EDS looks to business transformation services for growth

Computerworld - PLANO, Texas -- After a rough year of layoffs, lawsuits and lackluster revenue, Electronic Data Systems Corp. officials said the worst is behind them, and they plan to grow the company by offering business transformation services led by a management team made up of ex-CIOs.
The change is spearheaded by CEO Mike Jordan, who took that job last March and has since filled his upper management ranks with executives he hopes will take the company in a direction that will resonate with IT managers.
The 135,000-employee company sees future growth in helping companies leverage and integrate existing systems and transform their business processes, instead of simply operating systems for clients, or as company officials put it: "This mess for less."
By offering customers services to transform IT operations, EDS said it will also more directly challenge companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. that have detailed similar approaches. EDS officials said the company's strengths will be an emphasis on open standards, depth of technical expertise and a relatively agnostic approach to technology.
EDS can offer businesses "anything IBM can do, but we're a little easier to work with and, we think, from a long-term [perspective], a better technical solution," said Jordan. The company's approach, which also involves changes to its vendor relationships, was outlined yesterday at an analysts meeting at EDS headquarters here.
The EDS team put together by Jordan includes Charlie Feld, a former CIO at Frito-Lay Inc. who became executive vice president of EDS portfolio management after EDS bought Feld's consulting group earlier this month; Steve Schuckenbrock, who also worked for the Feld Group and was a senior vice president of IT at PepsiCo Inc. and now is EDS executive vice president for global sales and client solutions; and David Clementz, a former CIO and president of ChevronTexaco Information Co. who is now an EDS executive vice president for service delivery.
In the belief that customers want to narrow the number of technologies they use, EDS said it intends to develop deeper relationships with a smaller number of technology vendors and have more of a "bias" toward certain products in its customer recommendations.
"By tightening alliances with the Suns and Dells ... we're trying to get a much better look ... into what's coming three or five years down the road," said Schuckenbrock.
Microsoft Corp. was another company EDS officials said they want a deeper relationship with.
The approach also mirrors the belief of EDS officials that most businesses want to reduce the number of supported technologies and