CDW and Premier Foods

• Premier Foods has worked with CDW to deploy an adaptable and efficient cloud-native IT infrastructure across its core business
• Manual ticket-raising processes meant that communication between CDW and Premier Foods' service desks was not optimised
• CDW identified and deployed an integration platform that would allow updates to flow seamlessly between the two ticketing systems
• The highly automated solution gives clear visibility of IT fixes, with a feedback loop that has eliminated the risk of missing updates and helped shorten ticket resolution times

Premier Foods plc, established in 1976 is a British food manufacturer and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The group owns and produces many well-known food brands including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Angel Delight, Sharwoods, Lloyd Grossman sauces, Bisto and Batchelors, as well as manufacturing cakes under the Cadbury’s brand by license.

As one of Britain’s largest listed food organisations, it employs over 4,000 people at 15 manufacturing sites and annual turnover of £824.3m.

Premier Foods is a British food manufacturer that owns and produces well-known brands including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Sharwoods and Lloyd Grossman sauces. The organisation wanted to explore alternatives to the existing data centre infrastructure in place for its core business operations, including its subsidiary businesses such as Knighton Foods which specialises in the production of powdered food products.

The primary objective was to implement a more flexible and cost-efficient method for delivering services to its IT users and migration to the public cloud was under consideration.

However, the organisation needed a clear view of available options and associated costs. CDW was selected to investigate potential solutions and deliver a proof of concept for the infrastructure.

“We could see the benefits of public cloud but needed a technology solutions provider who could demonstrate deep technical knowledge, along with a structured approach to migration that would ensure business continuity,” says Gareth Byrne-Perkins, Head of Technology and Services at Premier Foods. “CDW showed that it had a complete understanding of public cloud solutions, combined with a clear roadmap to get us where we needed to be. That provided us with confidence that migration could be performed smoothly without any disruption.”

CDW evaluated the solutions within its partner eco-system and proposed a cloud-native integration software from ONEiO that would sit between CDW’s ISM and Premier Foods’ Freshservice systems – allowing them to communicate more effectively.

The ONEiO toolset was designed to enable IT updates to flow seamlessly and consistently across both systems, stripping out many of the manual processes that had hampered the previous approach. The ONEiO solution came with a ready-made connector for the Premier Foods’ Freshservice deck, meaning that it could be implemented and deployed quickly and efficiently, without the need for additional hardware.

“It was a simple yet elegant solution and was the best fit for the task at hand,” says Jannie Strydom, Principal Cloud Service Delivery Manager at CDW. “We had previously chosen the ONEiO software as the integration platform of choice for our internal systems, so it had been rigorously tested. We could see that it had the potential to remove the manual issues we had been encountering and improve syncing.

It also brought new capabilities such as message store forward – a facility which, in the event of a system outage at the customer’s end, would ensure all messages were saved and then subsequently sent through in transactional order. This feature meant we would never lose any tickets.” For Premier Foods, the adoption of the ONEiO system was managed without the need for downtime.

“In terms of an IT upgrade, it was as simple as anything I’d ever previously seen,” says Paul Stone. “The automation out of CDW's ISM system utilises API calls and a webhook back, these were very quick to set up, test and deploy. We felt comfortable and confident with the project because CDW had already proved the ONEiO solution internally, and it had been shown to work well. CDW’s team operated very collaboratively throughout the integration and deployment process and kept us fully informed with progress being made. As a result, it was very smooth sailing.”

The ONEiO solution has been in place for several months now, and CDW and Premier Foods’ service desks function in a far more streamlined and efficient manner. The highly automated ticket management process gives clear visibility of individual fixes, with the automated feedback loop eliminating the risk of missing updates and helping to shorten ticket resolution times.

“It is so much more efficient now,” says Paul Stone at Premier Foods. “The system is working how CDW said it would at the pre-implementation stage, and we have no issues. Ultimately, it has reduced the amount of time it takes to deal with any IT problems. The elimination of manual processes means our internal IT team is freed up to perform other activities.

The faster response to any issues also means that we can serve our customers more effectively. We have always had a good working relationship with CDW, and the whole project has been a positive experience.” CDW is to continue refining the solution to deliver even greater efficiencies. “We have worked with Premier Foods for a long time, and they are an important customer,” says Jannie Strydom at CDW. “We wanted to go the extra mile and provide a value-added service that would make a real difference.

Now we have cemented our ongoing relationship and are working together more efficiently. The project has been a win-win for both organisations, and we look forward to seeking new opportunities with Premier Foods and delivering new infrastructure across its IT estate.”