By Andy McCue, 16 August 2007 14:21
NEWS
Reuters is aiming to slash IT service delivery costs by a quarter through a £500m outsourcing deal with Fujitsu Services to roll out a standardised IT platform across its global operations.
Around 300 IT staff will transfer across to Fujitsu as part of the 10-year deal, leaving an in-house service delivery team of 25. Reuters said there will be no redundancies.
Reuters CIO David Lister told silicon.com the deal will see annualised savings "in the region of 25 per cent". He said: "We see our role as service aggregator not service provider."
The contract covers Reuters' core IT internal services, including email and desktop, and consolidates a number of existing deals. Fujitsu will also be responsible for the management of some of Reuters' other outsourcing suppliers, such as Satyam.
Lister said: "It addresses a lot of our legacy issues. We have acquired a lot of different systems and platforms over the years. This allows us to move onto a single, standardised, virtualised on-demand platform."
Virtualisation - both on the client and server - will be a key part of the contract and Fujitsu has already begun work on an 18-month transformation plan.
Lister said: "Whether inside an internet café in Australia, at home or in the office employees can access workplace applications."
Comments
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1. Chris Stevens
Ooops, time to sell my shares in Reuters. If they were unable to manage 300 IT support staff, I'd have no confidence that they could manage the outsource company. How will the shareholders feel when they see the increased costs for items not included in the original contract.
The outsource company will be looking to make 20% profit over 5 years on those 300 staff. Why couldn't Reuters management achieve the same?
2. anonymous
Because they dont know how to do it. Also the managers you makes the decisions are good with papers on their desk but if they have to make decisions because of practical experiences ... oops ... did I mention practial and managers in one line ? LOL, of course, that doesnt fit, especially not with Reuters.
If it doesnt work out, we just need to wait for the next stock bubble ....