Banco Espírito Santo (BES), one of the major financial groups in Portugal has awarded IBM a seven-year outsourcing deal for the management of the bank's IT infrastructure.

As part of the agreement, IBM will manage the entire BES server infrastructure in Portugal including administration, management and operation of the midrange infrastructure.

The agreement forms part of an ongoing BES' strategy to improve its IT efficiency, as well as management processes, elevating service quality and assuring products and processes innovation.

The deal, signed in June 2008, expands the scope of a previous contract signed in 2006.