BANGALORE, INDIA: Australian telecom major Telstra confirmed on Tuesday that it has awarded around $1.2 billion outsourcing contracts to Infosys, EDS and IBM.

A press release from Telstra said that the vendor agreements are part of its IT transformation plans to increase efficiency and streamline IT operations.

The IT transformation program has included an extensive analysis of both IT contracts and systems, it added.

The multiple vendor contracts are consolidated into two key areas within IT: Application development and maintenance (AD&M), and infrastructure build, management and support. As per this plan, EDS and Infosys will share a five-year, $450 million contract for expanded application development and maintenance services contracts.

While, IBM has been awarded a five-year contract worth $745 to manage Telstra's infrastructure, said the release. Telstra said the consolidated approach, via standardized contracts, enables greater efficiency in management effort and improves consistency of delivery and support.

By working with fewer vendors, Telstra will streamline IT processes and deliver more effective and efficient service.

Though Satyam was earlier in Telstra's list of vendors, it has not found any place after this consolidation exercise. Earlier there were reports that Telestra had removed Satyam from its list of vendors.

John McInerney, Telstra CIO and GMD Information Technology expressed confidence that the new agreements would deliver significant benefits.

"This is an important milestone for Telstra IT. One of the key outcomes of our IT transformation is the delivery of operational excellence. These consolidated contracts contribute to our strategy and ensure an ongoing investment with our key partners," said McInerney.

"EDS, IBM and Infosys are important IT transformation partners and we look forward to continuing our relationship," he added. David Caspari, managing director of Australia and New Zealand at EDS, an HP company, said the deal aligns well with Telstra's business goals.

 "With deep expertise in applications services and strong knowledge of the telecommunications industry, EDS will enable Telstra IT to support the business' needs," he said. Infosys Australia CEO Jackie Korhonen welcomed the announcement as a reinforcement of Infosys' strategic partnership with Telstra since 2003.

"This is a strong acknowledgment of Infosys' ability to contribute strategic value to one of our top clients worldwide," Korhonen said.

David Burns, IBM's managing director for Telstra account, said this is a significant agreement for IBM as it builds on our strong relationship of more than 20 years. "This is a great opportunity for us to build on the work we have been doing in Telstra's infrastructure domain - combining the IBM software tools suite and IBM's depth of technical knowledge to provide Telstra with a highly efficient IT environment," he said.