Vodafone gives green light to IT outsourcing deal

Vodafone has begun consulting staff on IT outsourcing plans aimed at improving operational efficiencies and cutting costs.

Vodafone notified staff of the decision to go ahead with the IT outsourcing proposal late last week, although a spokesman told silicon.com the plans are still at an early stage.

The scope of the outsourcing deal is likely to cover billing, CRM and software development.

Reports earlier in the year claimed IBM had been lined up for the outsourcing contract but the Vodafone spokesman said no decision has yet been taken on a choice of vendor.

He said: "It's all very early days. We have had an internal talk with staff and we are at the exploratory stage with vendors."

Vodafone confirmed that it expects some people to transfer across as part of the IT outsourcing deal but declined to say how many staff would be affected.