BASF outsources to… BASF

BASF IT Services has announced a three-year, £5m contract at BASF plc’s manufacturing facilities in Cheadle, Seal Sands and Cramlington, plus a number of distribution sites. This sees a strengthening of the relationship between BASF and BASF IT Services: the latter currently runs the in-house SAP system, which includes all finance and personnel data, for BASF throughout Europe – encompassing 35,000 users. Within its parent company, BASF IT Services has created “a unified and integrated IT landscape”, installing 31,000 new PCs across the company’s European locations in the space of 13 months. Network capacities have been increased and support services consolidated into one central helpdesk. The number of applications was reduced from around 5,000 to 1,200. BASF plc expects to achieve higher efficiency and still lower costs by almost £1m by working in partnership with BASF IT Services. One example is the renegotiation of BASF’s UK mobile phone contract, which has lowered costs by 40% The new UK contract was awarded by competitive tender. Although 90% of BASF IT’s revenue comes from its parent company aims, it aims to reduce this figure to 80%, according to managing director Uwe Krakau. To help achieve this, UK sales manager Ged Appleby confirmed that the company has a UK primary prospect list of 350 companies, approximately 40% of which are in the chemical sector. BASF IT Services was created as a separate entity in April 2001 While its financial figures are not separated out from those of its parent company, Krakau states that his company has made a profit from the outset.