BT wins five-year Debenhams WAN contract

Retail giant chooses BT Global Services to upgrade store, distribution centre and datacentre networks

Debenhams to get 'up to 16 times' better network performance, according to BT

BT Global Services has won a five-year contract from department store chain Debenhams to upgrade its network infrastructure.

The new network, which will connect 159 stores, distribution centres and datacentres, will deliver a 16-fold increase in performance, according to BT.

A spokesman for BT declined to give an exact figure for the deal, but the deal was speculated to be in the region of "tens of millions".

Steve Kircher, IT director at Debenhams, said: “By future-proofing and closely monitoring our IT networks, we'll be able to stay ahead of competition and be ready to roll out new applications in line with business requirements.”

As well as a WAN upgrade, BT will provide network management tools that it said would help Debenhams to safeguard the performance of its tills, supply chain systems and transactional databases.

Debenhams will use BT's managed security monitoring service, Counterpane, to deal with any software vulnerabilities, threats and malicious attacks.

BT will also deploy its Application Optimisation Service, allowing Debenhams to monitor the performance of applications on the network, prioritising those that need higher performance.

BT already provides telephony services and the IP Clear network access service to the retailer.