Nordea Opts For IBM Global ServicesNordea Opts For IBM Global Services

IBM has signed a 10-year, $2.57 billion contract to provide a range of IT services to Nordea AB, the largest financial-services company in the Nordic and Baltic Sea regions.

Under the deal, disclosed Wednesday, IBM and Nordea will create a 900-employee joint-venture company and a jointly staffed Transformation and Innovation Center with an eye to upgrading computing systems at Nordea's data centers in northern Europe. The goal is to move Nordea into what IBM calls an "on-demand" business-technology environment, in which users consume--and pay for--computing power on an as-needed basis. Nordea officials say they're confident the effort will cut their technology costs but didn't provide specific figures.

The contract marks the latest big win for IBM Global Services, whose e-Business On Demand pitch appears to be gaining favor with big companies eager to move from fixed to variable IT cost structures. Avaya, Boeing, Equifax, Ericsson, Procter & Gamble, and Raytheon all have signed sizeable service contracts with IBM during the third quarter. According to newly released numbers from research firm IDC, IBM leads the IT outsourcing market with a 22.4% worldwide market share, followed by EDS and Computer Sciences Corp. at 16.2% and 5.6%, respectively.