Capgemini wins outsourcing contract at British Energy

Capgemini UK has won a five-year £20m IT outsourcing contract to support 6,500 users and more than 300 servers at British Energy.

The new service is based around the provision of applications management services for several core systems including finance, human resources and document management. The contract also involves the transfer of 28 British Energy staff and contractors to Capgemini.

In a statement, British Energy said it chose the firm because of its ability to offer 'good career prospects for transferring staff', its 'high quality' of delivery over the last three years in other areas of IT support, and 'excellent' facilities close to British Energy sites.

Capgemini has previously worked with British Energy to ensure regulatory compliance at the office of civil nuclear sites and the national nuclear inspectorate.

Andrew Ralston, information management manager of projects and services at British Energy, said: 'Capgemini has already proved its ability to innovate to good effect and to enhance quality of service while at the same time driving down costs. Under the new contract we are looking to spread these same benefits to other parts of our crucial IT support function.'

The applications management section of the contract will be based at Capgemini's Scottish HQ in Glasgow, while desktop and server support will be run from the firm's offices in Inverness and Birmingham.

Technology platforms include Oracle financials and HR, Windows NT 4.0 servers and NT workstations moving to Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server, SMS, BMC Patrol and Compaq Insight Manager.

Ian Roy, outsourcing director of Capgemini, said: 'We are once again looking forward to proving the very positive impact that well-run IT can have on business performance within the highly competitive world of UK energy.'