Network Rail is outsourcing large chunks of its technology infrastructure to suppliers Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and Specialist Computer Services (SCC).

The organisation, which owns and operates the nation’s rail infrastructure, announced earlier this year that it would outsource IT services unrelated to its core operations across more than 1200 sites.

The decision is part of a review into IT services at Network Rail designed to improve services and reduce costs.

CSC will handle enterprise operations, including data centre hosting, disaster recovery planning, security, server maintenance and storage area network management. It will also provide Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) support.

Some 70 IT support staff at Network Rail will transfer to CSC between October 2007 and March 2008 and Network Rail will invest £4m in the required infrastructure.

‘We are eager to exploit CSC’s capabilities,’ said Network Rail IM director Catherine Doran. ‘We have always been clear that our preferred supplier must engage in our development and change programme as well as keep the critical systems running.’

SCC will service Network Rail’s distributed computing and maintain the network of desktops across the UK from October, including support of desktop hardware, office moves and changes, local delivery of projects and asset handovers.

‘We recognise that quality IT delivery has to be reliable and seamless for our customers from the data centre to the desktop,’ said Doran.

Both contracts are for five years, with the option to extend the agreement further.