HP has signed a deal worth approximately $25 million to provide a shared IT service to 14 Irish Institutes of Higher Education over seven years. An Cheim, the IT systems provider for the Institutes of Education and the Tipperary Institute, under public procurement guidelines, awarded the contract to HP.

As part of the deal, HP will host each institute's hardware and associated software in a central location, which allows for sustained specialist expertise and makes it easier to provide ongoing technical support.

The individual institutes will benefit from reduced costs and it will free up IT staff to work on other IT issues. It will also eliminate the necessity for each institute to invest in the technology themselves.

The institutes involved in the deal include Tipperary Institute, IT Sligo, Dundalk IT, Athlone IT, Galway-Mayo IT, Limerick IT, IT Tralee, Cork IT, IT Carlow, Waterford IT, IT Blanchardstown, Dun Laoghaire IADT, IT Tallaght and Letterkenny IT.