Walsall Council is to pay £650m to Fujitsu to sort out IT services for the borough for the next twelve years.

The huge deal will see 1,557 council staff move jobs to Fujitsu and the creation of 750 new jobs. There will be no compulsory redundancies. Local residents will get better access to council services and a single point of contact for all queries.

Apart from sorting out council services Fujitsu is also investing in Walsall Waterfront business centre. This will include a design centre, hi-tech manfacturing, a technical design suite and "a cyber skills laboratory". The "Putting the Citizen First" project will be largest partnership of its kind, according to Fujitsu.

Annie Shepperd, chief executive of the council, said: "“We needed a strategic partner to bring to reality our vision of providing excellent services for the people of Walsall. Nearly 30 companies expressed a strong interest in this project but Fujitsu emerged as the best choice for us. They proposed a joint venture with the council to run and manage the partnership, with highly innovative regeneration initiatives. Our citizens will be the real beneficiaries as our aim is to provide the highest quality services by the first three years of the partnership as well as achieve real savings in time, cost and efficiency."

The deal still has to go before the council's scrutineering committee for final approval. Three companies were short listed for the project in March this year, they were; Amey Plc, Fujitsu and HBS Business Services Group.

More details available on Fujitsu's website here. ®

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