BRITISH-based information technology company ICL has teamed up with software giant Microsoft in an alliance expected to create 1000 jobs in Europe and the US during the next three years.
Although about 500 of these jobs will come to Britain, none will be created in Scotland. The main UK beneficiaries will be Bracknell and Manchester in England.
The alliance plans to develop new systems targeted at government organisations, retail groups and various educational institutions. The deal will make ICL, 90%-owned by Japan's Fujitsu, one of Microsoft's largest partners in Europe.
''I am anticipating that in the next three years, ICl will probably see #500m additional new business as a result of this,'' chief executive Keith Todd said.
The companies will jointly bid for the contract to install the next generation of applications system for the Department of Social Security, which handles millions of benefits claims every year. The two are already working on modernising operations of the Post Office.
The terms of the three-year agreement call for ICL to train more than 4000 staff at seven dedicated ''solution centres'' throughout the world. The European sites are located in Bracknell, Manchester, Belfast, Stockholm, and the Polish city of Katowice, with the remaining centres in Redmond, Washington, and the university town of Wake Forest in North Carolina.
The alliance aims to standardise computing on Microsoft enterprise software such as
Windows NT Server and Back Office Applications. These will be aimed at retail systems using customer preferences to target special offers and Internet
solutions at schools and colleges.
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