Anglian Water has dropped CSC after a 15-year IT outsourcing relationship, and chosen Capgemini to run its IT infrastructure and core business applications.

Anglian, which serves 6m homes and businesses in eastern England, has signed a five-year contract with Capgemini for an undisclosed sum.

CSC signed its original ten-year contract with Anglian in 1995 for around £200 million. It was then paid a greatly reduced £38 million to run Anglian's systems for a further five years in 2005. Phil Carnelley, analyst at TechMarketView said, “The deal with Capgemini is also for 5 years, so we can assume that ‘even more for even less’ will be the name of the game.”

The contract involves both cash and intellectual property. Capgemini had studied the way Anglian had rolled out its core SAP business platform, and the two organisations had agreed a commercial arrangement to enable Capgemini to utilise Anglian's intellectual property within Capgemini's SAP UK Water Template, designed for use in deploying SAP at other water industry clients.

The transfer of Anglian’s IT to Capgemini has already begun and is scheduled to be completed by February next year.

Chris Boucher, director of information services at Anglian Water, said, "Capgemini clearly has the business and technical skills and experience, and the capacity for innovation that can help drive our business forwards."

Other factors behind Anglian Water’s decision, said Boucher, included Capgemini’s "collaborative approach, its commitment to quality and its cost-effective proposals".

Capgemini will look after Anglian Water's IT infrastructure from its data centres in Swindon and Bristol. Applications management will be managed from sites in the UK and India, and a dedicated IT help desk will be located at a Capgemini facility in Romania.

Source: http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/outsourcing/3247161/anglian-water-cuts-off-csc-after-15-years/