HP, NEC Ready Outsourcing Offering

As a potential new outsourcing powerhouse combination arrives on the scene, an existing outsourcing giant is winning new business.

Hewlett-Packard Co. and NEC Corp. on Thursday announced an alliance to jointly provide outsourcing services to enterprises in China, Japan and the United States, with future offerings targeting Southeast Asia and Europe. News of the deal came on the same day that Electronic Data Systems Corp. announced a $4.5 billion, 10-year deal to manage Bank of Americas networks.

HP and NEC will establish a joint marketing team and expect to deliver a range of services from limited managed services to full-scale outsourced management of an enterprises IT systems. HP brings a service management methodology and operation management centers to the partnership, while NECs strength lies in its outsourcing and development experience, the two companies said.

In addition, officials said that HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., and Tokyo-based NEC had complementary geographic coverage. HP Services has 65,000 employees in 160 countries.

The two companies are not strangers. HP and NEC have delivered joint solutions to companies in the financial and telecommunications industries.

Meanwhile, beginning in February 2003, EDS will manage the U.S. voice and data networks of Charlotte, N.C.-based BoA. In addition, EDS will redesign and implement BoAs optical network so that the company can provide additional customer, employee and partner services, officials of the two companies said. EDS, of Plano, Texas, will also support BoAs help desk.

About 1,000 BoA employees will become EDS employees.

EDS, which has been plagued by bad news of late, earlier this week confirmed that it is in final contract negotiations on an outsourcing contract with the Bank of Bermuda. The estimated value of that 12-year deal is $375 million.