IBM interested in providing IT services to Finnish public sector - report

Nordic Business Report, June 18, 2004

NORDIC BUSINESS REPORT-18 June 2004-IBM interested in providing IT services to Finnish public sector - report(C)1994-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

The US IT group IBM is reportedly interested in winning IT services business from the Finnish public sector and expects outsourcing to increase as Finnish companies try to cut costs.

IBM has reportedly moved aggressively in Finland in the last two years, and has won multi-year IT service deals worth billions of euros from companies ranging from the Finnish telecomms solutions provider Nokia to the pan-Nordic financial group Nordea.

IBM has a staff of 1,600 in Finland, and reported sales of some EUR450m in 2003, making it the second largest IT services provider after the Finnish-Swedish IT company TietoEnator Corporation.

Pyry Lautsuo, CEO of IBM Finland, reportedly said that at the moment the company was more of a technology provider in the public sector, but added that the sector was very interesting for the company.

The CEO expected the outsourcing trend to run deeper in future, with Finnish companies farming out some or all of their more data-heavy operations such as product procurement, human resources, accounting and computer help desk tasks, reported Reuters.

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