As part of a strategic review of its global infrastructure, SABMiller has awarded Telefonica the contract to provide its regional telecommunications network in Latin America, as a result of which Telefonica is now SABMiller’s main provider of telecoms services in that region.

Under this new five-year agreement, Telefonica will transition and transform SABMiller’s regional network and telecoms services during the life of the contract, delivering a new network that will provide telecommunications for approximately 18,500 SABMiller end-users across 220 sites in 8 countries – Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Peru and USA.

Telefonica will increase the efficiency of traffic supported on available bandwidth while reducing SABMiller’s total cost of ownership. SABMiller will also benefit from outstanding network quality, asset transformation and service during the term of the contract through the delivery of regional WAN, LAN, WLAN and Security Management service lines, supported by Telefonica’s in-region specialist transition and service delivery teams.

Removing the complexity from global communications means that SABMiller will benefit from a central service management function provided by Telefonica’s Service Management Centre in Sao Paulo. This centre, operating in 3 languages, will act as a single point of contact and will provide the full service proposition for SABMiller throughout the Americas region.

Telefonica’s global reach and local presence results in a comprehensive operational model coordinated by the global account team, which will provide the on-the-ground support to SABMiller’s operations in the Americas aligned to SABMiller’s global service delivery and governance model.

“At SABMiller we are globally integrating our business, and as a result we are ensuring our technology is "fit for purpose’ and ‘value for money". We have decided to implement a multi-vendor global data network. Telefonica is a well-positioned partner for our technology infrastructure in Latin America and core services, offering us the capabilities we require from a world-class network, and capable of supporting SABMiller’s future growth,” said Peter Brickley, SABMiller’s Global CIO.

“We are delighted to have secured this important agreement with SABMiller and are proud to undertake the transformation of their network infrastructure to maximise performance across their business in Latin America. Our combined global and local expertise and capabilities will enable us to keep SABMiller connected to what matters most to their business, while simplifying the complexity of their regional operations” said Jose L. Gamo, CEO Telefonica Global Solutions, Multinationals Business Unit.