HP has signed a six-year applications management outsourcing deal with MLP, an independent financial services and wealth management consulting company in Germany. The deal is expected to help MLP increase business development.
The company claimed that the agreement reduces MLP’s financial risk by offering pay-per-use pricing and allows the company to respond to changing business priorities with adjustable service levels. In addition, HP will help MLP reduce costs by standardising technology processes and leveraging a global delivery model.
MLP also extended its existing infrastructure technology agreement for management of three data centres, network devices, distributed servers, Lotus Notes messaging and end-user PCs to 2015.
Under the new applications management contract, HP will manage applications that support sales, customer service and the design of new products. These include MLP’s SAP applications and the customer relationship management that is part of its broker platform, and its business intelligence, document management and custom JavaTM applications. Additionally, HP will be responsible for the life cycle management of the applications, from development to implementation, including quality assurance and operations.
The company said that its current infrastructure agreement is based on the concept of utility pricing, where services are bundled and invoiced on a pay-per-use model. The same model will be used for the applications management deal.
Bill Thomas, senior vice president and general manger of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at EDS, an HP company, said: “In order to shift its focus and resources to more strategic innovation, MLP needed technology as a service. This new applications management agreement delivers an end-to-end solution enabling MLP to simplify its technology operations and realise a higher return on its investments.”
