Barclays Bank was due to sign a major outsourcing deal with
EDS for desktop services as Computer Weekly went to
press.
Under the deal, valued at hundreds of millions of pounds, EDS will
be responsible for thousands of PCs in banks across the UK. About
100 Barclays IT staff are expected to transfer to EDS.
The contract, due to be formally announced this week, provides a
welcome boost for EDS, which is currently under investigation by US
regulator SEC over its outsourcing deal with the US Navy.
In an internal letter to employees last month, EDS chairman and
chief executive Michael Jordan acknowledged the disappointment over
the company's first quarterly loss since the first quarter of 1999
and called for a shift in strategy.
"We must be disciplined in pursuing the right business
opportunities to make sure we do not sacrifice bottom-line earnings
to get top-line revenue growth," he said. "We must learn how to
focus around appropriate growth opportunities beyond outsourcing,
targeting investment in a rifle-shot manner."
The EDS contract is part of Barclays' business transformation
project, which will involve the outsourcing of much of its IT and
business processes. In April, Barclays dropped plans for a major
outsourcing deal with IBM, estimated to be worth £100m a year. It
would have involved Barclays IT infrastructure and seen the
transfer of 1,000 Barclays staff to IBM.
Barclays and EDS declined to comment.
l Barclaycard has signed a five-year, $17m (£10.4m) outsourcing
deal with CSC. Under the deal, announced last week, CSC will run
Barclaycard's merchant-acquiring and card-issuing system.