Huge Australian telco streamlines IT services, signs mainframe contract with IBM

Telstra, one of the largest telecommunications company in Australia, has signed IT service agreements worth more than a billion dollars with HP EDS, Infosys and IBM.

The $745 million contract with IBM over the next five years covers data center and mainframe infrastructure management, as well as services for its midrange platforms and maintenance.

The Aussie company analyzed all its IT contracts and systems and decided to consolidate them all into two key areas: application development and maintenance; and infrastructure build, management and support. The application development and maintenance contracts are worth $450 million and will go to EDS and Infosys, while the infrastructure support contract goes to IBM.

Telstra says they want the IBM contract to lead to greater automation and remote management of IT systems, as well as reduced infrastructure build time.