PLANO, Texas and SINGAPORE €“ Today, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) announced the award of an eight-year information technology (IT) services deal worth approximately S$1.3 billion (US$1 billion) to EDS, leader of the oneMeridian consortium. This deal represents one of the largest IT projects ever undertaken in Asia.

This agreement will help the Singapore government achieve a standard desktop, network and messaging/collaboration environment across its public sector by the end of fiscal year 2010. Called the Standard ICT Operating Environment (SOEasy) project, the Singapore government€™s overall goal is to help public sector employees work more efficiently and improve the public sector€™s agility and ability to deliver quality services to the country€™s citizens and businesses.

Through SOEasy, Singapore€™s public sector employees across all ministries, departments and statutory boards will have secure, universal access to integrated voice, video and data communications. The common environment will improve security and enable employees to connect and collaborate seamlessly within and across agencies using tools like instant messaging, desktop video conferencing and whiteboard sharing. SOEasy also will periodically integrate the most up-to-date commercial technologies and centralize IT budgeting and expenditures.

€œAs the leader of the oneMeridian consortium, EDS is proud to have been selected as the trusted partner of the Singapore government for this marquee account,€ said Michael Coomer, EDS Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific. €œGiven our track record in delivering solutions of this scale, we are confident we can provide a state-of-the-art operating environment for Singapore€™s next generation public service offerings.€

oneMeridian, the EDS-led consortium, brings together best-of-breed partners combining local expertise and global experience. The strong governance framework embedded in the solution, together with a vendor neutral position, will support the transformation of the Singapore Public Service infocomm environment.

Tan Tong Hai, President and Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Computer Systems Limited (SCS), said, €œBeing the key local partner for oneMeridian, SCS is most delighted with this win. We will do our utmost to support our consortium to deliver the project.€

Under this new contract, EDS will lead the oneMeridian consortium in providing desktop services, messaging and collaboration services, network services and common services (procurement, billing, change management, management reporting, computing lifecycle, backup, and security).

Eventually, the SOEasy network will link approximately 60,000 workstations and laptop computers at 74 public agencies across Singapore and the globe.

€œoneMeridian represents a comprehensive, leading-edge approach that will help create an agile work environment across the entire breadth of the Singapore government,€ said Stephen Yeo, EDS Executive Director, Southeast Asia. €œEDS and oneMeridian share with the Singapore Government a vision to turn the Standard ICT Operating Environment (SOEasy) programme into an example of excellence in IT management, collaboration and value generation.€

Led by EDS, oneMeridian is a consortium that includes Singapore Computer Systems (SCS), Frontline Technologies Corporation Ltd, Fuji Xerox, Avanade, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Microsoft and SingTel.

Included in this contract win are members of the EDS Agility Alliance, a coalition of companies globally recognized for their quality, products and value to clients. Its mission is to innovate, develop and deliver the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform €“ EDS€™ next-generation global delivery system. Together, EDS and its Agility Alliance partners collaborate to design, build and run a market-leading services platform and develop technology-based services to deliver tangible client results. EDS Agility Alliance partners include Cisco, EMC, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun Microsystems and Xerox.