The deal is worth more than 10 million euros, spread over a period of five years. As a result of the agreement, some ten IT staff members are moving from Mercator Verzekeringen to work at the Getronics regional office in Kontich. Mercator is keeping its own IT department, which is responsible for software development and use of the company's mainframe computer.

This outsourcing agreement means that Mercator will save 15 percent on the planned IT budget. Through standardisation and innovation of the infrastructure, costs will be reduced further to an estimated 20 percent by 2010.

Mercator will also be able to lower the operational risks associated with its IT management. Among other things, Getronics will host a backup site where a second IT system will automatically take over production should problems occur in the main infrastructure.

"Our operational ICT department became too small to guarantee a sound balance between high quality service, manageable operational risks and an acceptable cost level. The aim of this outsourcing deal is to achieve this equilibrium and to maintain it. Finding a good solution for our staff was by far the most important boundary condition. We are convinced that we can fulfil these goals through partnership with Getronics", says Gert De Winter, CIO of Mercator Verzekeringen.

Mercator's choice of Getronics was partly inspired by the cost of the multi-annual project, the working methods and the proven quality and services, the opportunity of improving risk-control incisively quickly and the smooth transfer of personnel from Mercator to Getronics.

"Throughout the negotiation process, Getronics always demonstrated flexibility so that it could respond quickly to our specific needs", adds Gert De Winter.
Getronics provides Mercator with the following services from its standard offering: Workspace Management Services, for on-the-spot and remote management of the entire staff's working environment; Security Services, for the continual monitoring and management of the security of the whole computer infrastructure; Communication Services, with management of the telephony network, switchboards and telephones; and Technology Transformation Services, for the management of servers, networks (WAN/LAN) and storage networks (SAN).

To further save on costs and ensure an even more stable computer infrastructure, Getronics has, among other things, started up a consolidation project for the servers, centralisation of the helpdesk and security monitoring, and the installation of distribution software to keep Mercator's PC pool as up-to-date as possible remotely.

"Mercator has chosen outsourcing services from our core offering, and I am delighted that Getronics has been granted this contract. Apart from the technology and the services that we will be offering Mercator, the compatible corporate culture of our two organisations was an important element in closing this deal, and ensuring it runs smoothly in the future ", says Jean-Claude Vandenbosch, General Manager of Getronics Belgium and Luxembourg.

Consultancy Morgan Chambers guided Mercator Verzekeringen through the whole outsourcing project.