account managers and help desk staff.^[20]

Computacenter is an Investor in People and in addition to its normal recruitment process, the company has an entry scheme for people it considers to have the most sales potential. Under this ‘Sales Associate Programme’, candidates are given an intensive 18 months training under the direct sponsorship of the company’s CEO. It says the successful candidates’ earnings could exceed £70,000 in their first year as an Account Manager.^[20]

Sponsorships

Current Sponsorships

Computacenter is:

• Principal business partner and title sponsor of the Professional Rugby Players' Association's ("PRA") Rugby Players' Awards Dinner,^[21] held at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
• Sponsor of Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service's fire investigation dog, one of seventeen such dogs used in England to support accelerant detection in arson investigations, which is a black Labrador Retriever named "CeeCee".^[22]

• 

  "CeeCee", the fire investigation dog, as a puppy.

• Platinum sponsor for "Team Storm", a robotic combat team of "roboteers", which won the title of "World Champion" in the seventh series of Mentorn's "Robot Wars" television programme with their "Storm II" robot.^[23][24][25]

Past sponsorships

In the past, Computacenter has sponsored:

• Founding sponsor of the Computacenter Cathcart Spring Proms, which is a classical "Variety Performance" of diverse works played by musicians, choristers, soloists and groups in the Royal Albert Hall.^[26]
• Sponsor of the "Best Use of Technology" category in the British Legal Awards, 2007.^[27]
• Marcos Engineering's GT Le Mans LM500 & LM600 racecars,^[28] which won the 1995 BRDC National Sports GT Championship and finished in seventh place in the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hour race.^[29]
• The Six Nations Championship rugby union competition, for which it provided match statistics and analysis^[30] in 2002.^[31]
• The English Challenge Open golf tournament, an event in the European Challenge Tour, in 2004.^[32]
• The Halifax Blue Sox rugby Team

Charitable activities

Computacenter’s charity partners are Willow Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support and The Children’s Trust. The company supports and organises fundraising events such as dress down days, charity races and sponsored staff expeditions, which have included an expedition to Everest base camp.^[33] Computacenter donated £87,000 to charity in 2008^[34]

Corporate Social Responsibility

Computacenter is a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index series,^[35] which measures the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards;^[36] it has retained its membership for 5 years.^[37]

During 2007, the Computacenter group committed itself to the 10 core principles of United Nations Global Compact,^[38] which illustrates the company's adoption of sustainable and socially responsible policies, especially in relation to human rights, labour rights, the environment and anti-corruption.

The company also works with its customers to help them meet their 'sustainable IT' objectives. In November 2007 Computacenter won BT’s inaugural Supplier Innovation Award for its work on virtualising and consolidating a number of their UK datacentres, helping BT reduce the carbon footprint ^[39] of its Windows datacentre estate by 85%.^[40] Computacenter says its cost-neutral service to Marks & Spencer has also helped M&S meet its WEEE requirements and its 'Plan A' environmental objectives, sending zero IT waste from M&S head office to landfill in 2008.^[41]

Subsidiaries and brands

Computacenter operates subsidiaries and brands that address specific market segments:

Subsidiaries

• RDC, which offers IT equipment disposal, remarketing and redeployment services^[42] (for which it received the "Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation" in 2002^[43]).

In addition the following companies were acquired by Computacenter and are now integrated within their business:

• Digica, which provides outsourcing and managed IT services to the corporate mid-market and the Public Sector.^[44][45]
• Allnet, which specialises in network integration and structured cabling services^[46][47]

Partnerships

Vendor partners

The tables below list a selection of Computacenter's vendor partners and examples of the accreditations held with each:^[48]

