Telstra signs IAG up for $40m deal

By ADAM GIFFORD

TelstraClear has poached one of Telecom's biggest customers, signing up IAG NZ for a four-year, $40 million full service contract.

IAG chief information officer Catherine Rusby said the insurance company wanted to run all its desktop, core business and voice applications on the same network, and TelstraClear had the capability to deliver that.

IAG, which trades here under the State and NZI brands, has about 1700 staff at two national offices, eight call centres and 31 sales sites.

Rusby said the change did not involve capital spending.

"Part of the arrangement is this is a full managed service, including the lease on the hardware," she said.

TelstraClear will work with IAG's IT services provider, Gen-i, to implement and manage the system.

TelstraClear chief executive Rosemary Howard said there were significant savings to customers through the use of internet protocol voice and data systems.

"There is some customer premises equipment, but much less than the investment needed for the traditional phone system.

"As we go forward, the intelligence will be in the network itself rather than in call centre equipment."

TelstraClear renewed its contract with the Ministry of Social Development, the first major organisation in New Zealand to implement a voice-over internet protocol network.

Other big customers include BP's retail network, Caterpillar dealer Gough Gough and Hamer, Westpac and BNZ.