Swiss bank UBS, which has been slashing IT costs and cutting staff, has signed a network outsourcing deal with CSC worth up to $580million (£381 million).
The bank will draw on the five-year agreement for voice and data networking, security and telecoms services. The total £381 million cost is dependent upon the full scope of services being taken.
UBS will now consult with staff unions in order to ascertain its plans for employees. It was not able to immediately comment on the number of staff affected or what will happen.
The contract is a master services agreement, a type of deal that is highly detailed and establishes clear expectations on rates, responsibilities and services provided. UBS has said in the past that making sure IT services contractors understand and sign up to its business model is vital to keeping its contracts on track.
In February, UBS said it had removed £158 million from its ICT and consultancy costs, turning in a profit after a year of heavy losses. Some of those savings (£23 million) come from the sale of its BPO unit to Cognizant, a sale that was closed in December for $82 million (£52 million).
Oswald Grübel, chief executive, wrote in a letter to shareholders that 2009 was a “transformative year” for UBS. The bank is working on “fully integrating” its operations, he wrote, as well as targeting “excellence in execution”.
That year, UBS also announced it was shedding 8,700 jobs across all operations, a figure understood to include back office and IT staff.
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