urtice-Burns Foods Inc., a maker of salad dressings, snacks, and pie fillings, will sign a 10-year, $50 million IT outsourcing contract this week with Systems and Computer Technology Corp.
As a key part of the arrangement, SCT, an IT services provider and process-manufacturing software developer in Malvern, Pa., is installing Adage, its object-based, Windows NT enterprise resource planning (ERP) application suite. Adage will replace Curtice-Burns' homegrown and other legacy ap
plications, which run on IBM mainframes.
Adage should help the Rochester, N.Y., company reach year 2000 compliance by January 1999, says Curtice-Burns CIO Bob McMahon. Also, the modularity of Adage will give Curtice-Burns the "flexibility to support our changing business," says McMahon, which means acquiring, selling, developing, and diversifying products.
The outsourcing deal calls for approximately 40 Curtice-Burns IT employees-including application developers, network administrators, and help-desk staff-to become SCT personnel.
Curtice-Burns had been evaluating ERP packages since 1995 and chose SCT over more than 40 other contenders, says McMahon. The outsourcing, which accounts for the bulk of the $50 million deal's value, makes this SCT's largest commercial-services contract to date, says SCT director of marketing Kevin Young.
To one outsider, the deal makes a lot of sense. "To meet the challenges of the changing marketplace, increasing numbers of manufacturers are looking to outsource
IT functions to concentrate on core competencies," says Tony Friscia, president of Advanced Manufacturing Research Inc., a consultancy in Boston.
But Curtice-Burns is looking for more than a cheaper way to do IS. "The idea behind this is not so much cost savings," says McMahon. "It enables us to get our technology in line with our business strategy."
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urtice-Burns Foods Inc., a maker of salad dressings, snacks, and pie fillings, will sign a 10-year, $50 million IT outsourcing contract this week with Systems and Computer Technology Corp.
