Schneider Electric has awarded Capgemini a £1bn-plus
outsourcing contract to take over its IT department and roll out a
worldwide SAP-based business systems platform.
Schneider, which provides electronic control systems to utility
suppliers and enterprises, has awarded Capgemini a 10-year contract
that will see 800 IT staff transfer to Capgemini around the world
from January next year.
Almost half of these transfers will take place in France where
Schneider has its headquarters, while the others will be spread
across the UK, other European countries, North America and the Asia
Pacific region.
Schneider said Capgemini had been brought in to ensure "a
controlled evolution of the company's applications systems, the
continuity of current operations and an optimisation of cost
management".
Capgemini is not making its SAP roll-out plans public at this
stage. Francois Dauriat, an analyst at Ovum, said, "Capgemini's
strengths in SAP integration are well known. The company ranks
among the leading players in this field, along with the two other
contract bidders Accenture and IBM.
"As with Accenture's recent deal at Barclays, the 'social
engineering' side of the deal was key. The trade unions reportedly
feared a possible overlap with Capgemini staff, and so initially
favoured a contract with Accenture. But this problem was turned
around successfully."