Law firm agrees £27 million IT managed services deal with Computacenter Services

Eversheds will be able to accelerate its IT Service improvement programme and undertake an immediate technology transformation thanks to a new IT managed services deal with Computacenter Services.

The firm, which is one of the largest full-service law firms in the world, has outsourced its UK Service Desk, desk-side support and datacentre hosting and management to the IT services giant under a £27 million contract.

Bryan Hughes, UK managing partner for Eversheds LLP, commented: “We are a law firm, not a specialist IT provider and this, coupled with the fact that we had finite internal resources, meant that we could never be at the cutting-edge of legal technology. However, working with an external provider will give us access to far greater resource and cutting-edge technology, which will help transform our service offering and, we believe, give us a real differentiator in the legal marketplace.”

Under the agreement, Computacenter Services will manage and host the firm’s datacentre environments and provide 24x7 IT support services to 4,000 users across Europe and Asia.

Malcolm Simms, IT Director for Eversheds, commented. “The partnership we have with Computacenter Services will allow us to accelerate the transformation and our service delivery improvement programme.  The retained
IT team will be free to focus on an extensive programme of innovation across the firm over the next five years that will help us deliver leading-edge business solutions that benefit our people and clients.”

As well as providing 24 x 365 IT management and support, Computacenter Services will also undertake a number of technology transformation projects as part of the agreement. These include consolidating the law firm’s existing datacentres to two Computacenter Services facilities, deploying a virtualised infrastructure and rolling out new storage and archiving solutions.

One of the key objectives for Eversheds, which has 32 offices across EMEA, is to provide staff with access to core systems from anywhere in the world and at any time. Thanks to Computacenter Services’ extensive resources, it
will be providing the law firm with a round-the-clock service desk, which is based on ITIL best practice and innovative remote management techniques.


Neil Muller, Director of Computacenter Services’ Managed Services Business Unit, commented: “By optimising Eversheds’ infrastructure and IT management processes, we will be able to decrease the demand for support services which will help cut the firm’s operational overheads. By drawing on the resources of our Shared Services Factory, we can ensure that clients maximise their investment in selective outsourcing by enabling continual improvement and innovation and the sharing of best practice and proven processes.”

Under the contract, 79 staff have transferred from Eversheds to Computacenter Services under TUPE regulations. Simms said: “We have been very impressed by Computacenter Services’ expertise in dealing with the transfer of our staff, and are content that they will be able to provide our transferred people with far greater career development opportunities than we could in-house.”

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Notes for Editors

About Computacenter

Computacenter is a leading European provider of IT infrastructure services. To help our customers maximise the value of IT to their businesses, we offer services at every stage of infrastructure investment.
We can advise customers on their IT strategy, implement the most appropriate technology from a wide range of leading vendors and manage elements of their technology infrastructures on their behalf. At every stage we help them minimise the cost and maximise the business value of their IT expenditure.
Our clients are served by a network of branch offices across the UK, Germany, France and Benelux and, through our international partners, at locations across the globe.

About Computacenter Services

Computacenter Services is part of the Computacenter Group, Europe's leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services. It oversees a range of managed and support services contracts as well as implementing transformation projects for major corporate and government organisations, with service offerings extending from users' desktops to organisations' network infrastructure and data centres. Computacenter Services recorded £267 million of revenue in 2005 and employs over 3,000 people across the UK and Europe, including an international helpdesk in Barcelona.

For more information, contact:
Tessa Freeman 
PR Manager, Computacenter                             
01707 631514, tessa_freeman@computacenter.com