McDonald's tells Atos to burger off: Da da da da da, we're lobbing IT ...

Burger-flipping grease-monger McDonald's is ditching Atos and will instead buy IT support services from rival French integrator Capgemini, The Register can reveal.

The agreement with Atos – understood to have included support for point-of-sales systems, digital signage and payment systems across McD's 1,249 UK outlets – is scheduled to end June 26, and transfer to the new provider.

One insider told us Capgemini will provide some support from its Indian call centre: "So there goes the 90-plus per cent first-time solution rate that the [Atos] team in [Hemel Hempstead] Hertfordshire have been achieving for years."

Our contact added: "The new team are going to be cross-trained by people who have shadowed the Atos team for two weeks."

The Atos incumbent team is expected to be TUPE'd across to Capgemini, another insider claimed, but our source added they were expecting to be made redundant. "Expect pain all round," he said of the contract transfer and service delivery.

Another source close to Atos said the long-running contract – believed to be at least seven years old – was used as a main reference point to generate business with retailers.

"The relationship was strategic in terms of the logo but it wasn't the biggest deal in terms of value. IT support is quite transactional and relatively low-margin business," he said. Our source refused to provide specific financial figures.

On the morning of 19 April, The Register sent a bunch of questions to Atos and Capgemini about the contract change, including one on support provided by the call centre in India.

Atos told us: "Not sure whether there is much we can say at this point but having a look into this now for you."

Atos did not contact us again and refused to comment when El Reg called.

Capgemini told us, after some hours of pestering: "Just heard back from McDonald's press office and they said they're aware of your enquiry and any comment will come from them."

Twenty-nine hours after our first call for comment, McDonald's – the home of healthy food stuff and that godforsaken scary clown – said it was "not in a position to comment on this story at the moment". ®