BT tackles Carillion convergence in £26.6 million deal

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Following its buyout of Mowlem last year, construction firm Carillion has signed on with BT in a five-year, £26.6 million deal to converge the two networks, it was announced today.

The five-year deal will integrate the legacy systems of the two firms, bringing together the networks and communications across some 1,000 sites.

"The professional integration of Carillion and Mowlem is essential to the success of the acquisition and to the delivery of sustainable, profitable growth and enhanced earnings," said Carillion IT director Steve Connor, in a statement.

"Under our new managed services agreement, BT will be helping us to join our two businesses together and implement a comprehensive review of our networks to see which sites are ready for a new, converged voice and data network," he added.

The BT-managed network will let Carillion's 50,000 staff access real-time project plans anywhere, allowing an architect at head office to send plan changes to contractors on-site, BT said.

The system will not only help the two firms merge, but will move Carillion toward converged, unified communications, linking telephony and broadband.

The construction industry is moving to networks which can handle both data and voice applications, said Caroline Ward, BT Global Services' managing director for the sector.

"However, site numbers and locations fluctuate, which makes it difficult for the industry to take a long-term view, and the need to be cost-focused is also arguably more acute in construction than anywhere else," she said in a statement. "The value of managing convergence in this way has already been proven in other industries, and we are confident that this will be the case with the construction industry."

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