Center

EDS opens global center in China

By Wang Xu (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-04-11 09:56

WUHAN: Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS), the world's second-largest technology service provider, opened a global service center in China yesterday, to tap the nation's talent pool and its burgeoning outsourcing market.

"China is a key strategic market for EDS going forward," said Kevin Bonfield, vice-president of EDS's business workforce and capacity management division. "Being a cost-effective outsourcing destination, the nation's outsourcing marketing is also growing rapidly."

The center, located in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, will employ 700 people by the end of the year and EDS plans to invest tens of millions of dollars to ramp up the facility later as its business grows.

EDS expects the Wuhan center, its fourth globally, to provide applications, business process outsourcing and information technology (IT) infrastructure services to its clients in 64 countries, the company said at the Wuhan International Summit on the Development and Cooperation of China's Service Outsourcing Industry, held yesterday.

"Wuhan provides great access to a significant talent pool," said Bonfield. "Universities in the city train 20,000 to 30,000 computer science graduates each year, about 35 percent to 45 percent of computer graduates of the United States each year."

EDS brought forward the concept of information technology services in 1962 and is now the second-largest player in the market after IBM Corp. The Texas-based behemoth entered the Chinese market in 1992 and now has offices in Shanghai and Beijing, and a global outsourcing center in Shanghai employing 250.

EDS's major clients in China are multinationals operating here such as General Motors Corp, its biggest client globally.

(China Daily 04/11/2007 page14)