IBM Signs Contracts Worth More Than $1 Billion

IBM on Wednesday said it has signed contracts worth more than $1 billion to provide information-technology services to two Danish companies.

The deals were signed with shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk and Danske Bank, the Armonk, N.Y., computer company said. Along with the agreements, IBM said European regulators had approved its acquisitions of Danish companies Maersk Data and DMdata.

Under the deal with Moller-Maersk, IBM will provide management consulting, application development, and IT infrastructure services. IBM has been managing the shipping company's financial applications, licensed from SAP AG, for some time, and will be responsible for integrating those applications with Moller-Maersk's legacy systems, which are run by Maersk Data.

For Danske Bank, IBM will handle its IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, security management, disaster recovery, and technical-program management.

Together, the deals are worth more than $1 billion, IBM said.In the Maersk Data acquisition, IBM plans on combining the company's transportation expertise with its own consulting operations to establish a Global Transport and Logistics Competence Centre, which will address client problems in more than 160 countries.

DMdata, on the other hand, will be combined with IBM's IT infrastructure management services to establish an On Demand Delivery Centre for IBM clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. DMdata was established seven years ago in a merger of the IT operations of Maersk Data and Danske Bank.