FremantleMedia, the company behind ITV's X-Factor, has
signed a five-year IT services contract withComputacenterto reduce operational
costs and improve the availability of its IT
infrastructure.
Under the multi-million pound
desktop and server outsourcing contract, Computacenter Services
will manage FremantleMedia's 1,600 desktops and laptops and
100-plus servers as well as providing IT support to its 1,200 staff
in the UK.
Adam Seaman, Operations Manager for FremantleMedia, said, "By
partnering with Computacenter Services, we expect to be able to
increase the availability and scalability of our infrastructure,
which will help ensure our staff have access to the IT systems they
need to make and distribute new television programmes."
FremantleMedia will be using Computacenter Services' shared
facilities to provide continuous monitoring of servers located in
France, Germany, Australia and the US. These servers are used to
support the production of UK television shows such as The X Factor,
The Apprentice, The Bill, Pop Idol and Grand Designs.
The contract includes on-site hardware and software maintenance,
system installations, asset tracking, proactive remote server and
infrastructure management and IT procurement. As part of the
agreement, five members of staff from FremantleMedia have been
transferred to Computacenter Services under Tupe regulations.
FremantleMedia has also transferred its Service Desk operation
to Computacenter's Support Services Centre, which will handle up to
1,900 user queries a month.