Steel WAN

Steel giant, ArcelorMittal has signed a massive contract with BT to serve its wide area network needs worldwide. ComputerWorldUK has the details:

ArcelorMittal has signed a £13.9m global network services agreement with BT covering its wide area network services at 700 sites spread across 40 countries worldwide.

The deal forms part of the steel giant’s IT consolidation and standardisation strategy, which was put in place after the merger of Arcelor and Mittal towards the end of 2006.

The contract gives BT first and last refusal for any additional sites to be added to the network. It also paves the way for BT and ArcelorMittal to work together to deliver other forms of networked IT, such as VoIP and local area network services.

Under the deal, BT will install a "highly resilient" IP network to connect ArcelorMittal’s sites across the world. The network should be a key enabler for the firm’s global IT plan to optimise its production capability by moving work orders more efficiently around the world. It is also being touted as enabling global shared services for functions like HR.

According to EFY, the contract "comprises WAN-services such as MPLS (multi-protocol label switching), VSAT (very small aperture terminal), xDSL (digital subscriber line) and IPsec, a suite of protocols for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications." This may lead to BT’s deployment of VoIP and LAN services for ArcelorMittal, as well.

For a company that isn’t very well known by an average Joe, ArcelorMittal is HUGE: It’s the world’s largest steel company, with 320,000 employees in more than 60 countries. Its 2006 revenues exceeded $88 billion. Not surprisingly, its IT needs are similarly large — its IT annual budget is £355.

Without even a dose of modesty, ArcelorMittal has a video series covering the 2006 merger of Arcelor and Mittal Steel (or as they put it, "the creation of one of the greatest companies in the world.").

This climb in the steel market hasn’t been an overnight surge. ArcelorMittal started out as Societe Anonyme des Hauts Fourneaux et Forge de Dudelange in Luxembourg in 1882 — that’s 22 years before U.S. Steel formed.

Also with a base in Luxembourg is SES, which may end up playing a roll in providing satcom capacity for this contract.