B.I.C. Systems to provide global technical support for Elan

B.I.C. Systems, a leading technology solutions provider, has won a worldwide project with pharmaceutical giant Elan to provide technical support for all elements of the company's global business critical applications that are run on SAP technologies.

The project is aimed at supporting the functions of more than 1,700 SAP technology users in Elan across a number of sites worldwide, in Ireland, Europe and the US.

B.I.C. Systems was selected by Elan, following a competitive tender process, to provide high level technical support for the company's business critical applications that are run on SAP technology.

Under the terms of the project, B.I.C. Systems has provided Elan with access to the full range of its managed services expertise. The technical support function is to be implemented through B.I.C. Systems network operation centres in both Belfast and Dublin.

The project will involve the provision of technical support to almost 1,000 users of the SAP R/3 system and about 700 users of Enterprise Buyer Professional, a SAP solution used in the procurement function. The users are located at a number of sites worldwide, in Ireland, the US, the UK, France, Spain and Germany.

The solution designed by B.I.C. Systems is also aimed at supporting users across several business functions, including finance, human resources, quality and project management, research and development, finance and supply chain management.

The B.I.C. Systems network operations centres use leading edge processes, tools and software to provide managed services to a wide portfolio of clients in Ireland and the UK, which currently includes Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) and Salisbury District Council in the UK and the Department of Environment in Northern Ireland.

The key elements of the solution that is to be provided by B.I.C. Systems are a permanently manned managed service helpdesk, a team of highly trained support personnel and technical support on hardware, operating systems and databases.

The solution also involves the provision of leading edge application management software and a support management team to deliver trend analysis and statistics on the performance of the various technology systems.

B.I.C. Systems was chosen for the project due to its expertise in the area of SAP technical support, implementations and upgrades. In a previous project, the company provided technical support for Elan's e-commerce supplier portal, which also runs on SAP technologies.

The crucial benefit of the project for Elan is the guarantee that its critical technology applications, which are one of the main vehicles for the company's growth and development, are supported on an ongoing, 24/7 basis by B.I.C. Systems.

Ed Vernon, Group Managing Director, B.I.C. Systems, said: "This is one of the most far-reaching and business critical projects won by B.I.C. Systems. This project involves ensuring the integrity and quality of a range of technical systems for one of this country's leading corporations. We are looking forward to working in close partnership with Elan to help the company use our technology expertise to achieve its business objectives".

Nick Keenan, ERP support manager, Élan, said: "Élan's preferred partnership with B.I.C. Systems in the arena of outsourced managed services is critical to the management and support of our global ERP Systems. B.I.C. Systems has provided Elan with the necessary core competencies design, implementation and support the technology systems that are critical to our business objectives".

(SP)