In February, two big IT-infrastructure deals were inked by Credit Suisse and General Motors (GM) with BT and AT&T, respectively.

Investment bank Credit Suisse awarded a $1.1 billion network-management contract to BT’s Global Services division.

Under the terms of the deal, BT will work with Swisscom Solutions, the IT and network-services division of the Swiss national telecoms operator, to manage the network infrastructure supporting Credit Suisse’s 45,000 employees worldwide. As a part of the contract, some 231 employees working in Credit Suisse’s internal IT department, as well as 50 contractors, will transfer to BT and Swisscom. The contract has a minimum five-year term, with the option of extending it to a further two years.

Credit Suisse said that it hoped to get improved access to mobile, Internet and advanced exchange-connectivity technology at a lower cost and with less capital investment. One interesting feature of the deal is that BT, Swisscom and Credit Suisse will all contribute to a “multimillion pound innovation fund,” which will finance the development of new technology to improve Credit Suisse’s infrastructure.

In the U.S., GM and AT&T inked a five-year, one billion dollars global networking deal. Under the terms of the deal, AT&T will provide network-integration management for GM’s entire telecoms infrastructure including voice and data systems and systems support. The agreement also contains a renewal of its contract to supply global virtual private network services. The deal is one of the biggest commercial contracts AT&T has signed.

Ralph Szygenda, Group Vice President and CIO, GM, outlined the expected benefits from the deal. “It ensures that we have the basic infrastructure in place to give GM employees anywhere in the world the ability to collaborate online in real time on engineering, manufacturing, design  and supply-chain,” he says. “It is expected to enable increased productivity and collaboration and to maximize GM’s global network.”
Meanwhile, U.K. utilities company Centrica has signed a a 10 year IT-services agreement with T-Systems, the network and IT-services operation of Deutsche Telekom. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although industry analysts estimate that it could be worth as much as one billion dollars. The deal is T-systems’ largest-ever contract outside Germany with Centrica. T-System will manage Centrica’s data centers and desktops, supporting some 23,000 users. T-Systems has acquired two data centers from Centrica, and taken on 230 employees from its internal IT team.

T-Systems said this deal also represents its largest-ever success with a new customer. T-Systems will form a springboard for its international expansion strategy, with the company aiming to generate 30% of its annual revenue from outside Germany by 2010, double the current level.