Electronic Data Systems
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Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Template:Nyse (LSE: EDC (http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/pricesnews/prices/system/detailedprices.htm?sym=US2856611049USGBXIRSQ2310655EDC)) is a global information technology services company that was established in 1962 by Ross Perot and is headquartered in Plano, Texas. General Motors acquired the company in 1984. EDS became an independent company again in 1996. In 2004, it employed 117,000 people located in 60 countries, and reported revenues of US$20.7 billion. EDS is ranked as one of the largest 100 companies on the FORTUNE 500 list.
For the 2004 year, 56% of revenue came from the Americas (Canada, Latin America, and the United States); 27% from Europe, Middle East, and Africa; 5% from Asia-Pacific; 4% from A.T. Kearney (EDS' management consulting subsidiary); and 8% from "other", such as currency exchange, asset sales, etc. Services' revenue was: Infrastructure 52%, Applications software 24%, Business process outsourcing 12%, A.T. Kearney (management consulting) 4%, and other 8%.
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Services
EDS catalogs its services into four service portfolios: Infrastructure (ITO) (http://www.eds.com/services/infrastructure/), Applications (http://www.eds.com/services/apps/), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) (http://www.eds.com/services/bpo/), and A.T. Kearney (management consulting). Infrastructure services means operating part or all of a client's computer and communications infrastructure, such as networks, mainframes, "midrange" and Web servers, desktops/laptops, and printers. Applications services means developing, integrating, and/or maintaining applications software for clients. Business process outsourcing means performing a business function for a client, like payroll, call centers, insurance claims processing, and so forth. A.T. Kearney is a management consulting firm that operates as a fairly independent subsidiary of EDS. Kearney provides strategy, organization, operations, and technology advice to businesses.
Clients
Most of EDS' clients are very large companies that need services from a company of EDS' scale. EDS' largest client is GM (General Motors), which accounts for 9.7% of EDS' revenue. Since GM has plants in 32 countries, EDS is one of a few IT services companies that can handle that kind of a client.
The current contract between General Motors and EDS expires in July of 2006. GM has said that they intend to contract with a variety of vendors, spreading more of the work to vendors beyond EDS. For EDS, this will likely continue the steady decline of GM revenue. GM's IT spend has been declining for many years.
Another large EDS client is the U.S. Navy. In 2000, they won a contract for the creation of a US$9 billion intranet linking the Navy and the Marine Corps. This initiative is known as the Navy Marine Corps Intranet, or simply NMCI. In 2004, NMCI accounted for about 4% of EDS' revenue. NMCI has been called the largest private network in the world, with approximately 400,000 "seats". EDS is providing the network, desktops, laptops, servers, telephones, video-conferencing, satellite transceivers, and overall management of the intranet.
Following on to the NMCI type of services, EDS in March 2005 won a US$4 billion contract with the U.K. Ministry of Defense to "consolidate numerous existing information networks into a single next-generation infrastructure.... The network will provide seamless interaction between headquarters, battlefield support and the front line, linking about 150,000 desktop terminals and 340,000 users in approximately 2,000 locations...."
Other major clients include American Airlines, Bank of America, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass., Commonwealth Bank of Australia, J.Crew, Nextel, Phoenix Life, Primedia, Rolls-Royce, Sabre Holdings, ThyssenKrupp Budd, Telecom New Zealand, Telefônica S.A. (Brazil), USPS, and Xerox.
Strategy
EDS in 2004 began promoting its Agile Enterprise (http://www.eds.com/services/agileenterprise/) architecture, which it has developed with partners in the EDS Agility Alliance (http://www.eds.com/services/alliances/agility/). Members include Cisco Systems, Dell, Inc., EMC Corporation, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, Siebel Systems, Sun Microsystems, and Xerox. The architecture is intended to help clients move from a legacy of 40 years of patchwork systems development to a modern architecture, which EDS claims will be both cheaper to operate and more adaptable to business change.
Locations
EDS_Centre_with_EDS_flag.jpeg
EDS' Plano, Texas, campus is located about 20 miles (30 km) north of downtown Dallas. The campus consists of 3,521,000 square feet (327,000 m²) of office and data center space on 270 acres (1.1 km²) of land. It is the center of the 2,665 acre (11 km²) Legacy in Plano (http://www.legacyinplano.com/) real estate development, which EDS built.
Recent negative press in UK
In recent years, the press (mostly in the UK) has published a growing number of stories about high profile government IT failures involving EDS:
- Child Support Agency (CSA) (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/management/0,39020654,39185518,00.htm)
- Department of Work and Pensions (http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020466,39175170,00.htm)
- NHS Email System (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39160396,00.htm)
- Electronic Benefits Transfer System (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39164600,00.htm)
- Colorado Benefits Management System (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3206129,00.html)
- Another week, another EDS Government IT catastrophe… (http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/other/0,39020682,39175379,00.htm)
- EDS investigated 4 times in 3 years (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/management/0,39020654,39188063,00.htm)
External links
- EDS website (http://www.eds.com)
- Yahoo! - Electronic Data Systems Corporation Company Profile (http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/41/41915.html)zh:EDS