FirstGroup Awards IT Contract to Atos Origin

LONDON, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Atos Origin, an international IT services company, today announced a new IT agreement valid for five years and worth over 10 million pounds Sterling with FirstGroup, the leading transport operator in the UK and North America.

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The contract will see Atos Origin manage First's data centre and messaging services and provide most of the core IT systems underpinning First's UK, rail, bus and Group operations.

The deal follows another recent Atos Origin contract win from First for outsourced application support services.

Glenn Bladon, Group Head of IT Services, at First, said: "We selected Atos Origin because it has a deep understanding of our business, a flexible commercial approach and a compelling proposal that delivers value for money at low risk. In Atos Origin, we also have a partner which can work with FirstGroup to realise these benefits internationally."

Tony Lacy, General Manager for Transport at Atos Origin said: "FirstGroup is a long-standing, vitally important and prestigious client for Atos Origin in the UK and we are delighted its IT team has extended their trust in us with the award of these new contracts. With our in-depth knowledge of the transport sector, we will work with First to add demonstrable value to the business and play an active role in delivering its business objectives."

Atos Origin will take over management and development of applications for legacy and SAP systems to support back office functions such as HR, Finance and Procurement. Atos Origin will also establish and run two UK data centres for First as well as building a new email system to support 10,000 employees. The contract will be delivered from the UK with support from India for applications management and development.

Atos Origin also provides a number of services to First including rail operations systems, real-time management and deployment of vehicles and staff as well as ticketing solutions and customer information systems.

About Atos Origin

Atos Origin is a leading international information technology (IT) services company, providing hi-tech transactional services, consulting, systems integration and managed operations to deliver business outcomes globally. The company's annual revenues are EUR 5.1 billion and it employs 49,000 people. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and has a client base of international companies across all sectors. Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Eurolist Market and trades as Atos Origin, Atos Worldline and Atos Consulting. For further information, please visit www.atosorigin.co.uk

SOURCE Atos Origin