News Article

Hitachi Consulting UK Awarded SharePoint Implementation and Managed Services Contract for UK's National Air Traffic Services

LONDON, UK - 30 March 2012 - Hitachi Consulting UK today announced that it has been awarded an additional major contract with UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) to implement Microsoft SharePoint 2012 to approximately 6,000 employees across the UK, United States, Middle East and Far East. As part of the contract, Hitachi Consulting UK will also be providing a three year Managed Services contract to support the new system. The SharePoint implementation is expected to help NATS to deliver on its new IT vision, known internally as Our Future Workspace. As part of this vision, NATS will be transferring all its desktop IT services to the cloud, and is believed to be the largest implementation of cloud-based infrastructure in the transport sector to date. The SharePoint implementation will help provide the infrastructure and applications required for NATS' roadmap of achieving greater agility, cost efficiencies and productivity across the business.

NATS is seeking to reduce its costs by £9 million over the next four years, shrink its environmental footprint, improve flexibility and enhance the service it provides to around 6,000 staff. The company is aiming to enable staff to access information more easily, provide greater mobility, and to align its IT with its future growth strategy to accommodate future scenarios, such as potential acquisitions and joint ventures that may require greater scalability and flexibility. Hitachi Consulting UK has already successfully completed the initial IT groundwork which is expected to pave the way for NATS internal Change Management programme to support the delivery of its vision.

Gavin Walker, Head of Information Solutions for NATS, explained, "Hitachi Consulting has a sound understanding of what makes a good SharePoint implementation. They understand the change management challenges we have, the technology required to deliver our vision, and have a strong track record of proven success in this area. This latest contract is a continuation of our long term commercial partnership and momentum."
The SharePoint implementation is scheduled to be deployed over two years. The initial phase aims to deliver a new extranet for NATS by August 2012 with a robust enterprise content management system, followed by a phased rollout throughout 2013 with all applications being migrated to SharePoint. Hitachi Consulting UK will also be providing Managed Services support and training for the system over three years, which will be delivered from Hitachi Consulting's support offices in Manchester, UK and Pune, India. Hitachi Consulting UK will engage a broad spectrum of its capabilities for the delivery of this project, including Management Consulting, Creative Services, Technology Solutions, Quality and Testing, Managed Services, as well as its Global Delivery Centre.

Like many organisations, NATS has an existing proliferation of business applications across the organisation, requiring costly support and creating inconsistent ways of working. The efficiencies of SharePoint will help enable NATS to significantly drive down its costs, improve productivity, and empower collaboration both internally and externally with third parties around the world. As a forward thinking organisation, the delivery of its new internal IT vision will help NATS' workforce access information faster, become more productive, get information on the move, and is expected to empower the business make better decisions.  

About Hitachi Consulting Corporation
Hitachi Consulting is the global business and IT consulting company of Hitachi Ltd. with operations throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The company is a recognised leader in delivering proven business and IT strategies and solutions to Global 2000 companies across many industries. With a balanced view of strategy, people, process and technology, we work with companies to understand their unique business needs, and to develop and implement practical business strategies and technology solutions. From business strategy development through application deployment and maintenance, our consultants are committed to helping clients quickly realise measurable business value and achieve sustainable return on investment (ROI). Hitachi Consulting's client base includes 25 percent of the Global 100 as well as many leading mid-market companies. We offer a client-focused, collaborative approach and transfer knowledge throughout each engagement. For more information, visit www.hitachiconsulting.co.uk .

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2010 (ended March 31, 2011) consolidated revenues totalled 9,315 billion yen ($112.2 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at www.hitachi.com.
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For further information, please contact:
Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: 0870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com