Outsourcing Toolkit

BT wins £46.9m intercontinental service contract

Dan Ilet silicon.com

Published: 07 Mar 2006 15:15 GMT

BT is heading up a £46.9m, five-year contract to revamp the IT infrastructure of transport company FirstGroup.

The business consortium — comprising BT, HP and US-based MegaPath Networks — will link up 700 FirstGroup sites in the UK and 300 in the US.

FirstGroup told ZDNet UK sister site silicon.com: "BT's going to connect all our sites. This is the first stage of the project."

The firm explained most of the changes will be transparent to customers: "Apart from our IT being more efficient, there's probably not going to be much [difference customers] will see. It's more about the back office, apart from generally improved business processes."

Under the contract, dubbed Project Maxim, BT is to build two new data centres and a helpdesk in Preston, as well as bolster security on company desktops.

BT said the consortium will also build new wide-area networks between the UK and the US, and provide client software.

FirstGroup, which has 67,000 employees around the world, owns a fleet of more than 9,000 buses and runs four UK railway franchises as well as operations in the US.