Lego Company And IBM Team To Build On Demand Computing Infrastructure
Denmark and London, UK, 11th August, 2003 . . . IBM today announced a major
deal with the LEGO Company, the Danish-based leading manufacturer of play
materials. Central to the deal is IBM's e-business on demand capabilities
that will allow the company to significantly reduce the cost of running
their IT-infrastructure. This will allow the company to reinvested savings
into new projects, such as, customer relationship management (CRM),
bringing them closer to their customers and further driving success.
The deal, which is one of the first full scale global e-business on demand infrastructure solutions from IBM, represents a decision for the LEGO Company to work with a global IT partner who could offer a variable cost structure for their IT solution. The company wanted a global IT usage model that allows them to only pay for what they use. At the same time, LEGO wanted the flexibility to adjust their IT capacity needs to cope with seasonal peaks in business demand.
To do this the LEGO company consolidated its IT platform from over 230 severs from Hewlett Packard to a fully integrated, open infrastructure using IBM's leading Unix eServer pSeries p690 (2) and p650 (4), eServer xSeries x440 (24) and IBM Shark Storage SAN servers (4). The deal also includes Tivoli Storage Manager software.
The IBM solution not only reduced the total amount of servers by a factor of seven but significantly provided new levels of business flexibility by allowing dynamic addition and reallocation of processing and storage capacity according to varying business volumes and priorities. The LEGO Company was able to purchase fully configured server and storage systems at a fraction of the total cost and have the opportunity to turn on additional capacity when required, but, equally important, be able to turn off capacity again. This offering is part of IBM's popular "pay as you grow" strategy.
"We are operating in a very competitive environment and need to respond to the dynamics of our market at a moment's notice," said Hal Yarbrough, senior director, LEGO Global IT. "The IBM solution allowed us to drastically reduce the number of servers and storage units we have across the business, which is clearly a positive benefit. However, the key reason for going with IBM was the flexibility their solution offered. IBM was able to provide an on-demand solution that matched our business needs for a cohesive, worldwide IT infrastructure that adapts itself to our very cyclical business and need for rapid introduction of new products".
The LEGO Company, the only European manufacturer listed in the world's top ten best selling toys, is competing in an incredibly dynamic market place where demand for its products widely fluctuates impacted by seasonal peaks such as the pre-Christmas purchasing rush and large scale marketing thrusts. The new flexible solution will allow the Company to more easily set up pilot projects and test their viability, without major investments in new systems.
"We are very excited to work with the LEGO Company and see this as a great milestone in our mission to deliver e-business on demand solutions to our customers. Our commitment to the LEGO Company is to enable them to get a competitive advantage in the market by delivering a solution that took their infrastructure to new levels of integration and productivity by delivering computing power as and when their business demanded it" said Lars Stanley Nielsen, Director of Systems Sales, IBM Nordic.
The LEGO Company
LEGO Company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials for children. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, CEO and president, is third generation of the family-owned company. The LEGO Company is committed to the development of children's creative and imaginative abilities, and its employees are guided by the motto adopted in the 1930's by the founder Ole Kirk Christiansen: "Only the best is good enough". The name "LEGO" derives from the Danish expression for Play Well (LEg GOdt). Visit: HYPERLINK "http://www.LEGO.com/info"www.LEGO.com/info
LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the LEGO Group. ~ 2003 The LEGO Group.
About IBM
International Business Machines Corporation, head quartered in Armonk, N.Y., is the world's largest information technology company. IBM is the biggest provider of IT services ($36B), hardware ($27B) and rental and financing ($3B). The company has approximately 325,000 employees and conducts business in 170 countries. 2002 revenues were $81 billion.
The IBM eServer and TotalStorage brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with the following descriptive term "server" following it. The following are either trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both: IBM, the IBM e-business logo, pSeries, xSeries and TotalStoragetalStorage. All others are trademarks or registered trademarks are of their respective companies.
The deal, which is one of the first full scale global e-business on demand infrastructure solutions from IBM, represents a decision for the LEGO Company to work with a global IT partner who could offer a variable cost structure for their IT solution. The company wanted a global IT usage model that allows them to only pay for what they use. At the same time, LEGO wanted the flexibility to adjust their IT capacity needs to cope with seasonal peaks in business demand.
To do this the LEGO company consolidated its IT platform from over 230 severs from Hewlett Packard to a fully integrated, open infrastructure using IBM's leading Unix eServer pSeries p690 (2) and p650 (4), eServer xSeries x440 (24) and IBM Shark Storage SAN servers (4). The deal also includes Tivoli Storage Manager software.
The IBM solution not only reduced the total amount of servers by a factor of seven but significantly provided new levels of business flexibility by allowing dynamic addition and reallocation of processing and storage capacity according to varying business volumes and priorities. The LEGO Company was able to purchase fully configured server and storage systems at a fraction of the total cost and have the opportunity to turn on additional capacity when required, but, equally important, be able to turn off capacity again. This offering is part of IBM's popular "pay as you grow" strategy.
"We are operating in a very competitive environment and need to respond to the dynamics of our market at a moment's notice," said Hal Yarbrough, senior director, LEGO Global IT. "The IBM solution allowed us to drastically reduce the number of servers and storage units we have across the business, which is clearly a positive benefit. However, the key reason for going with IBM was the flexibility their solution offered. IBM was able to provide an on-demand solution that matched our business needs for a cohesive, worldwide IT infrastructure that adapts itself to our very cyclical business and need for rapid introduction of new products".
The LEGO Company, the only European manufacturer listed in the world's top ten best selling toys, is competing in an incredibly dynamic market place where demand for its products widely fluctuates impacted by seasonal peaks such as the pre-Christmas purchasing rush and large scale marketing thrusts. The new flexible solution will allow the Company to more easily set up pilot projects and test their viability, without major investments in new systems.
"We are very excited to work with the LEGO Company and see this as a great milestone in our mission to deliver e-business on demand solutions to our customers. Our commitment to the LEGO Company is to enable them to get a competitive advantage in the market by delivering a solution that took their infrastructure to new levels of integration and productivity by delivering computing power as and when their business demanded it" said Lars Stanley Nielsen, Director of Systems Sales, IBM Nordic.
The LEGO Company
LEGO Company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials for children. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, CEO and president, is third generation of the family-owned company. The LEGO Company is committed to the development of children's creative and imaginative abilities, and its employees are guided by the motto adopted in the 1930's by the founder Ole Kirk Christiansen: "Only the best is good enough". The name "LEGO" derives from the Danish expression for Play Well (LEg GOdt). Visit: HYPERLINK "http://www.LEGO.com/info"www.LEGO.com/info
LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the LEGO Group. ~ 2003 The LEGO Group.
About IBM
International Business Machines Corporation, head quartered in Armonk, N.Y., is the world's largest information technology company. IBM is the biggest provider of IT services ($36B), hardware ($27B) and rental and financing ($3B). The company has approximately 325,000 employees and conducts business in 170 countries. 2002 revenues were $81 billion.
The IBM eServer and TotalStorage brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with the following descriptive term "server" following it. The following are either trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both: IBM, the IBM e-business logo, pSeries, xSeries and TotalStoragetalStorage. All others are trademarks or registered trademarks are of their respective companies.