Sun Microsystems and its partner Horizon Open Systems (HOS) have completed a multimillion euro contract for hardware, software and services with Ingersoll-Rand International. The project is said to be one of the biggest IT deals in Ireland this year.
The agreement follows a competitive tender process which included several other significant bidders.
Sun Microsystems and HOS’ professional services team jointly implemented the infrastructure elements of the project, providing a large cluster of Sun enterprise servers to run Ingersoll-Rand’s mission-critical business applications – financial, supply chain management and order management systems – on a round-the-clock basis.
The new project lets Ingersoll-Rand identify and take cross-selling opportunities across all business service units with one integrated system, in addition to allowing customers to order products via the internet. The system will also enable Ingersoll-Rand to develop after-sales servicing opportunities and to gain knowledge of customer requirements not possible under the current architecture.
According to Thomas Walsh, technology services manager with Ingersoll-Rand International, the company intends to channel all business through its Dublin-based sales and services company; some US$3bn worth of transactions over the next few years.
Sun supplied a SunFire 15K as the main production platform and a SunFire 6800 for disaster recovery. A number of Sun workgroup servers are used in the architecture which is designed to be resilient.
By Gordon Smith
