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Electrocomponents selects Colt's consultancy competence to advise on its IT strategy

<04 March 2010> Colt, a leading provider of business communications and IT managed services, today announced that Electrocomponents, a leading distributor of electronic, electrical and industrial components, selected Colt’s consultancy offering to help assess its future computing needs. Under the partnership, Colt has worked with Electrocomponents to facilitate a better understanding of its application landscape and interdependences and through its findings has suggested a range of solutions to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Electrocomponents has seen a rapid increase of business through its advanced e-commerce offering and this has resulted in a greater demand for flexibility and scalability within the business. Colt has undertaken a cloud audit that looks at cloud and utility computing to identify a programme that will best optimise resources. Colt’s consultants, industry leading experts at the cutting edge of theory and practice, provided Electrocomponents with an objective view of the approach that will be most effective in driving their business forward. Colt has drawn its conclusions based on an analysis of the company’s business model, computing environment and business applications.

Chris Warburton, Platform Practice Manager at Electrocomponents said: “We have been examining our ongoing Data Centre requirements and discussed this with Colt, our long term supplier of co-location services, who were also able to provide vendor-agnostic consultancy across IT utility based services. The consultants have not evolved from a sales background – they are experts in their field and this was an important factor for us. They provided us with an unbiased view on how our business could benefit from new cloud technologies. By working with Colt we benefited from first-class expertise and guidance from a partner we can trust.”

Maggy McClelland, Managing Director of Colt Managed Services said: “Colt is able to offer organisations objective advice to help inform and support their IT decision making process. We believe that an audit, executed by a trusted team, should be the first step of any IT strategy review. IT is seen as a crucial component to the success of businesses emerging from the recession ready for growth – and getting the right combination of solutions will be key.”

Colt’s consultancy services ensure that organisations benefit from industry leading expertise. The team advises organisations across all sectors, informing the decision making on IT sourcing strategies, transformational programmes that move infrastructures from basic to more dynamic maturity levels, and the best ways to align business with an appropriate and cost effective approach to Risk Management and IT Governance. The Colt consultancy team provides independent advice, and delivers a complete service from design to project and service management.

Colt’s consultants provide a range of audit services including: Cloud Audit, Grid Audit, Data Centre Audit, Green CRC Audit (UK), and Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Audit.
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“About Colt
Colt is Europe’s leading information delivery platform, enabling its customers to share, process and store their vital business information.  Colt is an established leader in delivering business voice, data and IT managed services to major and midsized businesses and wholesale customers. COLT operates a 13-country, 25,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 34 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 16,000 buildings and 19 COLT data centres. 

Colt is listed on the London Stock Exchange (COLT). Information about Colt and its services can be found at www.colt.net.”

Please also be aware that we Juergen Broemmer who is head of the Consultancy team is available to take interviews in English and German. Please e-mail all requests (to include a journalist and publication biography) to the Grayling Central team for coordination.

About Electrocomponents plc
Electrocomponents plc is one of the largest global catalogue and web-based distributors of electronic, electro-mechanical and industrial components.

Operating under the trading brands of RS Components, Radiospares, Radionics and Allied Electronics in the U.S., the Group serves nearly 1.6 million customers in over 80 countries worldwide.  Through operations in 27 countries and 16 warehouses, RS distributes 500,000 products from over 2,500 suppliers.

The Group has an annual turnover of over £974 million and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

For more details on the Group please visit the corporate website (www.electrocomponents.com).

For more information, please contact:
Press contacts
Henny Valder
Colt
DDI: 0207 947 1610
Email: henny.valder@colt.net

Laura Lynne
Grayling
DDI : 0207 592 7922
Email : laura.lynne@grayling.com

Industry analysts’ contact
Helen Toft
Octopus
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Mobile: +44 (0) 7989 420445
Email: ColtAR@octopuscomms.net

Analysts/investors’ contact
Gill Maclean
Colt
DDI: + 44 (0)20 7947 5314
Email: pr@colt.net