Hardware vendor partners Accreditation 3Com Gold Partner Acer Executive Partner AMX (UK) Limited Major Reseller Status APC Elite Partner – Datacenter Apple Inc. Authorised Direct Reseller AverMedia Elite Level Partner Avocent Premium Partner Belkin Platinum Partner BlueCoat Authorised Partner Brand-Rex Value Added Reseller Brocade Alliance Partner Brother Alliance Partner Alliance Partner Check Point Gold Level Partner Cisco Gold Partner Clearswift Authorised Reseller Commscope SYSTIMAX Prestige Business Partner Dell SME Certified Status Eizo Strategic Eizo Reseller EMC EMC Velocity Partner Velocity Signature Solution Centre Partner Authorised Service Provider Value Added Reseller Emulex Gold Partner Epson Premier Business Partner F5 Gold Advantage Partner Freecom Freecom Business Partner Fujitsu Centre of Excellence Authorised Service Provider Gold Qualified Imaging Partner (Scanners) HDS (Hitachi Data Systems) Platinum Partner Hewlett Packard 2010 Gold Preferred Partner Status DataCenter Solutions Specialist (DSS Computing Systems Specialist (CSS) High Performance Computing Specialist (HPC) StorageWorks Solutions Specialist (SSS) PSG: Workstations Specialist Office Printing Specialist (OP) Office Printing Solutions Specialist (OPS) ProCurve Networking Specialist: Professional HP Service Sales Specialist (HPS) HP Authorised Service Partner (ASP) Hypertec Authorised Reseller IBM IBM Premier Business Partner IBM System p Accredited Partner IBM System z Accredited Partner IBM International Business Partner Approved Distributor of IBM PSG Member of IBM Powernet Programme Member of IBM's Alliance Partner Programme IBM ISV Porting Centre Juniper Elite Partner Security Elite Partner Network / Infrastructure Ironkey Gold partner Kingston Kingston Authorised Reseller Kodak Authorised Document Imaging Reseller Konica Minolta Partner Kyocera Mita Strategic Service Partner ClubKM Strategic Business Partner Solutions Partner Colour Centre Lenovo Tier One Business Partner Lexmark Expert Partner LG Service Partner Logitech Authorised Reseller Motorola Business Partner NEC Solutions Plus Accredited Partner NetApp Authorised Service Provider Star Partner Netgear Powershift Partner Netvoyager Platinum Partner Nokia Gold Partner Nortel Networks Gold Solutions Partner Enterprise IP Telephony Solutions (Communications Server 1000 R5.x) Gold Solutions Partner Ethernet Routers & Switching Solutions Panduit Certified Installer Plantronics Premium Partner Status Promethean Premier Partner Samsung Power Partner Smart Technologies Elite Level Partner Sony Sony Value Added Partner VAIO Business Accredited Reseller Sun Microsystems Executive Partner Sun Authorised Solutions Centre Infrastructure Delivery Option (IDO) – Installation Provider Tandberg Gold Partner Toshiba Premier Partner Authorised Service Provider Xerox Premier Corporate Reseller

Software vendor partners Accreditation Adobe Systems Authorised Licence Centre Reseller Licence Management Partner Appsense Gold Certified Solutions Partner Becrypt Platinum Partner BMC Software Strategic Partner Brother Alliance Partner CA Enterprise Solution Partner Premier Partner Check Point Gold Level Partner Citrix Platinum Solutions Advisor Clearswift Authorised Reseller Corel Authorised Reseller Filemaker Inc FilemakerPlus Authorised Reseller Hummingbird Corporate Partner IBM IBM Premier Business Partner IBM International Business Partner IBM Software Premier Partner Member of IBM's Alliance Partner Programme IBM Leader for Linux Partner Ipswitch Authorised Partner McAfee (Network Associates) McAfee Elite Partner Microsoft Microsoft Gold Certified Partner: Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Information Worker Solutions Network Infrastructure Solutions Business Process & Integration OEM hardware Data Management Solutions Mobility Solutions Security Solutions Licensing Solutions Training Partner Software Asset Management Microsoft Certified Support Centre (MCSC) Large Account Reseller Microsoft Enterprise Software Advisor MySQL Enterprise Ready Partner Novell Gold Partner Oracle Certified Advantage Partner Joint Partner Engagement (JPE) Program Partner (Software Asset Management) Quest Platinum Partner Red Hat Advanced Partner RSA[disambiguation needed ] Signature Level Partner SAP Crystals Reports Reseller Hosting Partner Sophos Gold Partner Symantec Platinum Partner Enterprise Security Partner Corporate Partner Symantec Security Partner Software Asset Management Partner Trend Micro Affinity Plus Partner VMWare Premier Enterprise Partner Authorised Consulting Partner

Training

Computacenter delivers its training services through a partnership with a specialist training company,QA

