Legal & General is having detailed discussions with more than one IT outsourcing supplier
This is an update to my earlier blog.
I have had a more comprehensive response from L & G to my question: Are your outsourcing your Business Technology Serives to IBM?
“Legal & General has been reviewing how best to manage its IT infrastructure. Options available are in-house or external partnership. No final decision has yet been on the preferred outcome of the review, but L&G has started detailed discussions with a number of potential partners,” said an L&G spokesman.
This morning you were invited to attend a briefing session where you were taken through our current thinking in relation to the data centre. I am now writing to you to restate the points that arose in the briefing.
In January I wrote to you to let you know that we were considering options for the provisioning of our data centre to ensure that our infrastructure is capable of supporting future business growth, and to reduce the risks associated with provisioning our own internal bespoke data centre. At that time I mentioned that we had asked a small number of suppliers to develop proposals with the expectation that we would have completed evaluation of the proposals in March.
I can confirm that we have received viable proposals from two potential suppliers and we will now move forward into more detailed analysis with these two suppliers. The successful bidder would host our IT infrastructure in their own locations and would also be asked to deliver a number of associated IT services; the services under consideration include Infrastructure & Operations, IT Security Operations and Assurance and parts of IT Procurement and IT Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). We are considering outsourcing these services with a single provider because we believe this will give us the most straightforward operating model - with clear accountability for provision of service. It will also allow us to make best use of the third party’s technical and operational expertise.
We will now be entering into a more detailed analysis phase with Fujitsu and IBM. This will enable Fujitsu and IBM to understand our current infrastructure and how we deliver related services in more depth. You can find information about Fujitsu and IBM at their websites: Fujitsu http://www.fujitsu.com/uk/, IBM http://www.ibm.com/uk/en/. As mentioned this morning, IBM uses Manpower to provide resources for Help Desk and Desk side support services.
There is still a long way to go, but if we are able to reach agreement the likely outcome is that the services described above would be outsourced to one of these suppliers and employees currently carrying out those services would see their employment transferred in accordance with TUPE legislation. You can find out more about TUPE at this link http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/tupe/index.html
At this stage we are unable to clarify exactly what this will mean for every team or individual and we are unlikely to be able to provide much more information until more detailed analysis is complete. We have consulted with Unite and MCF on the business case supporting the proposed changes and consultation with both will continue.
If the proposed outsource goes ahead there will be a need for a number of new roles to be defined and retained within Legal & General to ensure effective oversight and interface. These roles will be advertised internally in due course and suitably qualified employees may apply for them. We will let you know more about this when we have identified and specified the roles that will be required.
We are aware from feedback you have provided about previous communications that you would like more opportunities to express your views and ask questions and so a number of round table sessions are planned in each location where you can talk about what you have heard today and raise any questions you might have. Details of these sessions will be circulated later today - attendance is entirely optional. I also encourage you to speak with your manager and raise questions with them. You can also send your comments and questions to MBX - BIS, Today if you would prefer to raise them confidentially.
I know that the coming weeks and months may be a difficult time for those individuals who may be impacted by any potential outsource and I will keep you in touch with any significant developments. I aim to provide you with an update monthly although this may be limited in the near term as I do not expect to be in a position to provide any significant detail until July. If the outsource were to go ahead I anticipate the transfer would take place no sooner than Q4 of this year.