IT services provider, Datacom, has won a large managed IT services outsourcing contract with business conglomerate Norfolk Group in Australia and New Zealand.

Valued at more than $10 million over three years, with optional two year extension, the contract involves centralising Norfolk Group's IT infrastructure to a Datacom data centre and aims to achieve significant operational efficiencies in IT delivery.

Formed in 2004, Norfolk Group manages and operates 15 electrical, mechanical and building products businesses in Australia and New Zealand. With over 3,500 employees across 130 offices across Australia and New Zealand, the company has annual revenues in excess of $700 million.

Under the terms of the new contract, Datacom will transition Norfolk Group to a centralised IT platform based on Citrix MetaFrame thin client architecture, to allow common file and data access across Norfolk Group's companies regardless of geographical location or type of network connection.

The deal will involve Datacom taking responsibility for 24x7x365 hosting and management of Norfolk Group's mission critical IT infrastructure from its Sydney data centre. This is expected to reduce support costs and improve Norfolk Groups' data retention and security.

Additional services covered under the contract include:

desktop support to Norfolk Group's 1,250 IT users across all A/NZ sites

׷ LAN/ WAN services

service and help desk provision, based on ITIL methodology

׷ IT procurement and asset management

application development

׷ Disaster Recovery Planning

Norfolk Group's IT support services were previously provided in-house. Its decision to outsource follows a review of the Group's IT strategy and focuses on rationalising service delivery by establishing a partnership with a proven, responsive service provider.

David Gregson, group IT manager with Norfolk Group, said, "Our new outsourcing model is about improving business flexibility and services to our internal businesses and their customers.

"Outsourcing the majority of IT services to Datacom is a strategic decision which immediately allows us to optimise our IT infrastructure and longer term, will underpin our success through continuous improvement.

"We picked Datacom because they demonstrated the ability to transition us to a transformed environment in an aggressive time frame. We'll work with Datacom to ensure we're fully live in October."

Michael Browne, CEO, Datacom, said, "We believe Norfolk's decision to partner with Datacom is an endorsement of the strength of our expertise in key technologies and additionally, proves that our responsiveness truly sets us apart from others in the market."

The contract was signed in July 2005 and the contracted services are expected to be fully live in October 2005.

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