British Telecommunications PLC today announced a A$6.5 million (US$5.1 million) telecommunications outsourcing deal with SCA Hygiene Australasia (SCA HA), part of the global SCA group. Under the agreement, BT will provide all of SCA HA"s data, PABX and mobile voice services to its Australian and New Zealand operations over the next three years.

SCA HA, which includes brands such as Sorbent, Purex and Deeko, was formerly owned by Carter Holt Harvey Ltd before it was acquired in May 2004.

Gerard Guinane, IT director at SCA HA, said phase one of the Australasian implementation will see BT take management of the existing telecommunications infrastructure and contracts, and link the Australasian operations with the SCA multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) platform. This will provide access to the global SCA IT services hosted from Gothenburg, Sweden.

BT will then facilitate a series of workshops to identify a roadmap going forward.

This new contract replaces a number of solutions in place with different service providers.

Raj Kapoor, managing director, BT Australasia, said the company can add value by leveraging the latest technologies in areas such as supply chain management and radio frequency identification (RFID).

He said one of BT"s first priorities was to ensure the total data separation of the new company from its former parent and seamless integration into the global SCA network.