Marks & Spencer hands £19m IT deal to Computacenter

Marks & Spencer has handed Computacenter Services a £19m managed IT contract for the next five years. The deal involves providing infrastructure support for the retailer's 4,000 head-office staff across six sites.

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The contract extends an existing relationship and increases the level of support by 10 extra service teams. As well as a software management role, Computacenter will take on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) compliant asset disposal for the retailer, guaranteeing no obsolete IT will go into landfill sites.

However, the main driver of the contract is around streamlining IT costs. M&S head of infrastructure, Damone Quigley, said in a statement: "The partnership with Computacenter Services will enable us to align IT more closely to the business and deliver tangible results at lower and predictable costs. [Through this contract] we have been able to reduce risk and create a more joined up service-focused IT operation."

The Computacenter deal is the latest in a series of IT contracts M&S has signed this year. In August the retailer awarded IBM a multimillion pound contract to upgrade its in-store systems. The revamp will include an integrated stock and sales application and will focus around the implementation of an IBM Epos platform running retail software company PCMS's Beanstore point of sale application.

Last month M&S also awarded a four-year managed service contract to tech services provider Logicalis to improve the efficiency of the retailer's IT network and support the cost-effective rollout of new tech services.