Outsourcer beds down Aussie customers

Gas pipeline owner the Australian Pipeline Trust (APT) and food producer Burns Philp have outsourced their information technology and telecommunications functions to local provider Brennan IT, it was revealed today.
The arrangements were signed in March 2006 and December 2005 respectively, a spokesperson for Brennan IT told ZDNet Australia, with initial implementation phases recently being completed. The deals are worth a combined AU$1.65 million, according to a statement issued this afternoon by the company.
"Under the three-year managed services agreements, Brennan IT will provide Burns Philp and APT with onsite and remote IT support, which includes a manned 24x7 service desk and ongoing proactive maintenance and monitoring of their IT infrastructure," the statement said.
APT will also receive a national private Internet Protocol-based wide area network linking the group's offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth as well as three offsite servers hosted by Brennan. Firewalling, spam filtering and anti-virus services also come as part of APT's package.
Burns Philp will also receive managed Internet access, hosting and telecommunications solutions.

In Brennan's statement, Burns Philp group financial controller and risk manager Greg Quirk said the outsourcer understood the needs of smaller organisations, and said his company had had a "stable IT infrastructure" since the outsourcing move took place. APT chief financial officer Rick Francis said Brennan's one-stop-shop for ICT services made sense despite the fact APT hadn't necessarily been looking for a single provider.