The Canadian subsidiaries of Exxon Corp and Mobil Corp, along with Shell Cananda Resources Ltd and Petro Canada Ltd, are looking at the feasibility of handing over to a facilities manager their revenue and accounting functions on a collective basis. Electronic Data Systems Corp and an IBM Corp-led team are planning to bid for the billion-dollar contract which is a first of its kind. Facilities management is a common practice when companies want to divest their data processing activities, but offloading both data processing and accounting tasks is more unusual, especially on this scale. Systems & Network Integration describes the practice of offloading a specific business function as functional management outsourcing, and to date, it has represented a very small percentage of facilities management. The greatest potential for such projects is believed to be in the financial and airline sectors where high-volume transaction processing is the norm. However, the Canadian group is facing problems just laying the groundwork of functional management. They have to standardise accounting procedures, and aware of antitrust legislation, they have submitted the facilities management plan to the Canadian government. Both IBM and the Dallas-based General Motors Corp subsidiary have been invited in for discussions and the IBM team includes Toronto-based Information Systems Management Corp, in which IBM holds a 27% stake, and Coopers & Lybrand. But the bidding teams are incomplete and a number of other companies like the big Canadian systems integrator SHL Systemhouse Inc are jockeying for positions in the consortia to be formed by the Big Two.
