AT&T* is delivering a global software defined network for UDG Healthcare plc and its operating companies around the world through AT&T SD-WAN with Cisco. The managed solution will allow UDG Healthcare’s teams to react more quickly to business demands in their supply chain and provide a better end user experience wherever they are working.

UDG Healthcare delivers advisory, communication, commercial, clinical and packaging services to the healthcare industry across two main divisions, Ashfield and Sharp. The group recognised the need for a more consistent and highly reliable IT service across its 8,200 employees, as well as delivering a better customer experience for its clients.

AT&T will deploy and manage Cisco Viptela SD-WAN architecture to provide UDG Healthcare with near real-time visibility into its network assets. The solution will also improve access to business benefits driven by the cloud. Accurate network sizing will remove or minimise ongoing operational wastage and drive greater efficiency.

“UDG Healthcare saw an opportunity to deliver a more seamless experience across its network, covering its employee end users and the customers it serves around the world,” said John Vladimir Slamecka, EMEA region president, AT&T.

“Technology deployments are increasingly seen as a way of driving greater efficiency and value by our customers. Our track record across EMEA and around the world is built on advising and guiding businesses through the complexity that surrounds modern communications solutions, and I am delighted UDG Healthcare is trusting us to deliver highly secure SD-WAN services for them.”

“We have separate, but in many ways complementary, businesses operating in the healthcare sector, and having a common approach to technology across both will deliver a more efficient, highly reliable service,” said Mike McGrath, Global Head of Information Technology at UDG Healthcare.

“AT&T’s approach to our challenges was to first understand where we were, and where we wanted to be. Only then did the discussion shift to the ‘how and what.’ The solution they are delivering is matched to our needs and the needs of our customers and suppliers.”