Balfour Beatty selects Fujitsu to implement messaging platform

Construction firm keeps faith with partner after £50m IT rationalisation project

Global construction company Balfour Beatty has selected Fujitsu to implement a messaging platform across its UK businesses in a bid to increase collaboration.

The deal follows on from the partnership agreement reached by the firms last July, in which Fujitsu signed up to aid a five-year IT rationalisation project at Balfour Beatty, in a contract worth between £40m and £50m.

At the time, Balfour Beatty CIO Danny Reeves told Computing that the programme was focused on standardising the company's end-user computing and hosting environments to enable staff to get hold of data faster, more effectively, and in a more collaborative way.

The latest deal involves implementing a single "collaborative" messaging platform to support 14,000 UK users across around 900 sites. Fujitsu will support the implementation using Microsoft Exchange 2013 to replace 14 existing email platforms. The company will also start using Microsoft Lync.

"When we decided to invest in improving and streamlining our messaging platforms, we looked to Fujitsu to partner us," said Reeves.

"This collaborative messaging platform will help our employees better engage with each other and our customers," he added.

The firms are currently planning for the implementation, and it should be carried out over the next six to 12 months.