BAE Systems' submarine building division has outsourced
IT services for 4,500 usersin a deal with Carillion IT
Servicesworth "tens of millions" of pounds over the next five
years.
Carillion, formerly Alfred McAlpine IT Services, won the
business from CSC, which has a
blanket outsourcing deal with BAE Systems.
John McCormick, head of IT at BAE Systems Submarine Solutions,
said the company needed faster and more flexible responses from the
IT providers to give it the agility required to meeting a
fast-changing engineering environment.
He said CSC's "one size fits all model" for delivering IT
services had proved inflexible for the business.He said this was
one of the factors which risked delaying the June 2007 launch of
the first of the Royal Navy's new
Astute
class nuclear-powered attack submarines - the largest and most
powerful submarines of their kind to be built in Britain. This
would have jeopardised follow-on orders for more boats, as well as
other business, he said.
Carillion will manage the "end to end" IT that supports the
£3.8bn contract to build the first three Astute boats. It will also
assist in the design for the successor to the Vanguard class
submarine, and provide engineering design support for the navy's
new
65,000 tonne aircraft carriers.
McCormick said a user satisfaction survey showed a dramatic rise
in end-user happiness. "For example, the number of first-call
problem resolutions by the helpdesk has gone up and the number of
unresolved queries rolled over from month to month has dropped from
several hundred to around 40," he said.
McCormick said this is because Carillion set up a helpdesk
inside the Barrow shipyard where BAE Systems is building the boats.
"This makes the users feel that IT really is a part of the project.
They no longer feel they are calling a remote call centre that
doesnot understand about their problems," he said.
He added that the selection, training and management of
outsourced staff has meant little attrition, and staff retention
has been excellent. This continuity had been a factor in resolving
problems quickly.
Carillion provides the submarine division with:
• A dedicated service desk and associated support functions
located in the ship-building yard at Barrow
• 24-hour network and infrastructure management services for two
"ring-fenced" secureIT environments that allow the submarine
division to exchange data securely with the rest of the BAE
group
• End-user support and management to maximise user uptime
• Application management, support and development
• Transition, programme and project management and technical
consultancy.