Global petrochemical giant Shell has agreed a 10 year, €300 million deal with IT services provider Logica, which will operate its business customer fuel card scheme.

Logica will take over management of the existing scheme, which allows businesses to issue drivers with cards to pay for their petrol, but will replace the underlying system with software from specialist supplier FleetCor.

According to analyst group TechMarketView, the deal typifies a kind of engagement in which the supplier takes on a large proportion of the work associated with a given business process.

“Logica calls this a managed service,” wrote analyst John O’Brien this morning. “But we see it as more than that, because Logica is acting as the consultancy, supplier, integrator and supporter of the software and services for the business process."

TechMarketView calls this kind of engagement ‘business process services’, or BPS.  “BPS covers the lifecycle of services that underpin and support the business process, so the systems design, supply, implementation, support, and maybe [business process outsourcing].”

Interestingly, Logica published a report eariler this month entitled "Eco-mobility – the end of the road for fossil fuels?". 

"Some people believe that we have about 50 years of oil left," the report says. "Others think that oil production has peaked and we’re already on the fast track to empty." However, the report also quotes BP’s chief economist Dr Christoph Rühl as saying "Peak oil has been predicted for 150 years. It has never happened.”