CSC scoops £450m Marconi outsourcing deal

NEWS Marconi has awarded a 10-year £450m outsourcing contract to Computer Sciences Corporation for the handling of a range of information and communications technology operations. The move comes on the back of the recent re-organisation and re-financing at the telecoms equipment supplier, though wasn't a result of new executive appointments. Fiona Robinson, executive VP IT at Marconi, said: "This has been planned for over a year but we couldn't do it while we were going through the refinancing. We're looking for focus, efficiency and cost savings." Despite a heritage in communications technologies, Robinson said it makes sense to hand over to a specialist for LAN, WAN and other communications functions. CSC will sub-contract this part of the deal to BT but certain existing regional contracts - for example with carriers such as Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia and MCI - are likely to be maintained. Around three-quarters of the contract will cover helpdesk, desktop, datacentre and other IT and sees around 360 Marconi IT staff join CSC. Robinson said that over the 10 year term Marconi would have spent around £45m more - 10 per cent of the contract's value - on operations if it had kept them in-house. The deal brings CSC's wins for its current quarter to $3.5bn.