AT&T Wins $150 Million Contract from Smiths Group

AT&T has won a $150 million six-year contract to help accelerate Smiths Group's company-wide business transformation.

Officials with AT&T (News - Alert) said that the company will provide a range of solutions and applications that will support an on-going business transformation by Smiths and provide it with a common communications infrastructure across all of its operations and business units, supporting 23,000 employees at 300 locations around the world.

Company officials said that the agreement is designed to allow Smiths to take advantage rapidly of new and emerging technologies, such as cloud computing and unified communications, and meet its extensive mobility requirements, while being able to reduce operating costs.

Smiths aims to improve productivity and efficiencies while enhancing the ability to control, manage and configure its Information Technology (IT) platforms and make IT "fit the business."

According to company officials, the new agreement between the two companies builds on an earlier contract (announced in 2008) when AT&T was selected to provide Smiths global wide area network.

"This agreement is strategically important for us," said Brian Jones, chief information officer for Smiths Group, in a statement.

Jones said that it is an enterprise-wide engagement, rather than simply purchasing a series of technologies or entering into a series of transactions.  

He said that the entire Smiths Group now has access to a common services platform, allowing the company to manage assets, speed decision-making, improve productivity and foster greater collaboration across the company’s portfolio.

“Operating costs are significantly cut while reliability is improved. We now have a global infrastructure that will allow us to exploit new opportunities, benefit from emerging technologies and enjoy AT&T's global scale," said Jones.

Andrew Edison, head of AT&T's business in Europe, Middle East and Africa welcomed the announcement.  

"Smiths were clear what they wanted; a trusted provider that has the global scale, scope and resource to deliver the critical solutions they need to make their operations and businesses run efficiently. We have been able to extend our existing relationship to show the full range of skills and technologies we can deploy around the globe and give Smiths the confidence that they have in place the support and applications they need to succeed," said Edison.

Company officials said that through AT&T BusinessDirect, AT&T's Web portal, Smiths can perform a multitude of highly reliable network management and administrative tasks.

AT&T BusinessDirect helps users manage their network services online to improve productivity, increase the speed and accuracy of their network transactions and optimize network efficiency, all while potentially reducing costs.