The deal involves BT setting up a virtual private network between Hertz’s corporate headquarters and its 1,100 sites across Europe, with HP providing desktop support of over 5,000 PCs, 3,000 printers, and 148 servers. The contract covers the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
BT and HP first announced the alliance in May 2004, though they had already partnered on contracts with the Bank of Ireland, the UK National Health Service, and a state education deal in Northern Ireland. The partnership was set up to enable the companies to pitch for the increasing number of customers who are looking for a single contract for IT and networking services.
While the initial contract has been a long time coming, Chris North, senior vice president of the alliance for BT, cited the long sales cycle of large transformational deals, and described its pipeline as healthy.
David Trimm, VP of business systems at Hertz, told ComputerWire that it first began talking to BT 18 months ago. The deal allows us to reduce the number of IT and networking suppliers from 170 to just two, he said. By combining the networking and IT elements, BT and HP were able to offer the least expensive deal, he said, but also cited the companies’ reputations, and flexibility as key reasons why they were chosen.
Although neither HP nor BT would comment on the value of the deal, ComputerWire’s IT Services Contract Database Service estimates it to be worth approximately $100m.
