Fujitsu gets $1.06Bln contract to run British postal computer system

Japanese computer giant Fujitsu said Friday it has won a 650 million pound (1.06 billion dollar) contract to run and maintain the British post offices’ computer systems until 2010.

Under the contract, subsidiary Fujitsu Services will manage the computer system of the Royal Mail Group’s Post Office division, said Robert Pomeroy, a Fujitsu Ltd. spokesman.

“Fujitsu Services in the UK has been supporting Post Office for a number of years. This is an expansion of that relationship,” Pomeroy said.

Further details of the new contract were not immediately available in Tokyo, but a news report said it was one of the largest contracts ever won by a Japanese information services company.

European nations are increasingly opening up their market for postal services and outsourcing system management to cut costs, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said.

Royal Mail Group’s Post Office spent two billion pounds over the past five years to create an online network linking the nation’s 17,500 post offices, the newspaper said.

The investment enabled the online handling of pension payouts, utility payments, bank transfers and withdrawals, it said.