July ’08 saw government defense contracts dominating the top 10, with Lockheed Martin winning the biggest of the bunch — a $1,200 million eight-year deal from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to manage its integrated hiring operations and personnel program.

Lockheed Martin will develop a HR application to support the recruiting, assessing, hiring, paying and
promotion of all TSA employees, and also operate its HR systems. The deal is one of the largest public-sector HR Outsourcing (HRO) deal, and is a major win for Lockheed in an area outside its typical business. This contract could signal a move into the wider commercial HRO market in the future.  Another five contracts making up the top 10 this month were U.S. defense related.

The largest of which was CSC’s deal with the Department of Homeland Security for secure managed data-center services. The contract is structured as a six-month base period and six option years.
The second largest overall deal for the month of July was WNS Global Services’ $1 billion contract with the U.K.-based insurance giant Aviva. The deal, which will run for about eight years, was negotiated as part of WNS’ $228 million acquisition of Aviva’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) arm Aviva Global Services, which has 5,800 employees in centers in India and Sri Lanka. WNS will provide BPO functions such as policy administration, finance and accounting and customer care.

Having paid BT Group $110 million for exclusive negotiation rights, Tech Mahindra saw a return on that investment with the announcement of a $700 million deal with the U.K.-based telecommunications provider. Under the contract, Tech Mahindra will assist BT in accelerating BT Group’s transition to the platform-based services strategy focused on improving its customers’ experience.