Tech Mahindra picked to manage VHA IT

Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) today confirmed it had appointed Indian IT services giant Tech Mahindra as its new IT managed service provider, in a deal reportedly worth around $250 million.

Tech Mahindra is part of the wider Mahindra Group, and is a global systems integrator and business transformation consulting organisation. In accordance with the contract, Tech Mahindra will now be responsible for the running and operations of VHA's IT systems in a five-year contract.

A statement by VHA this morning confirmed a report by the Australian Financial Review that the deal implies Tech Mahindra will become the core supplier of IT services for VHA, which operates the Vodafone and "3" mobile brands in Australia.

Vodafone chief technology officer Michael Young said the appointment of only one supplier aimed at improving efficiency.

"The new partnership will provide us with a single point of accountability for IT systems performance and management," he said, adding that customers would also benefit from the change. "It will also bring greater operational efficiencies and the ability to continuously improve our customers' experience of our services."

Vodafone was this morning unable to immediately confirm how the services were previously being provided.

The decision to appoint a single IT managed service provider is the latest in a string of moves made by VHA to strengthen its operations. Last year proved difficult for the telco as it faced network instability, customer dissatisfaction and security problems.

Another major investment came earlier this year, when VHA had announced it would replace its whole wireless access network. In that deal, it chose to partner with Huawei Technologies, which at that time said it was in the process of recruiting some 300 staff in Australia to help service the deal. In the same period, Tech Mahindra was awarded a multimillion-dollar IT contract from Vodafone in Qatar.