CSC said that it has signed a ten-and-a-half year master service agreement with Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) for data centre and information technology (IT) infrastructure managed services.

The master service agreement provides the framework for country specific agreements to be subsequently entered into by the local entities of each party. The master service agreement will become effective upon the signing of the first country specific agreement.

According to CSC, the contract covers global data centre centralisation and server virtualisation and is designed to transform Zurich’s existing data centre environment into a fully modernised, flexible and highly virtualised operation.

The potential total contract value is estimated to be up to $2.9 billion. Services are expected to commence under the master service agreement and one or more country specific agreements in the first half of 2010. Under the terms of the agreement, depending on the country specific agreements entered into, up to around 1,000 Zurich employees will potentially transition to CSC during the first half of 2010.

The relationship between Zurich and CSC began in July 2004 when the companies signed a seven-year $1.3 billion applications outsourcing contract. In 2008, the scope of work expanded to include desktop services in Europe and North America.

However, all of the agreements are subject to regulatory and other approvals and notifications, including consultation of relevant workers councils.