IBM said Monday that it has won a contract worth $17.7 million to provide tech support to Denmark's Agricultural Advisory Service.



Under the seven-year deal, IBM will support and maintain an online accounting and bookkeeping system that the Danish government agency operates on behalf of the country's farmers. The system, called 090, helps farmers maintain income statements and balance sheets and track their value-added tax payments.

The pact extends an existing contract that IBM inked with the Danish government in 2003 to support 090. More than 90% of farmers in Denmark use the system, according to IBM. It's used to maintain more than 40,000 VAT -- or value added tax -- accounts.

Under the new agreement, 090 will be moved off Sun servers and ported to a virtualized environment hosted by IBM. "We will achieve greater flexibility because we will be able to quickly adjust our use of capacity up or down according to demand," said Niels Peter Skrubbeltrang, department manager at the Agricultural Advisory Service, in a statement.

IBM's Global Technology Services outsourcing unit has been building momentum of late. Last week, IBM said it had won a $330 million services contract from insurance giant Allianz. Earlier this month, Canada's Canadian Pacific railway handed IBM a five-year contract to provide it with application development and support services. Financial details were not disclosed.

IBM's Global Technology Services unit posted a 10% gain in year-over-year revenue in IBM's most recent quarter, to $8.8 billion. It also signed new services contracts totaling $11.7 billion during the period, up 22% over the previous year.