Banking group Absa has announced a deal with IBM to exclusively supply desktops, notebooks and servers over the next five years.
The companies expect the deal to cover about 15 000 desktop PCs and estimate the value of the deal at R160 million. The value could increase substantially with currency fluctuations and changes in hardware and software technology or pricing.
Absa and IBM announced a technology alliance early in the year, and say this is the first major deal to flow out of that agreement.
AST Distributed Technology Services (AST-DTS), a joint venture between Absa and the JSE-listed AST group, is to work with IBM to reduce the cost of ownership of the equipment. The companies say they have been working together over the past few months to review processes and fulfilment options in the distributed Absa environment.
"Together with AST-DTS, we mapped out the detailed lifecycle of a PC from product selection, through the steps of testing and certification, pricing, cataloguing, ordering, manufacturing and production, including hardware and software, all the way through to shipment and delivery, inventory management, installation, billing, support services and ultimate disposal," says Brian Moulds, IBM financial services executive.
Absa owns a 30% stake in AST-DTS and accounts for the majority of its desktop business, although it counts other large companies among its clients.
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