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Dutch financial major, the ING Group, and a group of outsourcing providers have agreed to a $1 billion, five-year deal which will cover workplace services for the Group's banking and insurance operations in the Netherlands and Belgium. Under a memorandum of understanding, Accenture, Atos Origin, Getronics and KPN will provide installation, maintenance and support for desktops, laptops, printers and telephones, according to an ING statement. The deal is part of ING's cost cutting initiatives, announced in 2005, which have the overall goal of reducing organisational costs by approximately $585 million annually. Earlier, in 2003, ING had outsourced IT infrastructure services to IBM Global Services in a $600 million, seven-year deal. As per the understanding, approximately 490 workers in the Netherlands and approximately 60 workers in Belgium will be transferred to the providers. The memorandum is expected to be finalized by the end of 2006. In all, about 2,200 workers will be transferred to outsourcing partners under the Group's overall cost-cutting exercise. The Amsterdam, Netherlands, based ING Group, provides banking, insurance and asset management services in over 50 countries.
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