Barclays has signed a six-year IT outsourcing deal with
Accenture valued at more than £400m.
The contract to outsource the bank's application development
division is one of the largest UK outsourcing deals of 2004 and
follows a year of negotiations.
Plans by Barclays to outsource its application development
division, Build Services, were first revealed by Computer Weekly
last August.
More than 900 IT staff will transfer to Accenture and there will be
no compulsory redundancies in the first two years of the
contract.
Barclays will retain overall responsibility for IT strategy
development and will maintain staffing in selected areas.
"The outsourcer is expected to move some work offshore, but has
assured Barclays and financial services union UNIFI there will be
no compulsory redundancies," said Phil Codling, OvumHolway
analyst.
The bank said the project would help it respond quickly to market
demands for changes in technology and lower the cost of developing
applications.
The deal with Accenture is part of a long-term strategy by Barclays
to outsource the bulk of its IT to different suppliers.
Last year, Barclays outsourced the management of its desktops to
EDS in a £214m deal.
David Weymouth, Barclays chief information officer, said, "[This]
is an important step in ensuring we deliver top-quartile
productivity in the vital area of systems development."
Keith Brookes, national secretary of banking union Unifi, said
negotiations were tough, but said he was happy with the deal.