Azzurri cashes in on £3.5m Barrett Steel deal

Comms firm to overhaul steel supplier's networking kit

Azzurri has won a multimillion-pound contract to manage the telecoms and networking estate of UK steel firm Barrett Steel.

Over the next five years, the contract – which is worth £3.5m – will see Azzurri integrate IP telephony and WiFi across Barrett Steel's Bradford headquarters and its 30 regional sites.

The Yorkshire metal firm claims to be the largest independent steel stockholder in the UK, and supplies its wares primarily to the oil and gas, construction, manufacturing and transport industries.

Azzurri says it will be able to provide the firm with the right technology to underpin its customer-communication platforms as well as the bandwidth needed to run its business-critical applications. On top of this, the comms outfit will implement a new local area network with WiFi support and will monitor the services to ensure maximum uptime.

In the future, Barrett Steel hopes to consider the use of extra comms tech such as videoconferencing, which Azzurri claims its technology will be able to support.

The steel firm's managing director James Barret said Azzurri's offering was superior to other offers it received.

"Throughout the re-procurement process, Azzurri clearly demonstrated to me that they were the only service provider able to deliver and manage our entire telecommunications estate with the technical and commercial flexibility that we required," he said.

"We wanted a long-term partner that could deliver all our networking needs within one contractual framework."

Azzurri's managing director Chris Jagusz talked up his firm's ICON platform – which will be behind Barrett Steel's network overhaul.

"I'm delighted that Barrett Steel has entrusted Azzurri with the management of the communications infrastructure that its business depends on," he said.

"Our ICON platform enables us to offer reliable and cost-effective networks that customers can rely on for voice and data communications, in the office, on the move and in the cloud. Because we manage the network and the telecoms supply chain, Barrett Steel can now concentrate on its core business."