Electronic Data Systems

Electronic Data Systems (EDS) (, LSE: EDC) is a global information technology consulting company that defined the outsourcing business when it was established in 1962 by Ross Perot. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, General Motors acquired the company in 1984, although it 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 services companies on the Fortune 500 list.

For 2004, 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's 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%.

Of historical significance, just prior to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, EDS was the IT company that developed the Iranian social security information system. During the 1979 overthrow, several EDS employees were detained by the transitioning government of Iran, causing H. Ross Perot to undertake extraordinary clandestine measures to get these employees out of Iran. These events were told in Ken Follett's book On Wings of Eagles.

In 2006 EDS sold A.T. Kearney by a management buyout.

Services

EDS catalogs its services into three service portfolios which are Infrastructure, Applications, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) ^*. Infrastructure services includes maintaining the operation of 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 involves the developing, integrating, and/or maintaining of applications software for clients. Business process outsourcing includes performing a business function for a client, like payroll, call centers, insurance claims processing, and so forth.

EDS has three subsidiaries which are ExcellerateHRO, SOLCORP and Wendover. ExcellerateHRO offers human resources (HR) outsourcing services jointly owned by Towers Perrin. SOLCORP provides software solutions and services for the life insurance and wealth management industries. Wendover supports consumer lending products.

EDS establishes a number of business alliances with other companies in the EDS Global Alliance program. The alliances are grouped into three which are the EDS Agility Alliance, Solution Alliances and Technology Alliances.

EDS services a wide range of industries ^* including communications, consumer, retail, energy, financial, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation.

Agile Enterprise

EDS in 2004 began promoting its Agile Enterprise architecture, which it has developed with partners in the EDS Agility Alliance. Members include Cisco Systems, Dell, Inc., EMC Corporation, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, Siebel Systems, Sun Microsystems, Towers Perrin, 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 operates in 60 countries. In the United States, EDS's largest locations are in the metropolitan areas of Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas, Detroit, Michigan, and Northern Virginia. There are hundreds of sites throughout the US, in almost every state. In the UK, large sites are in London, Derby, Newcastle, Milton Keynes, Hook, Lytham, Blackpool and Telford. In Canada, major offices are in Ottawa, Oshawa, Toronto, St. Catharines and Calgary. Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Spain also have major facilities.

EDS's 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 real estate development, which EDS built.

Clients

Most of EDS's clients are very large companies and governments that need services from a company of EDS's scale. EDS's largest client is General Motors, which accounts for 9.7% of EDS's 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. EDS is attempting to cut GM IT costs by offshoring some work to cheaper labour markets such as India, China, New Zealand, Brazil and Spain.

Another large EDS client is the United States Navy. In 2000, they won a contract for the creation of a US$9 billion intranet linking the Navy and the Marine Corps, which was set to late 2006, but on March 24, 2006 was extended to 2010, adding an addition $3 billion to the accumlated contract worth. This initiative is known as the Navy Marine Corps Intranet, or simply NMCI. In 2004, NMCI accounted for about 4% of EDS's 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 UK Ministry of Defence 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, Department for Constitutional Affairs, Department for Work and Pensions, Bank of America, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Fonterra, Kellwood, Kraft Foods, Nextel, Phoenix Life, OnStar, Rolls-Royce, Sabre Holdings, SKF, Sun Microsystems, UK Ministry of Defence, Blohm + Voss, Telecom New Zealand, Telefónica (Brazil), La Caixa, Weyerhaeuser, Telstra, and Xerox.

Sponsorships

EDS is the title sponsor of the PGA Tour's EDS Byron Nelson Championship, played in nearby Irving, Texas. The tournament raises more than $6 million dollars each year for youth and family service centers in Dallas. From 1998 to 2001 EDS sponsored Derby County F.C.

External links

Electronic Data Systems
Yahoo! - Electronic Data Systems Corporation Company Profile
EDS timeline
EDS Next Big Thing Blog
Operation HOTFOOT, about rescue of two of EDS' own employees imprisoned in Iran in the '70s
Flickr: extraspecial's photos tagged with eds
Handbook of Texas Online