Major solutions provider Optus Business has signed a seven-year deal with finance giant Suncorp Group to provide "comprehensive ICT managed services".
"We are delighted to secure this new managed services agreement with Suncorp and look forward to the contribution we can make to their business over the next seven years," said Optus Business managing director John Paitaridis.
Optus Business incorporates Alphawest, which the telco acquired in 2005.
According to the announcement from Optus, it will provide services encompassing "voice, contact centre, data networks, and international and transaction services" for Suncorp in a "whole-of-business agreement". The financial terms were not disclosed.
"The new agreement will provide Suncorp with the flexibility to focus on customer experience advancements and drive strategy, innovation and business growth, while Optus manage Suncorp's mission-critical network services and ICT environment,” said Paitaridis.
The next two years will be spent transitioning the ICT services to Optus.
It is unclear whether Optus replaces any other outsourced providers. Both Suncorp and Optus refused to answer quesions about incumbent suppliers.
It marks a major strategic shift for the banking and finance giant. Back in 2012, Suncorp's technology lead, Jeff Smith, told iTnews that it was ruling out technology outsourcing.
Smith left Suncorp earlier this year to take up the global CIO role at IBM.
For Optus Business, the big win comes after it revealed in June that it signed $700 million worth of new work over the 2013-14 financial year. At the time, Optus' managed services team was working on 350 projects and boasted of "integrated ICT" contracts with Westpac, Virgin Australia and ANZ.
Optus has also been proactive on IT security, with last month's announcement of plans to open security operations centres in Sydney and Singapore, in conjunction with FireEye.
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