Equifax Extends Outsourcing Contract with IBM UK
Worldwide Outsourcing Contract Totals £597 Million
London (November 17, 1998) – Equifax, the leading global information solutions provider, today announced that it has renewed and broadened its UK outsourcing contract with IBM UK. The new 10-year contract, for £136m ($220 million), commences on January 1, 1999, and includes the transfer of 59 Equifax employees to IBM Global Services. This makes Equifax’s worldwide outsourcing contract with IBM worth more than £597 ($968 million).
Equifax now has outsourcing contracts with IBM in Canada, Mexico, Spain and the US, which enable Equifax to deliver a consistent standard of operation and service across all its products throughout the world. In the UK, IBM has had an outsourcing relationship with Equifax since 1992, playing a key part in the company’s growth from just £11 million turnover to over £100 million for 1997.
Nick Bevan, Executive Vice President, Equifax said; “We believe that outsourcing is the best way to meet the needs of our fast growing business. It ensures that technology is an enabler not an inhibitor to our business growth. We chose IBM because we wanted a company with effective global reach that could match our own worldwide expansion plans. Organic growth plays a vital role in our development, but acquisition of complementary businesses is also a key part of our strategy. The outsourcing contract with IBM enables us to integrate newly acquired organisations into our business quickly and effectively for a consistent standard of products and service.”
The original UK contract was signed in 1992 and concentrated on facilities management. The new contract now focuses on the following key areas:
Systems management and service delivery with an extended mainframe contract for Equifax’s new card processing division
A strategic role in helping Equifax re-engineer its information technology to distributive computing, mid-range and UNIX
Servicing of all multi-vendor hardware which includes HP and Sun equipment
Extended network station management (NWSM)
E-business consultancy and strategy services
Brian Sellwood, General Manager, IBM Global Services added, “This new contract significantly expands our strategic partnership with Equifax. We will be ensuring Equifax has the latest technology solutions to deliver its products and services as well as enabling it to increase its speed to market with current and future services. We will also be working with the company to develop new routes to market through new solutions such as e-commerce. The level of investment and energy from both Equifax and ourselves will ensure that this continues to be a very successful and beneficial contract for both companies.”
Source: IBM