LONDON -- COLT, a leading European provider of business communications, today announced it has been awarded a seven-year contract to provide Celesio, one of the leading trading companies and service providers within the pharmaceutical market worldwide, with a converged pan-European data and voice network. The value of the contract is several tens of millions of euro.

Under the terms of the contract, COLT takes on the management of the wide area network and delivery of converged IP services, connecting more than 2,500 Celesio locations in 14 countries across Europe. The COLT solution will support Celesio’s pan-European IT infrastructure services.

With COLT, Celesio has a single service provider for both its data and voice services. This enables Celesio to reduce management complexity and to simplify its processes in order to achieve further cost and resource efficiencies. COLT’s extensive network reach and broad portfolio of services meet Celesio’s business needs and provide a complete solution with a single point of contact, delivering easier management and greater efficiencies.

“We’re delighted to be Celesio’s partner of choice for data and voice services to simplify its network and IT services”, said Detlef Spang, Managing Director, Major Enterprise, COLT. “Our unrivalled European network and acknowledged expertise in providing business communications to organisations across the continent enabled us to meet Celesio’s business needs and design a solution that fully meets their challenging requirements.”

Colt Technology Services Group Ltd