BT Group has announced a new partnership for its Digital division intended to “transform the business’ approach to its legacy IT estate as part of its modernisation and simplification programme”.
The new partnership is a recasting and extension of the deal BT already has in place with Tata Consultancy Services to deliver an annualised £65 million saving by the end of the financial year 2025 as part of BT’s goal of achieving £3 billion in gross annualised savings in that period. This saving is expected to rise to £145 million a year by 2027.
Now TCS will work with BT to manage and “ramp down” more than 70% of Digital’s legacy technology estate to help deliver Digital’s goals of boosting its capacity and building its strategic technology architecture faster to support the Group’s growth.
According to BT, it will also de-risk and accelerate the Group’s transition from legacy systems which is structured into the deal.
Shedding 400 staff
Also as part of the deal, some 400 BT Group employees worldwide “will have the opportunity to join TCS”. BT states, “TCS has an excellent track record of transitioning colleagues with these skills into transformative roles, and they will shape the team that will deliver the acceleration of our legacy decommissioning.
“In addition, colleagues moving to TCS will gain the opportunity to build long-term sustainable careers in an exciting technology business.”
Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, BT Group said: “This is yet another transformative move to greatly simplify the BT Group legacy estate. It removes complexity and intensifies our strategic focus on delivering the leading-edge tech to meet our customers’ needs and drive growth.”
In addition to the specifics of the deal, BT Group and TCS have agreed to work together to develop joint go-to-market propositions in the coming months.