EDS steps on IBM's toes to land $350m Barclays deal

EDS is to take over the running of Barclays' 41,700 desktops in a $350m, seven-year deal which is poised to put IBM's nose out of joint.

In April this year the bank bailed out of negotiations with IBM for a £100m infrastructure outsourcing deal. At the time, it said its in-house team could do the job just as efficiently.

But the announcement states EDS will have the "scope to increase this rapidly and significantly".

A Barclays spokesman said: "Barclays is always looking at ways to run its operations differently. We are always looking at ways to make ourselves more efficient."

Barclays is publicly committed to stripping £1bn a year off overheads in a four-year process which ends next year. Yesterday it claimed to be on course to achieve this when it announced its quarterly results.

The Texas-based services giant is also to take on around 100 Barclays staff but will not take on, or buy, any assets, according to an EDS spokesman.

Banking union Unify is already in negotiations about the terms of transition with Barclays and a spokesman said that the bank is "pretty good at this sort of thing".