The UK's Insolvency Service has signed a £20m outsourcing deal with IBM to modernise its IT infrastructure and reduce costs.

The Insolvency Service is the government department responsible for investigating companies and bankruptcies.

The five-year deal will see the department centralise its applications and move to a thin-client infrastructure so its 2,750 staff can better manage a rapidly increasing caseload across 35 locations.

IBM will host the servers and applications at its data centres and provide network and helpdesk support as part of the fully managed service.

Graham Horne, acting CEO of the Insolvency Service, said the deal will help the department control IT costs and operate more efficiently.

He said in a statement: "By moving from desktop and laptop systems to thin-client hardware, we will be able to centrally manage our key applications, reduce our energy costs, and be able to more effectively plan, as we will know the exact cost of adding each new user."

Horne said a thin-client infrastructure also allows caseworkers to work from home or remote locations and means the department can offer flexible working arrangements to more staff.

The Insolvency Service is using IBM's virtual infrastructure access services technology to centralise its applications.