Celesio AG, one of Europe’s leading pharmaceutical service providers, has signed a seven-year infrastructure services contract with HP.

Under the agreement, HP will provide standardised services and hardware across Celesio’s 14-country operation. This includes managing Celesio’s data centre environment, including storage and server management for approximately 4,500 servers.

Additionally, HP will manage a full range of network and voice services that connect Celesio’s employees with each other, partners, customers and vendors. HP will also standardise and manage Celesio’s employee computing environment, which includes global helpdesk, end-user support, incident and problem management, as well as asset and change management for 23,000 workplaces in more than 100 locations.

Christian Holzherr, Chief Financial Officer and management board member responsible for Information Technology at Celesio, commented, “A standardised technology infrastructure is critical since we operate in several European markets and cover the entire spectrum of pharmaceutical distribution.”

Under the terms of the agreement, approximately 200 employees will transfer from Celesio to HP.