Among the latest is a global deal with Thomson Multimedia SA, a French company, that calls for IBM Global Services to take over management of Thomson's data centres, servers, desktops, help desk, and disaster recovery operations, according to Frank Kern, general manager of professional services for IBM Global Services' Europe, Middle East and Africa geographic practice in Paris. "We'll be starting in France and in the US and with the help desk centre support out of the South of France, but it will roll out to other countries," described Kern of the deal.
The global deal, for which Thomson will not place a value, is representative of the multi-country agreements the outsourcing behemoth is striking more recently. For example, IBM Global Services last year signed a global agreement with Astra Zeneca valued at about $1.7 billion. "They had two IT infrastructures as a result of their merger. They were looking to us to bring together one single global infrastructure that was robust, secure and scaleable," said Kern.
In addition to Thomson, IBM Global Services signed a deal with NTL, a UK-based broadband communications supplier valued at $2 billion over 11 years. IBM Global Services will take over IT operations for the firm in the UK and Ireland. IBM and Fiat inked a memorandum of understanding for IT services valued at between $5 to $7 billion over seven to 10 years. The Swedish Post Office signed a five-year deal for IT services valued at $50 million, and IBM Global Services will build two Internet data centres in Dubai in the Middle East. And there are still more deals in the pipeline, Kern said.
Europe is leading IT outsourcing spending globally, according to a new report just released by International Data Corp. IDC, in its Top 100 World Wide Outsourcing Deals of 2000 report, found that Europe led the US in IT outsourcing spending at 26.8 percent, versus the US's 25.9 percent."
"Europe in particular has been a very strong market. They are also faced with an IT skills shortage, we're seeing the competitiveness of the European market is increasing, and that is driving people to outsourcing," said Cynthia Doyle, program manager at IDC. "The integration of the Euro is also driving this, although across the region it varies by countries," she added.
Among the top 100, she said IBM Global Services "is cleaning up," with 22 of the top 100 outsourcing deals in terms of total value.
Besides turning to IBM Global Services for help in consolidating and rationalising multiple IT infrastructures in multiple countries, customers are looking to leverage a new, cohesive platform for new e-business applications and new e-business processes, Kern maintained.
"We're seeing two types of deals. One is an e-business infrastructure deal where companies want to outsource their infrastructure and at the same time make it more robust and standards-based... The other is what I call 'transformational outsourcing,' where customers are looking to enable their businesses and find new ways [using the Internet and e-business applications] to operate their businesses that are efficient and effective," said Kern.
