The Flemish Public Employment Service (VDAB) agency has selected EDS as its new partner to manage its information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. The contract has a six-year term and is worth approximately €50 million (US$74 million).

Under the contract, EDS will provide a range of infrastructure services, including user support, user infrastructure management and maximum availability of the ICT environment for the agency's customers and partners. EDS will provide desktop support to more than 5,000 users in 200-plus locations and manage approximately 100 servers.

“An open infrastructure that allows efficient collaboration with the various partners is crucial to support VDAB's steering role in the Flemish labor market,” said Fons Leroy, managing director of VDAB. “In the coming years, the challenge is to bring about innovation and synergy with the Flemish government, and VDAB has chosen to take on this challenge together with EDS.”

“Together with my team we negotiated a transparent and flexible outsourcing model that allows change and encourages a competitive pricing,” said Paul Danneels, CIO of VDAB. “We are looking for innovation in support of further strengthening VDAB's pioneer role in career guidance and education infrastructure. This contract will also allow us to cooperate with the Flemish Government in various areas.”

“For this contract EDS has established a balanced cooperation with local subcontractors,” said Jan Cleeren, sales manager for the Belgium public sector. “Together with Belgacom and Econocom, we will deploy the best experts to be able to meet the high execution demands typical for this agreement.”