"Atos Origin acquires Contrado Technologies from KPN"
Atos Origin, a leading international information technology (IT) services company, today announced the acquisition of Contrado Technologies, a 100% owned subsidiary of KPN. Contrado Technologies develops order management systems and manages KPN’s front office systems, generating revenues of EUR 25 million in its last full financial year. With effect from January 1st, 2005, 270 Contrado staff will transfer to Atos Origin under similar employment conditions. Atos Origin has entered into a contract to provide on-going services to KPN for a minimum period of 5 years.
After an evaluation of 25 different IT companies, KPN chose to work with Atos Origin. The transaction aligns with KPN’s policy of outsourcing its IT management and KPN had previously outsourced a number of its IT activities to Atos Origin, including its datacenters, end user services and SoftwareHouse.
Wilbert Kieboom, Atos Origin’s CEO for Northern Europe, is delighted with the agreement. “The acquisition of Contrado Technologies fits in well with Atos Origin’s policy of further consolidating its position in the telecoms sector. Moreover, this agreement underlines the confidence KPN has in Atos Origin as a strategic partner. Contrado Technologies also provides us with the opportunity to offer unique CRM services that will meet two of our customers’ major goals – to reduce their IT operating costs and increase customer satisfaction“.
Pieter Buijs, CIO at KPN, is also pleased with the take-over by Atos Origin. “The sale of Contrado fits KPN’s strategy of simplifying its IT wherever possible. The products developed by Contrado already contribute to this strategy. With these products Atos Origin is in a position to develop standardized solutions for KPN and for the telecommunications market“.
Contrado supplies unique CRM solutions and services that contribute to raising customer satisfaction and generate operational cost savings. Contrado Technologies’ most important product is OrderManager. OrderManager forms the essential link between a company’s customer contacts (front office) and service-provision to the customer (back office), and ensures efficient and effective transactions. OrderManager has an integral customer profile, in which comprehensive details about a customer are available and from which an appropriate product range can be offered, drawn from a company’s complete portfolio of products and services.
Atos Origin has a proven record of over 20 years’ accomplishment and experience in the Telecoms sector and has the skills and capability to provide global services. Atos Origin delivers reliable end-to-end solutions and has a customer base covering major telecom operators in Europe such as France Telecom, KPN, Vodafone, and Telecom Italia. The company’s annual revenues in the telecom industry are close to EUR 1 billion.
The headquarters of Contrado Technologies is, and will remain, at Groningen in The Netherlands, where Atos Origin has a large regional office specialising in Telco services. At Voorburg, KPN’s head office, a new Contrado Technologies operation is located. Contrado Technologies will operate as a separate business unit within Atos Origin’s Systems Integration division, and will also offer its services outside the telecoms and utility markets.
About Atos Origin
Atos Origin is an international information technology services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company’s annual revenues are more than EUR 5 billion and it employs 45,000 people in 50 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and its clients include ABN AMRO, Akzo Nobel, Alstom, BNP Paribas, Ericsson, EDF, Euronext, Fiat, France Telecom, ING, KPN, Philips, Renault, Royal Bank of Scotland, Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, Shell, Standard Chartered Bank, Telecom Italia, UK Department for Work and Pensions, Unilever, Vivendi Universal and Vodafone.
Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Euronext Premier Marché and trades as Atos Origin, AtosEuronext, Atos Worldline and Atos Consulting.
For more information, please contact:
Jacqueline Terpstra,
+ 31 30 299 5006
jacqueline.terpstra@atosorigin.com
José de Vries,
+ 33 1 55 91 24 53
jose.devries@atosorigin.com
Contact for Investors :
John White,
+ 33 1 55 91 26 32
john.white@atosorigin.com