Under the seven-year deal, BT will implement and manage a secure IP-based wide area network, local area network and voice services. Barclays expects the move to an IP-based infrastructure to generate cost savings of 30% over the course of the deal.
BT’s network and data services arm, BT Global Services, is having a strong run of network management contract awards. Last month, the operation announced a contract with pharmaceuticals giant Bristol Myers Squibb to manage the client’s local and wide area networks under a five-year deal thought to be worth $500m.
Barclays has been one of the most prolific users of outsourcing in the European financial services sector. It has also pioneered the multi-sourcing model, working with a number of best-of-breed suppliers on focused contracts, rather than a single vendor on a single, far-reaching deal.
In 2003, Barclays reportedly dropped plans for an estimated 100m-pound ($190m)-a-year outsourcing deal with IBM Global Services that would have involved the transfer of around 1,000 internal IT staff to the supplier.
Last year, Barclays outsourced the application development of its commercial and retail banking systems to Accenture under a 400m pound ($760m), six-year deal. It also outsourced the management and support of its desktops to EDS Corp under a seven-year, $350m contract.
In recent years, Barclays has also outsourced several back office functions, including life insurance and pensions processing (Liberata), check processing (Unisys), payments and accounts administration (Siemens Business Services).
Barclays spokesperson Andrew McDougall told ComputerWire that despite these outsourcing initiatives, the company retained 2,000 employees in-house in IT roles as part of what it calls its Barclays CIO division.
Last week, Barclays announced a 20% surge in its full-year 2004 net profit to a record 3.3bn pounds ($6.3bn).
