Vodafone names EDS & IBM as global outsourcing partners

By Stuart Corner
Monday, 06 November 2006 04:13

Deals

Vodafone globally is to outsource its application development and maintenance services to EDS and IBM in a bid to cut its £560 million ($1A1.4b) application development and maintenance bill by 25 to 30 percent within three to five years.
 

Vodafone's operating companies in Germany, the UK, Hungary and the Netherlands will work with EDS as their outsourcing partner. Vodafone's operating companies in Spain, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and, subject to board approval, Italy, will work with IBM as their outsourcing partner. Each contract is set to run for seven years with Vodafone retaining the right to bring it to a close earlier if required.

"We are confident that our chosen outsourcing partners will not only deliver cost savings, but also an enhanced service," said Steve Pusey, chief technology officer for Vodafone Group.

Vodafone says will retain full strategic control of the initiative, which focuses on writing code for and maintaining systems such as billing and customer relationship management applications. It expects that the first wave of Vodafone operating companies will begin to adopt the new arrangements from early 2007, with the others following suit throughout the rest of 2007.

Vodafone says that, throughout the group it spent an estimated £560 million on application development and maintenance during the last financial year. "Under these deals, the number of application development and maintenance suppliers currently used by the Group is expected to be rationalised by the two partners, bringing greater economies of scale," the company said.

"The Group also anticipates that the initiative will result in improvements to the quality of software produced, as well as greater flexibility, leading to the faster roll out of more varied services to customers."