Sunoco outsources to IBM

IBM confirmed it has signed a deal to provide outsourced tech and back office services to petrochemical giant Sunoco, reports Information Week.

The deal will see IBM provide Sunoco with a number of business process services and application support services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"We're pleased to partner with IBM on this initiative," said Sunoco CFO Brian MacDonald, in a statement. "This arrangement marks another important step in Sunoco's continued expense reduction programme, which is critical to improving the company's competitiveness."

Members of a US state public employees union took legal action to block the Office of Technology from bidding out about 600 IT jobs to the private sector, states the Charleston Gazette.

The West Virginia Public Workers Union filed a writ of mandamus, asking the court to block any attempts by the state to seek bids for proposals to outsource the state's IT operations.

Union spokesperson Gordon Simmons said the union went to court Monday, anticipating that the Office of Technology was preparing to publish its request for "expressions of interest" from private-sector companies to take over the IT operations as early as this Friday.

UK-based telecom conglomerate BT - one of the largest outsourcers to India - may reduce the quantum of technology related work offshored to Indian companies by around 15% this year, it is reliably learnt, says The Hindu.

The company is said to be trimming its IT budgets as part of its global strategy to reduce overall costs.

“Last year, BT offshored IT and ITES work worth £900 million to Indian companies. This will come down by another 15% as the focus at BT is on increased efficiency. There will not be pricing cuts this year,” a top industry official said on the condition of anonymity.