Citrix Systems, Inc., the global leader in access infrastructure solutions, has announced that San Miguel Corporation (SMC), the largest food, beverage and packaging conglomerate in Philippines, will be extending its deployment of Citrix access infrastructure software solutions to support its Feeds

SMC has 94 production facilities distributed throughout the Philippines and 19 facilities overseas. Of these, the companyEs subsidiary San Miguel Foods Inc. has three poultry processing plants, one poultry breeding farm, three hatcheries, seven feed mill plants and two flour mill plants.

The Feeds Group will be implementing Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server to enable its users across disparate geographical locations to gain low-cost and high-performance access to its Brill Feed Formulation software. Centrally installed at SMCEs Metro Manila facility, the Brill Feed Formulation is a third-party application that is used by SMC and other companies in the livestock industry to create, formulate and order nutritional feed products.

Elaborated Gilbert Chua, IT applications specialist at SMITS, the IT subsidiary of SMC, "It is one thing to have a best-in-class feed management software producing high-quality formula items at the lowest cost, but it is another challenge in having the same formula and item consistently produced at all of SMCEs feed mills throughout the Philippines. "We recognized that the Citrix Solution will be able to solve this need, and are recommending its use by the Feeds Group."

"The Citrix Solution continues to serve us well," said Mr Chua. "It is stable, robust and easy to use. It has helped SMC to provide its subsidiaries with fast and low-cost remote access to mission-critical applications."

According to Mr. Chua, SMC will be deploying Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server to its Feeds Group, following the dramatic business gains it experienced when the Citrix Solution was first installed at SMCEs Treasury Department in 2001.

Back then, the Citrix Solution was deployed by SMC to support improved business collaboration with its subsidiary company, Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc. Specifically, the Citrix Solution was deployed to provide critical access to Quantum Treasury, a third-party treasury information management system that supports decision-making pertaining to risks relating to interest rates, currency, liquidity and limit management.

The Citrix Solution generated significant benefits for SMCEs Treasury Department. Explained Mr. Chua, "By using Citrix Solution, SMC managed to extend the lifespan of its existing IT hardware by five years, thereby reducing its annual hardware investment costs by 80 percent."

Chua added, "Thanks to Citrix technology, we can also deploy new applications and updates to any number of PCs across the network within five to 15 minutes from a centralized location. Moreover, the increased productivity brought on by the Citrix solution slashed our IT teamEs traveling time by 240 percent."

"We are excited to support San Miguel as it continues to extend its use of Citrix solutions," says Mr. Yaj Malik, Area Vice President (ASEAN), Citrix Systems. "San Miguel joins a growing number of companies that are turning to access infrastructure solutions to solve their critical access needs and drive significant business value throughout their business ecosystem."

According to data gathered from several sources including IDC and META Group, the overall access infrastructure market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7 percent to exceed US$21.6 billion by 2007.

Last year, Citrix launched in the Philippines the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite, a family of solutions that give organizations and their workers the ability to easily and securely access any enterprise resources they need anywhere, anytime via any enabled-device over any enabled-connection.