Peter meets ...Peter Overakker

EDS swings!

“After a period of consolidation EDS is growing again” says Peter Overakker, General Manager of the Nordics.

 

It is clear that the new boss is not satisfied easily. Totally focused on his customer needs Peter set ambitious goals for his team: minimal 100% growth in the coming 5 years. A team that is organized to shorten the time to market.

 

There are a lot of outsourcing vendors active in the market. One can divide the players in three categories, the Global/International players, the European/Local and the Indian players. Worldwide EDS belongs to the top 5 Global players. As a spin-off of GM, EDS was the first to start outsourcing services in the 60s. With a turnover of more than 20 billion in 2007, 135.000 employees worldwide and customers in 100+ countries, the company has always played in the World league. EDS sees Accenture, IBM and HP as its biggest competitors.

 

Global Outsourcing Strategy.
Taking over activities from companies and delivering reliable services is the core business of EDS, emphasis Peter Overakker. We are specialized in outsourcing and bring value to our customers on a Global and Local scale. Many people in the Netherlands think that infrastructural services are our strongest point. However, our application services are as good as our infrastructural services and form a big part of our turnover (38% in 2007). This balance between applications and infrastructure positions EDS as a strong system integrator. A value that is recognized well in the market:

Our Strategy is Global, so we offer the same services and quality in more than 100 countries. With this Global Strategy we do service our International clients as well as our Local clients. I’d like to stress that our Local customers benefits from this Global Strategy. What are these benefits?

 

Local benefits.
The Strategy on infrastructure is quality improvement, cost savings by economy of scale and standardization, in other words: higher efficiency! So the local customers can use the robust infrastructure at much lower cost than otherwise possible. On the application side EDS has invested much in Solutions, Quality and Security. A good example of this is the takeover of Mphasis, based in India. On all these aspects the local customer can leverage on the Global Best Practices.

 

EDS has an extensive best shore strategy with development premises around the World. India, South America (Argentina, Brazil) and Eastern Europe (Hungary) are good examples where development centers of EDS are located. The same goes for service desks which are situated in Belgium ((Mechelen), Hungary (Budapest) and Malaya (Kuala Lumpur).

 

As mentioned before Shell just granted EDS with an outsourcing contract for their desktops for a period of 5 years. As a consequence the EDS service desk in Kuala Lumpur will be merged with the IT operations of Shell.

 

Is EDS only looking for the big deals?
Certainly, a World class player like EDS is one of the few companies that can handle the real big billion euro’s deals. However, the main stream of its business consists of million instead of billion euro’s deals. Have a look at two Business Cases that illustrates the added value of EDS towards its clients. The business cases are attached at the end of this article.

Which companies are not on the radar screen of EDS?
It is clear that companies which are fond of implementing their own bespoke technical solutions and different processes are not the ideal customers for EDS. Unless they would like to transform to the Global standards and infrastructure. Neither are the very small companies. EDS doesn’t have the structure yet to manage these very small companies. More and more EDS focus on the middle sized companies which will benefit much from the Global investments of EDS. This leads to the question:

 

Does EDS only know One Way, the so called EDS’s way?
Although it is obvious that one get’s the biggest benefits when the customer implements the Global Best Practices, EDS is experienced and flexible enough to manage different infrastructures. Together with its alliance partners like Sun, EMC, Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Sap, Xerox, EDS spend a lot of time and money on R&D. Through these investments, together with its alliance partners, a standard platform and clear operational procedures are realized. The policy of EDS is to bring as much as possible customers to its own leverage environment where you can share cost, applications and solutions.

Focus on Solutions.
In the European market EDS focus on Solutions. The application solution sales are organized in different clusters for Finance, Manufacturing, Telecom, Retail and Transportation. They are supported by Competence Centers for Sap, Oracle, Soa, etc. In 2008 EDS is enlarging their application sales force and the number of consultants in order to grow.

 

EDS’s Market Focus in the Netherlands.

➢ Manufacturing
➢ Government
➢ Finance
➢ Retail
➢ Telco
➢ Transport

Does this mean that EDS aggressively will focus on growth?
The last two years the main focus of EDS was to satisfy its existing Customers. Peter Overakker claims that all his customers are very satisfied with the services. Based on this fact, check and meet the extensive references, EDS will grow its business by focusing on selling the many different solutions to its customer base and to new prospects. Only when customer satisfaction is safeguarded EDS will take on the new business.

Did you know that EDS is the biggest player in Airline Reservation systems? Did you know that EDS plays an important role in applications with Aegon, Ahold and Karlstad Quelle? Did you know that Vodafone has chosen EDS for the development and maintenance of their applications?

 

GM’s 3rd Generation Outsourcing Model.
Governance is key for the success of any Outsourcing deal. General Motors has learned a lot during the many years of Sourcing experience. They already work with the 3rd wave of Outsourcing. GM believes strongly in multi sourcing because this enhances innovation and competition. Therefore GM developed the 3rd Generation Outsourcing Model:

EDS’s Elevator Pitch:

➢ High Quality
➢ Stable
➢ Does what it promise
➢ Client and people oriented
➢ Business partner instead of vendor

 

EDS is the leading vendor and works according this model. In client engagements EDS discuss this successful GM model extensively. In the press release Shell and EDS states the following:

 

“To reduce management complexity for Shell, EDS will also act as operational integrator, collaborating closely with Shell’s other key IT suppliers. Approximately 1,500 IT professionals, including Shell full-time employees and contractors currently working for Shell, will join EDS, in 65 countries globally. “

EDS’s delivery model.
“Our strongest point is that our account executives act as General Managers” emphasis Peter Overakker. The account executive can act immediately on the needs of the client because he or she is responsible for the P&L as depicted in the following model (see attached pdf).

 

All the clients of EDS are clustered in Industry Groups. The account executive is P&L responsible and also direct responsible for the most important client. This means that the account executive acts like a general manager instead of a relationship manager as often seen in the market. All the general managers/account executives have followed an exclusive EDS training course.
Client satisfaction is on top of the appraisal of the account executives. At least 40% of their scorecard measures this leading element. It is not only how satisfied the clients are with the existing services, but Innovation and New Ideas are very important. Peter Overakker believes that this approach sets EDS apart from their competitors and it shortens the time to market considerably.

 

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