Shell has signed a major five-year agreement with Microsoft and T-Systems that will allow Shell employees to collaborate online globally. Shell will buy SharePoint services dynamically, via the internet, to increase flexibility at work and to reduce costs.
Shell is already using SharePoint as a collaboration platform. With a target date of April 2011, T-Systems is now preparing to provide Shell employees a customized version of the Microsoft SharePoint solution virtually, from its own data center. Doing so will offer an enterprise-wide capability to work virtually in the cloud from anywhere at any time.
“For us as a globally operating company, SharePoint is a key instrument for smooth cooperation in projects with decentralized teams. This joint solution will allow us to appreciate considerable cost reductions and greater flexibility,” said Shell’s VP IT Services Jay Crotts.
Microsoft and T-Systems are working jointly on the project, with Microsoft SharePoint providing a central platform for various applications such as document and content management as well as organization and collaboration in project work.
Reinhard Clemens, member of the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management and CEO of T-Systems said. “This is a significant addition to our current contract and puts Shell at the forefront of innovation by combining the data security features of private clouds with the benefits of fully scalable public clouds.”
“Microsoft and T-Systems are now bringing together their strengths in SharePoint for Shell. It is highly significant for us that Shell, one of our largest SharePoint customers, is now receiving the application in a hybrid cloud, thus putting them at the top of the innovation tree in this area,” said Jan Piet van Roon, Global Client Director for Shell at Microsoft.
By Angela Meadon
