Microsoft has signed a US $170 million ITO contract with India's HCL to support the delivery of its online business productivity suite.

Under the terms of the agreement, lasting five-years, HCL will provide 600 employees to support the contract. 250 employees have already started working on the project.

The online services business is a part of Microsoft’s software-plus services strategy, through which, it provides communications and collaboration software such as e-mail and web conferencing services to enterprises.