Source: www.efytimes.com

BT has signed an agreement with Thomson Reuters to manage the WAN (wide area network) element of its internal IT infrastructure in an 8-year outsourcing deal. As part of the deal, BT will transform Thomson Reuters’ existing WAN into a high-speed, IP-based global infrastructure that will encompass 323 locations across 100 countries including six applications hosting data centres.

This win follows a 10-year plus deal BT reached with Reuters in 2005 to transform and manage the global network Thomson Reuters uses to deliver services to more than 330,000 financial market professionals across the world.

Elaborating on the deal, Peter Moss, managing director, content, technology and operations, Thomson Reuters, said, “Thomson Reuters is absolutely committed to gathering and providing high-quality information to meet the needs of our demanding markets. To do this effectively, we needed to support our people with a world-class, efficient and well-managed internal network. Having worked with BT for a number of years now, we are confident they can execute against our requirements wherever in the world they may be.”

Shared François Barrault, CEO, global services, BT, “As a business operator, we run Thomson Reuters’ non-core but mission-critical network and IT services, so they can focus on their core business and customers. Their environment is one where absolute reliability in every millisecond counts, and we are very proud to have their confidence. It’s a testament to the excellent work of our teams in a very challenging world.”

Source: sify.com

Bangalore: As clients in the US finally give shape to their IT budget, some of the Indian service providers are exploring newer pricing models to ensure margins do not dip.

Tech Mahindra Ltd, a provider of IT solutions to the telecom industry, said the company is now focused on large fixed-price deals, which allows greater flexibility to improve margins. These deals are generally for three to five years, and Tech Mahindra has to take end-to-end responsibility for the processes, it added.

L. Ravichandran, Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Tech Mahindra, said the shift is largely to offset decline in profitability for man-month contracts. Because of the recession, customers are looking for more value, and this has put pressure on pricing for these types of deals, he added.

Guarantee savings

For the large fixed-price contracts, Tech Mahindra has to guarantee savings in the very first year of the contract, said Ravichandran. Generally, savings happen in the second or the third year. Saving beyond that is guaranteed to the client is additional profit for the company, he added.

He said these contracts integrate IT services and business process outsourcing, and the company needs to restructure and re-engineer the deals. The margin depends on how smartly Tech Mahindra can handle the job.

He said the company has signed five to six of these value-based deals in the last three quarters. The deals would increase its profit margin, he added. However, he declined to give any details.

Ravichandran said these deals involve investments in the first three quarters in areas such as knowledge transfer from customers, business process re-engineering, and in automating processes. The company has to bring in innovation to make the processes more efficient.

These deals give the staff the opportunity to manage a process on their own. He said the programme managers have the responsibility to run a process as he would run a company.

He said Tech Mahindra plans to send 100 senior programme managers to attend management development programmes at XLRI, Jamshedpur, for six to eight weeks this year.