IT services provider Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) inked a 10-year, US$735 million outsourcing deal with telecom equipment maker Marconi Corp. plc on Tuesday.
Under the terms of the deal, CSC will now support and manage Marconi’s IT help desk, desktop computing, networking and midrange operations. The company will also develop and maintain software applications and provide telecommunications services. The agreement will affect nearly all of Marconi’s worldwide IT operations, with the exception of Asia Pacific, the Middle East regions and the company’s UK-based Interactive Systems business.
Marconi will also receive an immediate cash injection of US$40 million, as CSC is buying out Marconi’s IT assets worldwide.
A spokesperson for Marconi said the company made the deal to help reduce costs and to focus on its core business – making telecom equipment.
“It allows us to size the IT staff appropriate to our needs so as we need to grow it or shrink it, working with CSC will allow us do that more easily. It helps us to reduce our cost base because it is moving some employees off our payroll and onto CSC’s,” said Jim Blew, a spokesperson for Marconi in Pittsburgh.
Approximately 360 of Marconi’s IT employees from across the Americas, Europe and Africa will transfer to CSC in June 2003. An additional 40 Marconi IT employees, mostly from North America and the United Kingdom, will transfer to British Telecom (BT). Of all the job transfers, Blew said only three employees in Canada would be affected and all are moving to CSC. In the U.S., 93 employees will join CSC and 14 will transfer to BT, he added.
The companies are online at www.marconi.com and www.csc.com.