Press Release
Salmon win significant Application Management and Support Contract with ICI Paints
5 September 2007
Salmon, specialists in delivering IT solutions
today announced they have been awarded a further two year Application
Management and Support contract extension to support, maintain and
tactically develop ICI Paints 27 European consumer facing websites.
Brand websites that the contract covers include Dulux, ICI Paints,
Julien Peintures, Dulux Decorator Centre, Hammerite and Cuprinol.
As ICI Paints' European Regional Systems Integrator since 2003, Salmon
has developed a close working partnership with ICI, helping them
develop the Internet as a consumer marketing and service channel. The
partnership centres on Salmon helping ICI Paints ensure their branded
websites reflect their leadership position, as well as providing
customers with the optimum online service.
Under the terms of the new contract, Salmon continue to be responsible
for the day-to-day operation of the 27 websites, providing a portfolio
of services to ensure they remain operational and performant.
Salmon are responsible for ongoing development work and operational
support and management of ICI Paints European Internet platform. Salmon
will maintain the IBMIHS Web Server, IBM WebSphere Application Server,
IBM WebSphere Commerce Express Server and DB2 Server running on a SUSE
Linux operating system.
Salmon will manage upgrades, carry out maintenance work, propose and
apply performance monitoring, tuning and archiving activities, manage
user ID's and perform updates to directory structures.
Operational processes are also managed by Salmon, who perform a nightly
batch process to load data extracted from the Dulux Decorator Centre
business into ICI Paints database, to guarantee core products are in
stock and available for purchase. Salmon also maintains the test
environment ensuring all data, content and code is up to date. Monthly
database and capacity monitoring reports are also provided to ICI
Paints management team. Jo Upton, E-Business Manager for UK &
Ireland business of ICI Paints said, "Over the past four years Salmon
and our in-house web team have worked closely to develop a support
structure which benefits both parties. Together we have defined and
developed the technology that underpins the 27 branded websites. Salmon
have provided operational support and maintenance and additional
development expertise. We look forward to working with them in the
future."
Jeff Leaver, Chief Operations Officer at Salmon said, "It is essential
that ICI Paints websites are robust, scalable and intuitive in order to
meet spikes due to seasonal demand and TV advertising campaigns. By
outsourcing Application Management and Support tasks to Salmon, ICI
have been able to focus their attention in the core areas of their
business."
Under the service level agreements set out in the contract, low level
incidents are dealt with in an initial response time of two days.
Emergency level incidents are serviced within 1 hour. Salmon must also
meet a minimum target of 99.00% site availability.
Salmon's Application Management and Support team will provide specialist skills in the following areas:
* Code installation and configuration * Apache Lucene * J2EE, Java and
Java Script * EJB, JSP, HTML, XML * IBM WebSphere Commerce * IBM
WebSphere Application Server * Database Administration * SUSE Linux
Salmon provides a number of customers with Application Management and
Support services including: Argos, Halfords, Novae, and WR Berkley.
Customers can select from a number of models to support their business,
ranging from Salmon's 'Platinum', 'Extended' and 'Standard' services.
In addition, fully bespoke offerings are available.
About ICI Paints
ICI Paints produces some of the world's top paint and
decorative product brands. Their aim is to inspire consumers to
transform their surroundings with performance products and colour. ICI
Paints makes products to prepare and care for all building materials,
and also provide coatings for cans and packaging. The critical success
factors of growth for ICI Paints are the deployment of new technology,
innovation and the successful marketing and promotion of their key
brands.