Technology services provider EDS this week landed a $1 billion, five-year global master services agreement with Royal Dutch Shell.
The deal is part of a broader IT and telecommunications outsourcing initiative in which Shell is turning to outside providers to manage its IT infrastructure and telecommunications services, starting July 1, 2008. The total value of the agreements over the five years is $4 billion; the other two suppliers are AT&T for network and telecommunications and T-Systems for hosting and storage.
Under the agreement, EDS will manage the energy company’s end-user computing services, including desktop, service desk, on-site services, backup and disaster recovery, mobile information protection, and managed messaging services, for 150,000 users in more than 100 countries across Shell’s global operations. Roughly 1,500 IT professionals, including full-time employees and contractors, who have been working for Shell, will now receive their paychecks from EDS.
EDS will upgrade Shell employees’ desktop machines with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, and it will work with its partners Microsoft, SAP, Xerox, Sun, and EMC to deliver products and services to Shell, according to EDS’ announcement of the contract.