TheAA has replaced its IT management team
and cancelled its £50 million outsourcing contract with IBM, two
weeks after the EC approved the sale of the AA to Saga's private
equity owners, Charterhouse.
The AA will end the five-year, £50 million contract with IBM to
build and run a
new IT infrastructure for roadside recovery, which it signed in
January 2005.
"We will be ending our relationship with IBM over the next 12
months," an AA spokesman confirmed.
AA and Saga will continue to trade as separate companies,
although a group management team will oversee areas such as finance
and IT, a Saga spokeswoman said.
Andrew Gisby, former IT manager at Saga, replaces Trevor Didcock
as the AA's IT director. Didcock joined the AA in 2004, six months
before private equity group CVC Capital Partners and Permira
purchased the AA for £1.7bn from Centrica.
Didcock left the AA as a result of the merger and following a
review of management, an AA spokesman confirmed. Jim Cameron,
former IT director at Saga, will be group IT director over both the
AA and Saga. Gisby will report to Cameron.
A study commissioned by the GMB union in August
accused the AA of under-investing in new laptops for patrols.
The AA categorically denied the claims made by the GMB's report and
said it had invested £37m in its IT infrastructure over the past
three years.
"As would be expected in any market-leading business, plans and
the necessary investment - around £9m - are already in place for
replacing the Vixen unit, which may not be a laptop-based unit.
Technology moves on and we will implement a replacement at the
appropriate time," an AA spokeswoman told Computer Weekly in
August.
A spokeswoman for Saga said that the firm would continue to make
significant investments in the AA's IT systems following Didcock's
departure.