Under the terms of the five-year, 500m-euro ($597m) deal, MCI will manage the bank’s global data network and firewall platforms supporting more than 6,000 locations in 25 countries. Approximately 140 ABN AMRO data management employees will transfer to MCI as part of the contract.
The move comes just three months after ABN AMRO announced a radical overhaul of its IT department, cutting 1,500 internal tech jobs, and transferring a further 2,000 to external vendors with which it has signed a total of $2.2bn in outsourcing contracts.
ABN AMRO handed its server and desktop infrastructure to IBM Global Services, its applications maintenance to Indian vendors Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies, and its application development to all three suppliers, plus Accenture and Patni Computer Systems.
The deal is a notable win for Ashburn, Virginia-based MCI in Europe where the network management sector has been dominated by BT Global Services in the last two years. During this time, the services arm of the UK incumbent operator has secured major deals with InBev, Barclays Plc, the Bank of Ireland, and the UK National Health Service.
