Origin finishes moving jobs to Wipro

Origin has completed the transfer of 258 employees to Indian outsourcer Wipro, which won a deal last year to upgrade the energy firm's systems.

"This week marks the achievement of the final 'cut over' in the transition program, with Wipro taking responsibility for the business processes included in the last outsourcing 'wave'," an Origin spokesperson said.

The work is part of a three-year deal that will see the energy company move to an integrated SAP billing and customer management system. Wipro is also taking control of some of Origin's back office systems.

The companies started the migration in May, with 158 Origin staff members moved by June. The final 100 staff have since transitioned to Wipro's new Adelaide base, which the outsourcer established in conjunction with the project. It already had a presence in Sydney and Melbourne.

Now that back office systems, including retail billing, customer relationship management and support systems, have been transferred, the focus is on moving to integrated SAP billing. System design for the "retail transformation" is set to be finished next year. A spokesperson for Origin said that was on track.

According to the company's annual report for the year to 30 June 2009, the retail transformation program cost $9 million this year. It said that the program was started due to a report detailing a $78 million loss in Origin's retail billing systems.