Siemens wins £200m Welsh government IT deal

A Siemens Business Services-led alliance has signed a £200m deal for a major upgrade to the IT infrastructure of the National Assembly for Wales.

The 10-year deal will cover IT services that support the administrative work of the Welsh Assembly as well as upgrading the support services for the democratic structures of the Assembly.

Siemens Business Services is the prime contractor responsible for delivery of the overall programme and the installation of new technologies, PA Consulting will do the business design and change programme, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young will carry out selected application development and Siemens Communications will deliver telecoms and video-conferencing services.

In a separate contract announcement, IBM Global Services has inked a €200m deal to run Nokia's global IT helpdesk operations, and manage and develop its desktop IT environment, in an extension of an existing relationship with the mobile firm.

As part of the five-year deal, about 430 people will join IBM from Nokia in 36 countries.

Gordon Jack, VP of business infrastructure at Nokia, said the agreement will allow the company to "improve service flexibility and cost efficiency".