Electronic Data Systems

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Electronic Data Systems Corp <tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;"></td></tr>
Type	Public
Founded	incorporated June 27, 1962
Headquarters	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Plano, Texas, USA <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Michael H. Jordan, Chairman & CEO</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Information technology services</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Products</th><td>Computer Services</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Revenue</th><td>$19.8 billion USD (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Employees</th><td>117,000</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>www.eds.com</td></tr>

Electronic Data Systems (EDS) (NYSE: 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<ref>Locations, EDS Website</ref>, and reported revenues of US$20.7 billion. EDS is ranked as one of the largest services companies on the Fortune 500 list.

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.<ref>Operation HOTFOOT, medicaid.state.ar.us</ref> These events were told in Ken Follett's book On Wings of Eagles.

1 Company Structure
2 Services
- 2.1 Partners
3 Major Clients
4 Controversy
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Company Structure

In 2006 EDS sold their management consulting subsidiary company A.T. Kearney by a management buyout; and retains 3 subsidiaries which are

ExcellerateHRO, which offers human resources outsourcing services jointly owned by Towers Perrin.
SOLCORP, which provides software solutions and services for the life insurance and wealth management industries.
Wendover, which supports consumer lending products.

[edit] Revenue Sources

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; and 8% from "other", such as currency exchange, asset sales, etc.^{[citation needed]} Services' revenue was: Infrastructure 52%, Applications Software 24%, Business Process Outsourcing 12%, A.T. Kearney (management consulting) 4%, and other 8%.

[edit] Locations

Image:GodPod.jpg

EDS operates in 60 countries<ref>Locations, EDS Website</ref>, centered in the metropolitan areas of Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas, Detroit, Michigan, and Northern Virginia in the United States. Other major facilities are in Brazil, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hungary and Spain.

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<ref>Legacy in Plano</ref> real estate development, which EDS built.

[edit] Company Sponsorship

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.

[edit] Services

EDS catalogs its services into three service portfolios which are Infrastructure, Applications and Business Process Outsourcing.<ref>Services, EDS Website</ref> 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 and 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.

[edit] Partners

EDS establishes a number of business alliances<ref>Alliances, EDS Website</ref> with other companies in the EDS Global Alliance program. The alliances are grouped into three groups, Agility Alliances, Solution Alliances and Technology Alliances.

The EDS Agility Alliance has worked on a range of projects, notably it's Agile Enterprise<ref>Agile Enterprise, EDS Website</ref> architecture, which EDS claims^{[citation needed]} will be both cheaper to operate and more adaptable to business change. Members of the EDS Agility Alliance include Cisco Systems, Dell, Inc., EMC Corporation, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, Siebel Systems, Sun Microsystems, Towers Perrin, and Xerox.

[edit] Major Clients

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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 $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<ref>NMCI Overview, EDS Website</ref>.

Following on to the NMCI type of services, EDS in March 2005 won a US$4 billion contract with the UK Ministry of Defence<ref>EDS-Led Consortium Signs Contract With U.K. Ministry Of Defence For Defence Information Infrastructure Project, EDS Website</ref> 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 ABN AMRO, American Airlines, United 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 plc, Sabre Holdings, SKF, Sun Microsystems, UK Ministry of Defence, Blohm + Voss, Telecom New Zealand, Telefónica (Brazil), La Caixa, Weyerhaeuser, Telstra, Xerox, and United States Steel and the United Kingdom's Department for Work and Pensions and also BP.

[edit] Controversy

The implementation of a cross-service payroll system for the UK MoD has been problematic<ref>EDS's RAF pay system struggles to take off, The Register</ref> and EDS has been criticised in the British satirical publication Private Eye^{[citation needed]} for involvement in UK IT projects that have proved expensive or partial failures.