T-Systems Offers Combined Product With Microsoft

T-Systems, the Rochester Hills-based technology services division of the German telecom giant, and Microsoft Corp., Monday announced a new combined offering, "Dynamic Services for Collaboration."

Shell will soon be the first customer to benefit from this development, having commissioned the two suppliers to deliver a tailored SharePoint program that will enable Shell employees to collaborate in the virtual world.

Microsoft and T-Systems have signed a five-year deal that will allow Shell employees to work together online globally. Shell will buy SharePoint services dynamically via the internet to increase flexibility at work and to reduce costs. 

Shell is already using SharePoint as a collaboration platform.  With a target date of April 2011, T-Systems is now preparing to provide Shell employees a customized version of the Microsoft SharePoint system virtually, from its own data center. Doing so will take Shell staff to the next level of collaboration, by offering an enterprise-wide capability to work virtually in the cloud from anywhere at any time.

Jay Crotts, Shell's vice president of IT Services, recently spoke at Microsoft's Global Energy Forum on the advantages of Cloud computing. 

He stated, "For us as a globally operating company, SharePoint is a key instrument for smooth cooperation in projects with decentralized teams.  This joint solution will allow us to appreciate considerable cost reductions and greater flexibility."

The information stored can be made available to each employee as required. The solution is highly scalable, it can incorporate adaptations according to specific requirements, for example high-security specifications, and has a usage-based pricing model.

T-Systems and Microsoft have been working together on a number of fronts in the ICT market since 2004, as well as now on this major development for Shell.  In 2009, the two companies announced their joint effort in the field of cloud computing to give users access to standard Microsoft applications such as Outlook or Word via the network as needed.

"This development is a clear extension of our existing partnership with Shell, broadening our scope from Hosting and Storage into the Collaboration and Application Management space," said Reinhard Clemens, member of the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management and CEO of T-Systems.

"Microsoft and T-Systems are now bringing together their strengths in SharePoint for Shell. It is highly significant for us that Shell, one of our largest SharePoint customers, is now receiving the application in a hybrid cloud, thus putting them at the top of the innovation tree in this area," said Jan Piet van Roon, global client director for Shell at Microsoft.

More at www.t-systemsus.com.