Tube Lines, the company tasked with maintenance on the London Underground, has extended its IT outsourcing contract with IT services firm Capgemini. The deal extends the contract for a third two-year period from 2009 to 2011.
Tube Lines maintains the trains, tracks and stations for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly London Underground lines, which carry nearly 40 million passengers every day, making up 40% of those using the entire tube network.
The original deal between the two companies, covering corporate IT systems, ran from 2005-2007, with a second deal running from 2007-2009. Adrian Davey, Head of IT at Tube Lines, said that the deal has provided significant benefits to the company so far.
“The collaborative approach we have developed with Capgemini has clearly paid huge dividends. Every single service metric is ahead of the target specified, service levels are up and costs are down by 25%. Equally important, user credibility in the value of IT support has been restored, with the latest user satisfaction survey showing a 100 per cent improvement compared with the situation prior to outsourcing,” Davey said.
Tube Lines is currently undergoing a large modernisation project, which will see the latest Microsoft enterprise technology, such as the Vista operating system, Windows Server 2008, SharePoint and Office Communications Server, deployed at the firm.
“Our decision to renew our IT partnership with Capgemini reflects the outstanding success we have seen in working together to transform IT support for our business. IT underpins the services we provide and simply has to work well if the current massive investment in London Underground infrastructure is to deliver the major improvements that our customers and passengers expect from it,” Davey said.
