Royal Mail has finally signed a contract with the Computer
Sciences Corporation-led Prism Alliance for a £1.5bn deal to
outsource its IT operations.Royal Mail expected to save £250m during the
10-year contract, which will see CSC, BT and Xansa run datacentres,
data networks, voice services, desktop computers and more than 600
business application systems.
Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier said,
"This is a vital component in our renewal plans in terms of
reducing costs and giving us the information technology services
that we need."
Unions representing Royal Mail staff had
threatened strike action over pension rights and compulsory
redundancies for staff transferring to the consortium.
However, Crozier said, "We have worked very
hard to make sure our people are taken care of. As well as the
statutory transfer regulations [Tupe}, which protect staff
interests, we have negotiated additional guarantees on job security
and pension arrangements. The outsourcing also opens up fresh
career opportunities for our people within companies that are
global players."
More than 1,700 people, mostly IT
professionals employed by Royal Mail, will transfer to CSC, Xansa
and BT on existing terms and conditions under Tupe regulations.
CSC will account for approximately 1,470
employees, Xansa 220 employees and BT 45 employees.
CSC will manage the contract and will be
responsible for the maintenance of Royal Mail's 42,000 desktop
computers and the management and development of Royal Mail's
server, mainframe and IT processes. It will also develop and
maintain applications and provide a range of professional
services.
BT will provide a new network and services
worth £450m over 10 years, including local and wide area voice,
data, mobile, internet and firewall technologies. The telco will
also provide support services for call centre operations and video
and audio conferencing.
Xansa will provide application management and
enterprise solutions to Post Office Limited and Royal Mail Group
corporate functions worth up to £180m over 10 years.