October 9, 2000

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EDS Partners With CRM Software Developers

Services firm will offer strategy consulting, systems integration, and application hosting

By Larry Greenemeier

More on CRM:

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any service providers are addressing the growing demand for help with implementing customer-relationship management systems, but EDS last week upped the ante by partnering with seven CRM software developers. The services firm will train nearly 10% of its 121,000-strong professional workforce for CRM services.

EDS will offer strategy consulting, systems integration, and application hosting services for software from Avaya, McHugh, NCR, Retek, Servicesoft, ServiceWare Technologies, and Siebel Systems. Applications include those that manage personalized online marketing, business intelligence, knowledge management, and fulfillment and distribution. The partnerships expand EDS's existing CRM services, which have included strategy consulting provided via its A.T. Kearney subsidiary and the implementation of CRM applications from Chordiant Software and Xchange.

Also last week, Deloitte Consulting said it would train 200 consultants on E.piphany Inc.'s customer-interaction software; this follows its alliance in March with WPP Group plc and BroadVision Inc. to create CRM services firm Roundarch Inc. Earlier this year, KPMG Consulting and PricewaterhouseCoopers partnered with E.piphany. These moves are designed to capitalize on a worldwide CRM services market that International Data Corp. projects will grow from $34.4 billion this year to $125.2 billion in 2004.

Still, EDS is making strong headway in its plan to dominate the CRM services market. It's committing 10,000 consultants, integrators, and managers for CRM services; IBM Global Services, by comparison, has about 2,500 professionals dedicated to CRM.

EDS expects to expand its customer base of around 160 companies by about 20% annually within the next few years, says Mike Littell, president of EDS CRM Services.

EDS expects its partnership strategy will give clients more choices. Brian Harris, VP of technology and operations at EDS customer Clickwell .com Inc., says that with EDS's help, the Dallas online vitamin retailer can select the apps that best fit its needs and budget. Says Harris, "We couldn't afford an Oracle or SAP implementation."

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