Worldwide Fruit - one of the UK's largest fruit marketing and distributing companies - has signed a new contract with incumbent IT outsourcers, Quiss Technology, ensuring it remains at the forefront of technology.

The new six-figure contract includes the use of virtualisation technology which will significantly reduce the number of servers required for Worldwide Fruit's global business operations. As a leading supplier of apples and pears to UK multiple retailers, the company relies heavily on efficient IT systems to ensure the smooth transition from orchard to shop. More than 100 UK growers need to be able to access Worldwide Fruit's servers so efficiency and accessibility are key requirements for the company's IT systems.

Driven by company growth, Worldwide Fruit's new IT infrastructure supports the firm's corporate social responsibility commitments. With the new servers consuming less power than their predecessors as well as using less energy to maintain the optimum temperature of the server room, the new system is substantially greener than before. The combined power of the new servers, workstations and screens offer an estimated 20% reduction in power usage.

"Worldwide Fruit ensures the supply of apples, pears, avocados and dates 365 days of the year, so we're a 24/7 operation," said Gordon Clark, Finance Director of the business. "The way we operate means our IT supplier must work in very close collaboration with Prophet who supply us with software designed specifically for the fresh produce market. Quiss had already proved it can work well in tandem with our providers - in fact, I can say that the improved efficiency we enjoy thanks to our partnership with Quiss and Prophet has been an important factor which has led to a 1% increase to our bottom line. Our existing relationship with Quiss was also a key factor in our decision. Over the last seven years, Quiss has demonstrated a thorough understanding of our business and the processes required to keep us in our market-leading position."

Quiss started work with Worldwide Fruit back in 2004. During this time, the Tamworth headquartered-IT outsourcer has played a pivotal role in Worldwide Fruit office moves at Spalding, Whitstable and Chartham, as well as upgrading and maintaining all the IT systems, changing business applications and deploying wireless connectivity in the fruit distributor's warehouse.

Gordon continues: "The Quiss team proved it could handle the continued expansion of our business - and we have planned an increase of 30% in our computer capacity in the new contract. The new contract was made even more attractive by the fact it's all encompassing so there are no limits to the amount of calls we make to the helpdesk, or the number of callouts we request. This means we don't have to keep track or worry if something else comes up - and of course it means there are no hidden costs. Other IT outsourcers we met with would only offer a limited package which would have led to additional costs further down the line."

The latest contract also includes the provision for business continuity. The methodology adopted by Quiss ensures that any physical or virtual server failure will be automatically corrected by the software and in the event of a power failure, available standby time is now greatly enhanced. The installation of the latest technology ensures high availability disaster recovery.

"Our recent profitability growth means we have also been able to invest more in the equipment used by our staff," adds Gordon. "Office 2010 means multiple users can work on the same document at the same time to respond faster and meet deadlines. The new laptops also have in-built provision for encryption which offers enhanced security."

Clive Taylor, Operations Director at Quiss said: "After seven years of working with Worldwide Fruit, and its staff, our knowledge not only extends to the IT systems but also into the way that Worldwide Fruit works as a business and its growth aspirations. This knowledge has been acquired by people at all levels within Quiss, ensuring that we deliver a consistently high level of service.

"This contract underlines our growing presence in the Lincolnshire area - supported by our recent outsourced contract win with Spalding based Roythornes Solicitors."