Ericsson has signed a five-year IT outsourcing contract with HP for HP to supply infrastructure services, application hosting platform, helpdesk, desktop support and output services.

The new contract, which is an extension of a contract signed in 2003, will update Ericsson's IT services to cater better for the future needs of the company's employees and ensure flexible support for the global business.

Carl-Magnus Månsson, CIO and Head of Group IT at Ericsson, says: "We gain significant benefits by outsourcing our IT operations. It helps lower overall IT spending, reduces total cost of ownership and makes our IS/IT structure more efficient. It also ensures we are flexible and able to adapt to changing IT demands. Our supplier has demonstrated it is the best-in-class provider and we are pleased to enter this long-term partnership."

The responsibility for Ericsson's internal, global, corporate voice and data network is not included in the outsourcing contract. This will continue to be managed by Ericsson's business unit Global Services, who will also handle delivery of some business-critical applications and infrastructure services from its own Global Service Delivery Center.

The current IT outsourcing contract with HP ends in autumn this year.Wireless Asia

Source:telecomasia.net