12 August, 2004: The Eurocontrol Agency, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, will outsource a part of its IT services to a consortium of Getronics and Siemens Business Services. The two partners will provide network, server, storage and desktop services. The five year outsourcing contract has a value of €50mn.

Getronics and Siemens Business Services will together manage over 1,430 desktops and over 140 servers; supervise the common operating environment; supply help desk services and carry out network management, including providing security services such as Internet access control and virus protection. The service will be provided at Eurocontrol's Headquarters in Brussels, its Experimental Centre in Brétigny-sur-Orge in France, and for the administrative support of its Central Flow Management Unit, also in Brussels.

Víctor M. Aguado, Director General of Eurocontrol, noted: "Eurocontrol wants to transform its Information & Communications Technology (ICT) so as to increase the value of services delivered to different business units. Optimising our operational service is vital for us. The contract with this consortium includes an incentive scheme to decrease ICT costs through efficiency improvements and projects such as server consolidation".