Electronic Data Systems Corp’s SD-Scicon has landed facilities management contract worth between UKP3m and UKP4m from Pilkington Plc to run the glass manufacturer’s head office computer services. Under the terms of two year-deal, 37 of Pilkington’s 45 computing staff will join SD-Scicon to form a new systems management division, initially based at the Pilkington Group headquarters site in St Helens, Lancashire. By the end of next March, Pilkington hopes to have waved goodbye to its IBM 4381 mainframe, replacing it with a series of distributed local area networks. The move to outsourcing is part of a long term plan at the glass-maker to devolve responsibility to its operating divisions while reducing the size of its headquarters. While the company is committed to moving payroll, pension, personnel and financial systems from mainframe to local area network, it has yet to finalise details. At present, Pilkington runs PS/2 Model 95s as file servers, under OS/2 and the LAN Server network operating system. However, Tony Rickels, formerly with Pilkington and now head of the new SD-Scicon division, says that should any of the applications require more processing power, RS/6000s under AIX Unix could be an option. But why downsize to a network in the first place? Not just because of the cost, according to Pilkington, but because it offers a flexible approach that mirrors more closely the management’s aspirations.
