The upgrade is part of Orica's efforts to migrate applications and services to the cloud.

The managed network service BT is installing is designed to provide secure and flexible connectivity for Orica's more than 13,000 employees, many of whom work remotely on customers' sites around the world.

BT will provide Orica's information technology team with a dashboard to give it visibility of network traffic flows, infrastructure monitoring, applications performance management tools, security and event logging, and inventory discovery.

The dashboard will offer the capability to optimise an individual application's performance to match business needs.

BT's security experts will also deploy and manage a range of security solutions, including firewalls from Cisco and an enhanced remote access solution for Orica's mobile workforce.

Orica chief technology officer Angus Melbourne said BT had been Orica's network partner for five years.

"We considered many technology and service options for our digital transformation and eventually chose BT because it offers a fully managed service built around our preferred technical solution covering Orica's global locations," he said.

"Our network transformation will not only result in improved service but also reduce the cost of our global network."

This is the second major business transformation project Orica has embarked on.

Under previous CEO Alberto Calderon it set about installing a SAP system.

While the full benefits of that SAP integration are still to be felt, there have already been some positive steps forward in gaining a better understanding of Orica's business.

BT resource, manufacturing and logistics managing director Joris van Oers said BT was drawing on the strength of its global partnership with Cisco to deliver the latest networking solutions needed for Orica's successful digital transformation.