Ontario’s main beer retailer, The Beer Store, is outsourcing its information technology support work and transferring nearly 15 employees to CGI Group Inc.
The agreement also encompasses infrastructure services for Brewers Distributor Ltd., a wholesale distributor of beer and the collector of returnable, refillable and recyclable beer containers in Western Canada, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
The move saves the company hundreds of thousand of dollars in costs to upgrade its IT offering.
“We’ve been faced with the reality that we have to invest a bunch of money in our existing data centre in Toronto and we’re reluctant to do that,” John Melodysta, chief information officer for The Beer Store, said in an interview from Toronto.
The exact value of the seven-year agreement was not provided but Melodysta said it ranged between $10 million and $20 million.
The decision also allows the non-unionized workers to transfer to a Canadian IT leader.
“For the employees involved it takes technical people and gives them the opportunity to work for a technology company rather than a beer distribution company,” he said.
CGI’s infrastructure will provide The Beer Store with an enlarge help desk and around-the-clock service instead of requiring its computer experts to carry pagers at night.
Mike Sagat, CGI’s account executive for The Beer Store, said the contract aligns well with its other clients of similar size and scope, for which it has invested to tailor its services.
“It was kind of hitting our industrial sweet spot which we found very compelling,” he added.
CGI has 3,300 people working at various offices in its industrial management services operations.
Montreal-based CGI beat out two other competitors. Price was just one factor considered by The Beer Store.
CGI and its affiliated companies employ 26,000 professionals around the world. It had $3.8 billion in revenues in 2009.
Established in 1927, The Beer Store and its 438 stores sell 85 per cent of the beer in Ontario. It also supplies imported and domestic beer to more than 16,000 bars and restaurants and delivers domestic beer to 604 Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) stores.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange, CGI shares closed up six cents at $15.92 in Wednesday trading.
Source:http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/sci_tech/cgi-wins-multimillion–dollar-it-outsourcing-contract-with-the-beer-store-97939114.html
