Microsoft and T-Systems sign cloud deal with Shell

Oil giant will move to a new version of SharePoint collaboration suite hosted in the cloud

Shell has signed a five-year deal with Microsoft and telecom solutions company T-Systems to receive SharePoint services via the cloud to aid collaboration within the company.

Shell already uses SharePoint as a collaboration platform, but will begin to use a customised version of the Microsoft software that will be hosted in the cloud.

The company is hoping to benefit from increased flexibility and reduced costs as a result of the deal.

The services will be provided virtually via T-System's datacentre.

Shell said it hopes this deal will see its staff benefit from enterprise-wide collaboration that can be accessed anywhere, at anytime via the cloud.

"For us as a global company, SharePoint is key to smooth co-operation between decentralised teams working on projects," said Shell's vice-president, IT services, Jay Crotts.

Microsoft SharePoint provides a central platform for various applications enabling document and content management.

This news comes a few days after Shell signed a €300m (£252m) 10-year deal with Logica and FleetCor to provide a business-to-business fuel cards programme in Europe and Asia.