Outsourcing Contract Extended / AC-Service and ZUVO

SAC-Service (Switzerland) AG and Zustell- und Vertriebsorganisation AG sign an expanded full-outsourcing agreement. Outsourcing Service Center as data hub for over 3,000,000 deliveries a week of such newspapers as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Tages-Anzeiger, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Sunday editions. Expectations on full service outsourcing favourably confirmed.

Stuttgart, Wettingen, 19 April 2006 – The delivery and sales company Zustell- und Vertriebsorganisation AG (ZUVO) in Zärich has renewed and expanded its existing agreement for full outsourcing services with AC-Service (Switzerland) AG of Wettingen. This newly signed contract, to run for a period of five years, includes the planning, provision, operation and management of ZUVO's entire IT landscape. An extensive »data hub« forms the heart of the IT within this joint company of the Neue Zärcher Zeitung AG and Tamedia AG, whose primary business is the early-hour delivery of newspaper subscriptions. The »data hub« has some 70 interfaces to the upstream and downstream IT systems of publishers and sales organisations and supplies the day's latest delivery information. This is the basis for a 2,500-strong team that delivers some 3,000,000 print copies a week of such newspapers as the Neue Zärcher Zeitung, Tages-Anzeiger, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, SonntagsZeitung, NZZ am Sonntag, Sonntags Blick and 17 other media subscriptions throughout the whole of Switzerland. Besides this »data hub«, AC-Service's Outsourcing Service Center also provides the SAP industry solution for media companies (industry solution IS Media), data and FTP servers, as well as an exchange system for eMail communications for the 48 employees of ZUVO AG.

The technical support services for this comprehensive IT landscape include all computer and network resources along with systems and interface management. The service desk at AC-Service also coordinates special Desktop Outsourcing Services. These are also provided by AC-Service, although not from within its Outsourcing Service Center, but on site at ZUVO AG's facilities. These services are based on a wide-ranging IT infrastructure concept that includes the use of local PC systems as a counterpart to the centralised systems within the Outsourcing Service Center. Such systems at ZUVO AG, also known as »fat clients«, are used predominantly for conventional back office tasks.

»Following our initial decision to go with AC-Service some 5 years ago, we have once again chosen AC-Service as a full outsourcing partner and in doing so are underscoring the excellent results in terms of service quality and performance,« summed up ZUVO managing director Christoph Wahl and Anton Widmer, the head of EDP/Services. Daniel Kaiser, the director of AC-Service (Switzerland) AG, sees in ZUVO's renewed decision to call on AC-Service an indication that, »user companies are increasingly relying on fully outsourcing their IT, because even over a long-term perspective, they find their expectations regarding flexibility, controls, cost and performance optimisation, as well as the added value that IT can contribute to the success of the enterprise, being confirmed time and time again«.