Sky's the limit for Computacenter services

Computacenter's services focus received a boost last week when it won a £45m outsourcing contract with the British Airports Authority (BAA) to provide desktop supply and services.

The corporate reseller and infrastructure provider will service 10,000 desktops from April, replacing agreements BAA had with several different suppliers. It will be responsible for maintenance, installations, moves and changes, as well as asset disposal.

The deal builds on Computacenter's focus on its services business, which it talked up when it announced its results earlier this month.

Computacenter's desktop services business in the UK is currently worth about £300m per year.

"Desktops have always been a core skill area of ours and we began offering maintenance on products which grew into managed services," said Mark Kenealy, commercial sector director of Computacenter.

Desktop services are an ideal area for the channel to add value because it requires a wide range of expertise, which many companies are unable to provide in-house.

Kenealy said Computacenter has an important advantage. "We are more flexible than large global outsourcers and can be flexible in what we offer."

When the service level is agreed the services provided are often different to what the customer initially wanted, he added.

According to Richard Rundle, IT director at BAA, Computacenter's understanding of business requirements, as well as its ability to deliver cost control, were key advantages.

In a statement Rundle said: "By consolidating our desktop requirements into one end-to-end services contract we expect to generate savings of around £1.6m per year, which represents a significant return on our investment."