Frozen food chain Iceland plans to call on BT to provide it with managed wide area network (WAN) and local area network (LAN) services in addition to an innovative hosted voice solution.
Iceland hopes that the move will help it reduce costs and aid strategic IT convergence plans.
The 18 million deal will see the two companies working together until 2014, cementing an existing relationship by a further five years and complementing projects executed thus far with new networked IT services.
"This deal with BT Global Services will provide Iceland with significant cost savings across our voice estate whilst strategically placing us on our convergence roadmap," said Mark Pearson, Iceland's information systems (IS) director.
"BT really understands our requirements and demonstrated this by proactively putting forward a sound proposition. Technical expertise and the strength of our relationship were key factors in our decision to continue working with BT."
As a result of the extended deal, BT will now enjoy the title of primary supplier of IT services and solutions for the supermarket, helping the frozen food giant to make its convergence transition in small steps rather than one big bang.
Mark Quartermaine, vice president for commercial & brands at BT Global Services in the UK, added: "Many organisations struggle to identify and achieve the first step on the journey to convergence. Their focus is the bottom line, therefore talk of wholesale technological change - and the investment inherent in that - is off-putting.
"BT's Hosted Voice Solution will provide Iceland with a stepping stone, while achieving great cost efficiencies. Our long-term service agreement will also be invaluable in terms of eliminating the time and effort of renegotiating a voice deal annually."
