The IT services provider is to take responsibility for implementing the head office IT infrastructure that will support the point-of-sale system M&S plans to roll out to stores.
It will also support head office infrastructure that underpins other applications used in the retailer’s stores.
The deal is an extension of a five-year agreement that M&S signed with Computacenter at the end of 2007.
M&S head of infrastructure and application services Damone Quigley explained that there are benefits to Computacenter providing an end to end service, rather than relying on different suppliers for different services. “We have an outcome-based managed service with Computacenter that will reduce our risk and increase the quality of IT service for the business,” he said.
The service provider will assist M&S’s stores and business applications service desks to adopt standards-based processes for issues such as problems, incidents, requests and changes.
Other aspects of the deal include Computacenter deploying virtualised server environments for the retailer.
Computacenter is also providing IT equipment recycling services to M&S to help it achieve its environmental aims. In 2008, the services provider helped the retailer meet both the WEEE requirements and its Plan A objectives by ensuring no IT waste was sent from head office to landfill.
l Separately, M&S has renewed a contract with Fujitsu Services for the provision of support for its in-store systems. Under the seven-year deal Fujitsu will install and maintain systems from a number of suppliers for the retailer. It will also help identify ways for M&S to cut costs in the medium to long term.
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