External links

• Company Website

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Annual Report 2010
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Computacenter website, key dates. Retrieved March 27, 2009
3. ^ Computacenter plc Annual Report & Accounts, 2007, p24, Computacenter plc Annual Report & Accounts, March 31, 2008. Retrieved: March 27, 2009
4. ^ Computacenter plc Annual Report & Accounts, 2007, p40, Computacenter plc Annual Report & Accounts, March 31, 2008. Retrieved: March 27, 2009
5. ^ Computacenter plc website Retrieved March 27, 2009
6. ^ Computacenter plc website Retrieved March 27, 2009
7. ^ Computacenter plc Annual Report & Accounts, 2008, p2, Computacenter plc Annual Report & Accounts, March 31, 2009. Retrieved: June 5, 2009
8. ^ Computer Weekly. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
9. ^ Channel Register. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
10. ^ Computacenter plc website. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
11. ^ ZDNet. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
12. ^ Yahoo UK News. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
13. ^ Computacenter plc website. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
14. ^ computing.co.uk. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
15. ^ ^{a b} Yahoo Finance. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
16. ^ Computacenter cited as the DfT's "IT solutions partner" in Computerweekly (July 4, 2008). Retrieved July 6, 2008
17. ^ Computacenter cited as assisting the college to to form its technology strategy and plan its new IT network (July 2, 2008). Retrieved July 7, 2008.
18. ^ Computacenter cited as designing and implementing the college's "state-of-the-art" IT systems; Doncaster College website.Retrieved October 12, 2008.
19. ^ Computacenter Annual Report & Accounts 2007, page 56, Note 6 Retrieved March 31, 2009.
20. ^ ^{a b} Computacenter website careers pages
21. ^ Professional Rugby Players' Association website. Retrieved: April 23, 2008
22. ^ Hertfordshire County Council website, Hertfordshire County Council website. Retrieved: April 26, 2008
23. ^ Team Storm's sponsorship webpage, Team Storm website. Retrieved June 30, 2008.
24. ^ Article describing Team Storm's ambitions to compete in the USA, from the Evening Star (Ipswich), June 13, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2008.
25. ^ Computacenter website. Retrieved June 30, 2008
26. ^ Spring Proms website. Retrieved: April 22, 2008
27. ^ British Legal Awards 2007 website, Incisive Media, organisers of the British Legal Awards, website. Retrieved: April 26, 2008
28. ^ Image of the Team Marcos-Computacenter LM95-002, which ran in the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours race. Retrieved May 10, 2008
29. ^ History of Marcos Cars. Retrieved May 10, 2008
30. ^ Image showing Computacenter's credits for match analysis on UK terrestrial broadcasts. Retrieved May 10, 2008
31. ^ Computacenter website, Six Nations press release. Retrieved May 10, 2008
32. ^ European Tour website. Retrieved May 10, 2008
33. ^ Computacenter plc website Retrieved: March 27, 2009
34. ^ Computacenter plc website. Retrieved March 27, 2009
35. ^ Computacenter Annual report, 2007 (p21). Retrieved July 1, 2008
36. ^ FTSE4Good Index Series webpage, FTSE website. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
37. ^ List of FTSE4Good constituents, as of September 2002, published by the Co-operative Bank. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
38. ^ Computacenter plc Report & Accounts 2007, Corporate Sustainable Development report, page 21
39. ^ Supplier Innovation Awards, November 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2008
40. ^ Computacenter Corporate Sustainable Development, 2007 (p4). Retrieved July 8, 2008
41. ^ computacenter plc website Retrieved March 30, 2009.
42. ^ RDC website. RDC website. Retrieved June 22nd, 2008
43. ^ The Queen's Awards for Enterprise website. The Queen's Awards for Enterprise website. Retrieved June 22, 2008.
44. ^ Channel Business Retrieved March 30, 2009.
45. ^ Computacenter plc website on retirement of Digica brand Retrieved March 30, 2009.
46. ^ Computacenter press release on the acquisition of Allnet from Cable & Wireless. Retrieved June 23, 2008.
47. ^ Computacenter plc Report & Accounts 2007, page 18, 'Acquisitions' paragraph on integration of Allnet Retrieved March 30, 2009
48. ^ Computacenter partners webpage. Retrieved November 16, 2009.