Telstra has sold the lion's share of its personal computer asset base to IBM Australia Credit for $100 million.
Facilitated by the IBM Australia Credit PC Fleetlease Plan, the deal covers the sale and leaseback of the telco's administration desktop PCs and notebooks. Telstra expects the move will result in an 80 per cent reduction in administrative costs associated with the accounting and management of the equipment, as well as giving line management more financial responsibility for IT assets.
For the past twelve months, Telstra and IBM Australia Credit have undergone a trial program to evaluate the financial and administrative benefits of leasing the desktop PC and notebook base of Telstra. The trial encompassed 17,000 PC units within its Business and International Business Unit. With that trial deemed a success by Telstra management, the company decided to forge ahead and extend the agreement to cover 80,000 PC units across 1500 geographical sites.
"As part of the trial, we already had $30 million of equipment leased," explained Telstra's finance director, John Stanhope. "The finalisation of this arrangement with IBM Australia Credit brings the total amount of leased IT equipment through this deal to $130 million.
"Our goal was to eliminate the costs associated with managing the hardware including stocktakes, upgrades and new orders. We also want manager to exercise more control over the equipment in their areas so as to re-focus their attention on our core activities."
Stanhope said the company would continue to do business with manufacturers and suppliers that provide Standard Operating Environment PC equipment to Telstra, but IBM Australia Credit will purchase the telecommunication carrier's PC requirements from its contracted suppliers.