Scoot.com Thursday entered a technology alliance with
IBM that will help it
develop its services throughout Europe.
Under the terms of the five-year agreement, IBM will supply
web hosting and IT support while both companies will
cooperate in R&D, focusing on wireless technology but
also sharing in sales and marketing.
“With our rollout plans being accelerated and our changing
infrastructure requirements, we chose IBM because they are
best equipped to meet our challenging demands,” said Scoot’s
Chief Technology Officer Charles Webb.
Frank Kern, general manager of Professional Services at IBM
Global Services EMEA, hailed the deal as “a very significant win.”
“Scoot are literally betting their business on us as they
have bought full scope ‘all blue’ IBM,” said Kern.
Up till now, Scoot has been using Compaq servers and Microsoft NT.
The new contract with IBM calls for RS/6000 technology running
AIX and DB.
As part of the deal, IBM Global Services will provide a turnkey
solution platform designed to host both the Web application and
normal business application. The two companies estimate that
the contract could eventually be worth as much as $50 million as
the service is rolled out across Europe.
The timescale for the project sets the end of April as the
date for the live U.K. solution, with EMEA services beginning
with Belgium, Holland and France during late August.
Scoot.com’s services enable seamless transactions between buyers
and sellers through various multi-access channels. The company
currently operates in the U.K., the Netherlands and Belgium, while
its pan-European venture with Vivendi S.A. is scheduled to
be completed over the next three years.