IBM has won an IT outsourcing gig worth $1.1bn with ABB, the ailing Swiss-Swedish enginering group.

The deal lasts for 10 years and covers management of the usual infrastructure - servers, operating systems, networks, PCs and help desks - in 14 countries. There's a modish pricing component too - with IBM introducing On Demand Computing to ABB. This is expected to save ABB approx. $50m per year over the life of the contract, according to IBM.

The IT giant is taking on 780 ABB staff. In 2001, IBM signed up for a $600m trial with ABB, taking on 510 ABB at the time. The renewal and expansion of the outsourcing gig shows that ABB must think that IBM has done a good job. ®