Anglo Signs $450M Deal for Data Services

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Mining house Anglo American [Nasdaq:AAUK] has awarded a seven-year contract worth $450 million for its global operations to obtain all their voice and data services from Hewlett-Packard (HP) and BT, formerly British Telecom.

The outsourcing deal is the first win of such a magnitude for the South African branch of BT.

BT and HP will manage Anglo America’s data centre operations, voice calls and the computer systems used by employees in about 18 countries. Ninety staff will transfer to HP and BT worldwide as their jobs are taken over by those companies.

BT’s local branch would grow substantially through the deal, said its regional GM Brian Armstrong. Although he did not put a figure on the number of staff transferring locally to join BT SA’s existing 75 staff, he said additional recruitment would also be necessary to handle the workload.

Regulatory requirements and Telkom’s de facto monopoly in South Africa mean BT will rely on Telkom for much of the physical infrastructure to carry Anglo American’s calls. But BT was likely to use the new operator Neotel for some of the networking infrastructure, Armstrong said.

There will be a two-year transformation project to support Anglo American’s quest for growth and more efficiency by standardising and consolidating its technology infrastructure globally.

BT has had a presence in South Africa for 15 years, but it was relatively low key until now. Its main focus is to handle international voice and data services for its clients, chiefly multinational groups.

Armstrong said this promised to be a busy year for the local branch. In April it would launch a corporate social responsibility investment programme, and by the year’s end it hoped to announce a black empowerment deal.

Unlike some multinationals, BT would not seek exemption from equity ownership requirements, as it was willing to create a joint venture company and sell some shares to black partners.

South Africa is also high on the list of possible locations for a call centre to handle calls for BT’s operations around the world. If South Africa is chosen, BT will commission an existing call centre operator to provide those services. This could create up to 700 jobs.

source news : resourceinvestor.com

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