Fonterra to outsource software support to India

Dairy giant Fonterra has signed a deal worth $NZ48 million with Indian outsourcing company HCL Technologies, which will take over responsibility for supporting much of the company's software.

HCL will be responsible for application development, maintenance and support across all Fonterra's computing, the company's president, Vineet Nayar, told Fox News today.

He described the deal as a multi-service, multi-year deal contract. It was one of seven major contracts HCL announced with in a quarterly profit statement. Its net profit in the April-June quarter more than doubled to $US119.5 million from a year earlier, on the back of a 28.5 per cent rise in sales. About 100 Fonterra staff are expected to move to HCL or be made redundant, according to Fonterra information services director Greg James. HCL New Zealand began the year with a turnover of nearly $10 million, and 80 staff.

Fonterra outsourced the management of its IT infrastructure to US-based company EDS in 2003.

- NZPA