British American Tobacco (BAT) has signed a £6m
applications management contract with IT solutions provider Parity
to improve business processes.
BAT said the hiring of Parity formed part of its overall
strategy to rationalise the number of IT suppliers it used, and to
optimise business processes to deliver increased value.
Parity’s three-year framework agreement has a fixed value of
£3m, with additional business process consultancy and IT business
solution development projects bringing the total value to an
estimated £6m.
Parity will provide application management services for business
and project-specific applications. BAT said Parity will help
optimise IT management projects that improve business processes and
make cost and time savings.
Thomas Moore, commercial head of BAT’s global services division,
said Parity’s staff will work as a virtual extension of the
company’s internal IT resources on applications management,
technical design, programme and project management and business
process consultancy.
Parity is currently working on a portfolio of consulting
projects and is supporting 37 applications. Under the new
agreement, it will have increased responsibility for delivering
cost, time and manpower savings, said BAT.