Despite denying reports that it was to restructure its services business earlier this week (CI No 3,188), Digital Equipment Corp has signed a $500m agreement with Electronic Data Systems Inc to take over the administration of DEC’s multi-vendor customer services unit. The news comes just days after Annette Hornby, a DEC marketing executive told Computergram: the service business is not changing. EDS will run the service for the next eight years taking on full responsibility for the administrative functions of the division, and will manage the contract from its UK office. Some 800 DEC employees around the world will shift to EDS, and according to Hornby the agreement will have no affect on customers, apart from them seeing faster quotes and simpler invoices. The employees do not include engineers and other staff members involved with the actual servicing of equipment. Susan Whittacker a DEC spokesperson said employees were told of the decision some time back and said it was cheaper for the company to bring in an external company to organize the division’s administration. EDS will also reorganize and redesign the whole business process, according to Whittacker. It will implement new software for the division and will ensure it won’t fall foul to the year 2000 configuration problem. EDS prefers to describe the deal as customer assistance business process management, which Nicholas Brown, an EDS spokesperson translates as a process that administers all of the bits to do with the customer that the multivendor part of the decision currently carries out. Brown says the contract is a big deal for EDS and it focuses on key elements that the business has been building on in the past.
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