Bank of India [Get Quote] and Hewlett Packard on Thursday announced that the companies' IT outsourcing engagement has been selected the winner of the Outsourcing Center's 2005 Outsourcing Excellence Awards 'Best First Steps' category.

The excellence awards recognise IT and business process outsourcing vendors and their clients achievements. To select the winners, a panel of judges reviewed all components of relationship structures and outcomes achieved among all of the nominations.

Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage

The 'Best First Steps' category honours the vendor and client that have taken exceptional initial steps toward achieving the client's outsourcing goals.

The prestigious award, sponsored by Outsourcing Center and Everest Group, was presented at the 2005 Outsourcing Excellence Awards ceremony in conjunction with the Sourcing Interest Group semi-annual conference, on Wednesday night in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Bank of India decided to outsource its IT environment to HP because it recognised that IT was necessary to increase productivity, standardisation and drive competitive advantage.

"Since our relationship with HP began more than a year ago, we've become more agile, (we are) able to focus more of our resources on our core competencies and as a result are providing a better banking experience for our customers,' said D Krishnamurthy, general manager, information technology, Bank of India.

"We are delighted that these accomplishments are being acknowledged in the outsourcing industry,' he added.

As part of its contract with Bank of India, HP is implementing a data warehousing and document imaging solution, as well as building and managing a data centre, disaster recovery site, help desk and call centre.

In addition, HP manages Bank of India's servers, desktops and peripherals across the branches that have implemented the core banking solution and provides asset refresh and obsolescence protection for its IT assets.

"We're pleased the industry recognises that HP and Bank of India are on a path of continued success,' said Steve Smith, senior vice president, HP Services.

Outsourcing Excellence Awards is an annual program developed by the Outsourcing Center, an online community specialising in thought leadership, best practices and innovation in outsourcing.