DHL Plans New U.S. Telecommunications Initiative

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Jul 29, 2009 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) Deutsche Post DHL, a logistics provider, announced the signing of a five-year agreement with AT&T to provide telecommunications services to Deutsche Post DHL businesses in the United States and Puerto Rico.

According to officials, the agreement is part of a Deutsche Post DHL group initiative to realize opportunities for service enhancement in the provision of telephony and networking services.

"The opportunities for reducing telecoms costs while improving service and network performance are significant," said Stephen McGuckin, managing director of IT services at Deutsche Post DHL. "This initiative will help us pave the way for more cost efficiency throughout our U.S. operations and provide a next generation platform to transform and enhance our network services in the U.S. over the next five years."

The new contract with AT&T covers Deutsche Post DHL's Express, DHL Supply Chain, Global Forwarding, and Global Business Services divisions in the U.S. The service is expected to go live by late 2009.

Through telecommunications agreements with providers in the U.S. and Europe, Deutsche Post DHL is expected to save more than 170 million euros over five years. Related programs focused on rationalizing, harmonizing, and improving inter-operability of telecoms services across business units are also underway in DP DHL's Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets regions and throughout the Americas. These are expected to lead to significant additional cost savings in 2009.

"We're focused on helping DP DHL achieve its business and cost-cutting goals while enhancing its telecommunications network," said John Finnegan, senior vice president of signature and global client groups at AT&T. "We're confident in our ability to facilitate increased network manageability and performance while providing DP DHL network flexibility and cost efficiency."

In scope of the agreement are the latest telecoms technologies and services including wide-area network (WAN) services, local-area network (LAN) and wireless LAN services, mobile voice and data services, network security and service management.