Atos Origin has become the first IT supplier to sign a memorandum of understanding with the government under its new "single-client" approach to IT procurement.

The move follows negotiations led by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude in July with CEOs of the government's top IT suppliers to discuss ways of cutting costs. The new approach means the government will procure for IT projects as a single customer, rather than as separate departments.

"We set ourselves a difficult challenge," said Maude.

"Renegotiating contracts in this way had never been done by government before. But the current financial situation meant there was simply no time to waste and we are delighted that Atos Origin are the first to sign today," he said.

"Over the next few weeks as the agreements are signed, I expect to see immediate and big savings for taxpayers. We are not talking about small numbers here, but a total running into hundreds of millions of pounds."

Keith Wilman, UK CEO at Atos Origin, said the move marks a new era for the company.

Atos Origin said it will continue to deliver all its existing IT contracts to UK government, and will look for further business opportunities, building on an agreed centralised approach.

Nineteen IT suppliers were called in by Maude and told to find ways of cutting costs. The 19 companies are:

HP

BT

Capgemini

Fujitsu

Capita

IBM

Telereal Trillium

Atos Origin

CSC

Logica

Steria

Oracle

Siemens IS

Cable & Wireless

Microsoft

Accenture

Serco

G4S

Vodafone