BT scoops £140m Bradford & Bingley deal

NEWS Bradford & Bingley has awarded BT a 10-year, £140m outsourcing contract, covering a wide range of technologies and business services. Over 550 Bradford & Bingley (B&B) sites will be connected across the UK via local and wide area networks, with a focus on collaboration tools, hosting and security. The bank has opted for Lotus Notes-based email managed and hosted by the telco, which is a major partner of Microsoft, a competing provider of groupware. Other key parts of the deal include disaster recovery services, security - encompassing firewall management, intrusion detection and virus scanning - remote connectivity for over 1,000 independent financial advisors, and web hosting for online financial services. B&B has had an outsourcing relationship with BT since 1998 and said the larger contract is helping it reduce its supplier base and receive better service.