Wang Global Ltd, the UK arm of the US desktop and network integration consultancy, has confirmed its intent to expand its desktop outsourcing division, winning a contract worth over $160m to manage the desktops of UK financial services company, Abbey National Group.
Wang will provide IT management for five years, including hardware procurement, change, replacement and helpdesk services. Abbey National is likely to choose Dell for its headquarters desktops and Compaq for the servers, according to Wang UK’s managing director Roger Whitehead.
The contract represents the first step in a move to beef up the managed services division of Wang, which includes outsourcing as well as support and maintenance. Wang’s other sectors are Solution Integration, the systems integrating component and Network Integration and Consulting.
The company says it is also on the brink of signing another deal. We are currently in very active talks with a large financial institution in this country, says Whitehead. Finance is the vertical market that Whitehead has picked out for desktop outsourcing. Wang currently derives more than 70% of its revenue in the UK from banking and financial services.
Wang won the deal on the back of a relationship between Olivetti and Abbey National dating back over 20 years. Abbey’s personal banker system was installed by Olivetti, whose services and systems arm Olsy, Wang acquired last year (CI No 3,359).
