Infonet Heads Nalco’s Global Network Expansion

Infonet Services Corp., a provider of global communications services for multinationals, announced a global network expansion for Nalco Chemical Co., a provider of water treatment and process chemicals. Infonet designed and installed a managed intranet service linking more than 30 sites globally for Nalco, integrating the communications of recently merged group businesses, improving internal and external communications efficiency, and reducing administrative costs through centralizing Nalco's European data function at one location. Nalco's internationally integrated supply chain for its water treatment and lubricant products demands 100 percent availability of its purchasing, shipping, manufacturing, accounts and overall supply chain management systems over the network. Nalco runs its entire European operation over Infonet's backbone and Infonet provides ISDN backup for all critical local loop connections. "The acquisition of the Nalco, Calgon and Aquazur companies by Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux under the Nalco name called for a more powerful and tightly managed data infrastructure," said Rachel Grundy, European Data Centre Manager for Nalco Europe. "The centralized responsibility for managing this new infrastructure has fallen to Nalco so that we now support a communications backbone for over 20 sites in Europe, and a further 10 in the rest of the world. To support this combination of applications, Infonet designed and built a customized Global Intranet service offering a secure, reliable and fast global network which met these varying demands while delivering greater operational efficiency through lower cost intranet/extranet connections. Infonet's services also provide the high performance levels required for end-user access to web-based extranet information globally. (Source: Infonet Services Corp.)