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HP to manage IT for Finnish energy giant

Fortum signed a five-year pact with HP to operate its IT infrastructure

Scarlet Pruitt
 

August 23, 2004 (IDG News Service)

Finnish energy giant Fortum Corp. has signed a five-year agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co. to manage its IT infrastructure and support about 10,000 users across Europe.
Under the first phase of the deal, announced today, HP will manage Fortum's data center, servers and workstation services in Finland, Sweden and Norway. HP will initially support about 8,000 workstations and provide on-site support and help desk services for about 10,000 users, Fortum said.
The companies plan to extend the agreement at a later stage so that HP will manage infrastructure services in some of the other 17 countries in which Fortum operates.
The value of the deal isn't being disclosed.
Fortum CIO Jouni Keronen said the energy firm decided to outsource its IT infrastructure because it's easier to buy the services than to do the functions internally. "Over the years, these have become commercialized services, and we felt that HP could do a better job than we could," Keronen said.
Although he declined to say how much money Fortum had spent managing its IT infrastructure in the past, Keronen predicted "significant" cost savings through the outsourcing agreement. Under the deal, approximately 68 Fortum employees in Finland and 20 in Sweden will move to HP beginning Nov. 1. No layoffs are planned.
Finland, Norway and Sweden represent about 80% of Fortum's IT services volume, Keronen said. As the companies expand the agreement, HP is expected to take over Fortum's IT services in Belgium and the Baltic Rim, Keronen said.
Fortum has purchased equipment and consulting services from HP in the past and expects to buy more hardware from the company, Keronen said.
Fortum, based in Espoo, Finland, has about 13,000 employees worldwide and posted net sales of $14 billion for 2003. It has stakes in more than 500 power plants in central Sweden, Greater Stockholm and Finland and produces petroleum products in the Baltic Rim.