Outsourcing outfit Atos Origin yesterday beat out rivals HP, Fujitsu, and LogicaCMG by winning a five year support contract with the Highways Agency (HA) worth £75m.

The HA, which operates control centres throughout the UK's road network and currently has more than 100 contracts on the go, said it hoped the deal would slash its annual IT budget by 15 per cent.

Atos will provide management, infrastructure, desktop, and applications support to the HA's IT systems.

Under the agreement some 120 staff will be transferred to Atos offices with the transition expected to be completed by March this year.

The French services firm has recently spread its outsourcing tentacles into a number of government agencies.

Last month it secured a £14m contract extension with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. ®

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