First phase of Boots' network infrastructure overhaul completed

BT upgrades global IT network for Walgreens Boots Alliance in five-year deal

BT has completed the first phase of a new global IT network for Walgreens Boots Alliance, the parent company of Boots the Chemist.

The network upgrade is part of a recently signed five-year IT partnership between the two companies intended to improve network connections across 3,500 Boots locations, as well as Alliance Healthcare wholesale and distribution sites in Europe and Thailand.

The company is also deploying a range of different network access technologies for Boots' stores across the UK. BT will roll out dedicated fibre Ethernet services to flagship stores, while other Boots stores will use "Ethernet in the first mile" (EFM), via a combination of superfast broadband and copper-based broadband solutions.

The first phase connected Boots sites in the UK and Norway, and BT will also be upgrading the connectivity into the company's data centres, as well as those operated by third parties hosting the company's business applications and data. In addition, BT is also working with Walgreens Boots Alliance to develop and introduce new digital technologies across its businesses.

"This will allow the company to benefit from BT's new 'cloud of clouds' approach to IT, giving it more control over the performance of its cloud-based applications regardless of where they're hosted," claimed BT in a statement.

It continued: "By taking this approach and allowing employees to access these services via a single, managed BT network all the way from the data centre to their devices, Walgreens Boots Alliance will benefit from end-to-end security and reliable applications performance."

Erwin van Vroenhoven, vice president, global IT shared services, Walgreens Boots Alliance, said: "Digital innovation is a key area of investment for our company. Our new IT platform, provided by BT, will help us to further improve the customer experience and our colleagues' productivity, while enabling us to provide innovative services that will help us continue to meet our customers' ever changing health and beauty needs."