A couple of years back I was in Italy to join our new customer Danieli as the leadership team signed a contract with AT&T to deliver their digital transformation agenda.
Digital transformation is a phrase you hear a lot, so let me set out what it means for Danieli and how the decision and investment is paying dividends in a world dominated by COVID-19.
Danieli supplies equipment and physical manufacturing plants to the metal industry around the world. And while that might be viewed as a traditional industry, the management team wanted their business to be viewed as a technology leader: a company embracing innovation to benefit employees and customers.
Over the past 18 months our team has been deploying a new managed global network, connecting their sites across Asia, Europe and the US, including the headquarters in Buttrio, north-east Italy.
The key aspects from the transformation? Cost-effectiveness of the network services and related security technologies and equipment, and agility.
So, when lockdown came, their investment came to the fore as they were able to send their teams to work from home and stay connected in a fast, highly secure way.
CIO Massimiliano Cappa says the decision made back in 2018 is paying dividends.
He told me: “In 48 hours we were able to configure security network components for about 500 workstations in Italy, and after for more around the world, moving them from traditional working using only a local area network to working from home, supporting the continuity of our operations.
“The scalability of network equipment driven by software also allowed us to make the necessary changes in outbound and inbound traffic to meet our remote working needs.”
Our ability to articulate the business benefits of a technology transformation to Danieli is reflected in Massimiliano’s thoughts around why other business should now, more than ever, be looking to make the investment in a modern, software-driven IT infrastructure.
His message to peers in business is clear: “Inspire your company transformation through a powerful mix of solutions and services and find the best partners that can provide not only advanced technologies but capacity to deliver and support your Company in shaping the future.”
At the heart of that solution for Danieli is AT&T FlexWareTM, our leading intelligent edge solution. We are using our expertise, global scale and vision to bring together innovative networking solutions such as AT&T FlexWare, network function virtualization, SD-WAN and VPN in a highly secure environment.
Another benefit of AT&T FlexWare is the path it lays for Danieli to use an SD-WAN networking environment. SD-WAN helps companies improve their application performance and control costs. Think of it as the network glue that binds devices, sensors, applications, clouds and end users.
My message to Massimiliano: At AT&T we are committed to supporting your Digital Strategy in the coming years. A special thanks to the Danieli’s ICT Team, particularly Paolo Nova, Sandy Kogoj, Federico Taverna and Nicola Businaro, plus everyone else who worked with us to shape and implement this first stage of transformation.
SD-WAN is the next big step for enterprise networks and it helps businesses make the best use of their WAN connections. If you would like to talk about how AT&T can enable your digital transformation, drop me a direct message and I’d be delighted to follow-up and have the conversation
