Alstom outsources IT transformation to HCL Technologies

Engineering company Alstom has outsourced its IT services to Indian supplier HCL Technologies as part a five-year IT transformation project.

The deal, which will see 30,000 Alstom employees in 62 countries given support in their own languages, includes providing staff with PCs as a service and creating a platform to manage multiple IT suppliers.

Alstom manufactures trains and train systems, and makes about a third of the UK’s trains.

HCL will use delivery centres in Poland, Brazil and India to support Alstom with a multilingual global service desk to support users in 11 languages. HCL will also set up a services integration and management (SIAM) function to help it integrate its different IT suppliers.

“Following the sale of Alstom Energy and central support functions to GE, it was our priority to ensure a smooth and continuous IT operations, to embrace the digital economy in our transformational objectives while optimising costs,” said Christine Heckmann, CIO at Alstom. “HCL was the right partner for Alstom, as we found HCL to be flexible, agile and having a collaborative approach.”

HCL has invested heavily in global delivery capabilities, and so can offer customers many more options; the use of several offshoring locations under a single supplier is not uncommon.

HCL started operating in Europe in 1999 and is present in 18 European countries, with offices in the UK, Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. It employs more than 4,500 people in Europe, serving about 200 European customers. It recently opened a delivery centre in Estonia’s capital city, Tallinn. The 100-seat centre is part of HCL’s global delivery network.