Satyam good value: Qantas

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QANTAS has praised outsourcing partner Mahindra Satyam's performance despite the latter being embroiled in a much-publicised billion-dollar accounting scandal.

The IT services firm adopted a new name after being acquired by Tech Mahindra. In January, Satyam's founder and chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, admitted to over-inflating the value of the company's cash and bank balances by more than $US1 billion.

Qantas corporate services and technology executive manager David Hall said despite the fraud saga, Satyam continues to service the Flying Kangaroo.

Mr Hall described Satyam's performance throughout the tumultuous period as "impressive".

"We've been very impressed with what they've done ... maintaining that level of support through that period," he said.

"Organisationally they've had some difficult times but we haven't seen a degradation of service at all, either locally or offshore. They've maintained service levels and I think that's a credit to the organisation."

Satyam has two outsourcing contracts with Qantas for custom application development and maintenance.

The first is a five - year contract inked in September 2006 worth $US80 million. The other deal, valued at $US55m spans seven years, ending in November 2013.

Qantas also has another India-based IT services partner in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

In 2006, TCS sealed a seven-year contract worth around $US90m for a slew of IT application, transformation and maintenance services.

Mr Hall said there were no immediate plans to expand the roles of Satyam and TCS.

"We're happy with where things are at the moment but if there's an opportunity to leverage more value through them we would."

He said Qantas was looking to generate greater value from all of its technology suppliers.

Qantas has around 27 ICT-related partners including IBM, Telstra, Fujitsu, Amadeus, and SITA (Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques).

The carrier is in final negotiations with IBM to transfer some 178 IT workers to Big Blue as part of a project outsourcing agreement.

As reported yesterday, IBM is expected to offer employment to Qantas IT staff by September 9 but details have been scant.

Staff would have until September 30 to accept IBM's offer and November 1 has been marked as the transition date.

An IBM spokeswoman said the company could not provide more details to staff as the contract with Qantas had yet to be signed.

Qantas employees are concerned that once they accept IBM's offer, their jobs might be outsourced to India by IBM, leaving them in the lurch.



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