IBM has signed a seven-year $1.25 billion outsourcing contract to deliver IT infrastructure services for Lufthansa. According to the agreement, IBM will optimize the airline’s IT processes, which is expected to generate an estimated cost savings by an average of approximately $87.65 million annually for Lufthansa. Over the life of the contract, IBM is also expected to bring new solutions that incorporate business analytics with mobile computing and social businesses.

IBM will begin the multi-stage transformation of the Lufthansa IT landscape by implementing collaboration and messaging tools for social business, new network and voice services, an optimized electronic workplace solution and IBM’s security framework, says Big Blue. As part of the outsourcing agreement, IBM will also manage Lufthansa Systems’ entire data center operations, help desk and printer services along with individual infrastructure services.

Around 1,400 Lufthansa Systems employees will transfer to IBM. Infrastructure services are scheduled to begin from IBM on April 1, 2015.

[Image courtesy: Lufthansa]