Transdev deal just the ticket for Servo

Phoenix-owned services firm wins £1.9m five-year contract to overhaul bus operator's IT set-up

Fare deal: Servo is set to move Transdev's disparate IT systems onto one virtualised environment

Services firm Servo has tied up a £1.9m five-year deal to revamp the IT infrastructure of public transport giant Transdev.

A virtualised environment - hosted at Servo's datacentre in Birstall, West Yorkshire - will house the bus and tram operator's key business systems and applications. Servo claims this is the first time that the 1,200 employees of subsidiary Transdev Blazefield will have access to the same calibre of IT as staff at other Transdev group companies.

Systems hosted at the datacentre will include depot allocation, accident prevention, marketing, accounts and Microsoft Office programmes. Servo, which is part of the Phoenix IT Group, will also create a dedicated service desk to deal with queries and address problems.

Transdev operates in seven countries, including Australia and Canada. The firm's UK arms include Transdev Blazefield in Yorkshire and Lancashire, Yellow Buses in Bournemouth, Nottingham City Transport, London United and London Sovereign.

Jim Wallace, group finance and commercial director at Transdev Blazefield, said the transport firm's growth through acquisition had left it struggling to manage a variety of different IT systems.

"Our IT manager was constantly fire-fighting, which meant we hadn't been able to address the bigger IT strategy picture for some time," he said. "We realised that we needed to outsource our IT to an expert who could deliver a centrally shared system to boost business efficiency."

Martin O'Donnell, managed hosting director at Servo, claimed that Transdev's decision to work with his firm demonstrated the cost-effectiveness of IT outsourcing.

"A cloud-based solution not only reduces capital costs, it also allows the IT requirements to grow with the business without any upfront investment based on forecasts," he said.