Xansa wins £70m Northern Ireland water deal

A Xansa-led consortium has won a £70m contract to provide a new customer billing and contacts system for the Northern Ireland Water Service.

Xansa is the prime contractor for the Crystal Alliance, which also includes Echo Managed Services and AMT-Sybex.

The seven-year deal will see the Crystal Alliance provide the front and back office infrastructure for a new customer billing, debt collection, relationship management system and call centre for more than 760,000 Northern Ireland Water Services customers.

The new systems are due to be completed in April 2007 and the contract will create 180 jobs in the Belfast area.

Katharine Bryan, CEO of the Northern Ireland Water Service, said in a statement: "The cost savings made by outsourcing this part of our business will be reinvested in upgrading the water infrastructure in Northern Ireland to the benefit of all our customers."

The Xansa consortium beat off competition from an Accenture/Thames Water bid and a Capgemini/Fujitsu Services/Kelda Group/Loop Customer Management bid.