IBM signs $1.2B, 8-year outsourcing pact with Michelin

Computerworld - IBM said today that it has signed a $1.2 billion, eight-year outsourcing deal with tire company Michelin.
Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will take over the management and maintenance of Michelin's IT infrastructure in North America and Europe. IBM said it will be responsible for IT production operations and management, user support, technical support, servers, workstations, PCs, software and production applications.
IBM said in a statement that approximately 600 employees of France-based Michelin will move to IBM in the first quarter of 2004.
Earlier this week, IBM signed a deal with Zurich Financial Services to manage about 65,000 "electronic workplaces," which include desktop PCs, laptop PCs, printers and software, a Zurich Financial spokeswoman said.
A workplace can be used by one or several employees, and an employee can use more than one workplace, she said. IBM will provide the services in five European countries, the U.S. and Canada. The deal also calls for the transfer of about 470 Zurich Financial IT employees to IBM.
The deal, announced Tuesday, is part of the insurance firm's 7-month-old drive to streamline and enhance its IT operations.
The Zurich-based financial company will pay IBM a monthly fee based on its volume of service usage, as opposed to agreeing to an upfront fee, said IBM spokeswoman Kelli Gail.
Although Gail declined to comment on the terms of the agreement, the deal is probably worth $450 million to $500 million, according to Joe Clabby, an analyst at Clabby Analytics in Yarmouth, Maine.
The Zurich Financial contract is among the first of its kind won by IBM since it announced in November its push to sell desktop services through its new Workplace offering, which bundles a variety of IBM desktop outsourcing offerings.
The IDG News Service contributed to this report.
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