Tata Steel Europe has selected Microsoft and Capgemini to migrate its two existing email systems to a new Europe-wide standard platform based on the Microsoft Office 365 cloud computing productivity suite.

The project marks the first significant deployment by Tata Steel of cloud computing and is one of the first large-scale enterprise implementations of MS Office 365 in Europe.

Microsoft and Capgemini will work as a unified team in collaboration with Tata Steel on the migration and on integrating to the new solution with other back-office and production systems, an official statement issued here said.

Microsoft's enterprise-ready cloud computing productivity solutions will help Tata Steel achieve these goals and are expected to deliver annual savings on IT run-costs. "This move to an enterprise-ready cloud communications platform will significantly improve our ability to respond rapidly to the challenges and opportunities of today's marketplace.

It will also be a significant contributor to our plans to reduce our overall IT operating costs," Tata Steel Chief Group Information Services Shreekant Mokashi said. As the second-largest steel producer in Europe with primary operations in Britain and the Netherlands, Tata Steel was looking for a platform that could offer the scalability and robustness of a common email solution.

MS Office 365 was selected because of its better security and control features, enterprise-grade disaster recovery, access via desktop and mobile devices, and 24/7 support," Mokashi said.