EDS today announced the formation of the EDS Agility Alliance, a federation of global technology leaders chartered to drive industry innovation and cost leadership through the development, selling, delivery and support of joint clients on the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform - the foundation for EDS`s next-generation global delivery system.
The initial members of the EDS Agility Alliance are Cisco, Dell, EMC, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Xerox. The alliance combines the collective resources of companies with more than $150 billion in total annual revenue and $13.6 billion in combined R&D spend. EDS will announce its application, business process and industry alliance members in the coming months.
"The EDS Agility Alliance changes the game in the services industry," said Mike Jordan, EDS Chairman and CEO. "Creation of this alliance is a key element of EDS`s multi-year plan to regain market leadership. This alliance goes much deeper than joint contract pursuits. It extends from the research bench through the life of the business relationship with our clients.
"This entity can deliver a truly best-in-class service delivery platform that can improve business performance and respond to the rapidly changing nature of the IT industry," added Jordan.
The EDS Agility Alliance brings together the collective market presence and leadership of these companies to accelerate the achievement of EDS`s vision and deliver the value of the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform - a global service delivery system that provides a flexible technology foundation to help clients respond quickly to changing market dynamics and increase their competitiveness.
"The EDS Agility Alliance promises to take industry collaboration and innovation to a new level by applying the assets and expertise of key industry leaders and partners to a single vision," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Customers should benefit from a new breed of highly flexible solutions customised to support their unique business objectives. We are pleased that Microsoft software will play a pivotal role in fulfilling EDS`s vision for the agile enterprise."
Building the Agile Enterprise Platform is a team effort
Substantial progress has already been made in the development of the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform. EDS Agility Alliance members have been actively engaged in the development of core components including the global secure network, Agile Workplace Services, hosting and storage.
For example, a team of Cisco and EDS technologists are in the process of building out a global secure network - the backbone of the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform. EMC and EDS are collaborating on information storage and management solutions that better enable clients to align technology with the changing needs of their business.
Sun and EDS are jointly creating hosting components that deliver the benefits of lower total cost of ownership through virtualisation technology and utility computing solutions, and Xerox and EDS are helping customers improve productivity by developing more efficient document management infrastructures that reduce overall printing and copying costs and add incremental value to document-intensive business processes through the seamless integration of paper and digital content.
"EDS and Sun understand that no one provider can independently deliver the durable, innovative and cost compelling solutions demanded by an increasingly competitive market," said Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Through this alliance, each company is dedicated to improving business performance and flexibility for our joint customers. Collectively we are reinventing IT service delivery."
The EDS Agility Alliance members are collaborating to synchronise and align networking, infrastructure, application and business process architectures into the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform. This will ensure the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform is built on market leading technologies and products optimally designed to address the needs of next-generation service delivery.
To accelerate the development and delivery of the Agile Enterprise Platform, EDS is building out the initial joint development centre in Plano, Texas, to be replicated in other global locations. The Agile Development Centre is the industry`s first collaborative facility dedicated to the design, development, testing and delivery of a next generation service delivery platform. It will initially house more than 1 000 EDS Agility Alliance dedicated technologists working with field engineers around the globe.
Winning with integrated execution
EDS`s strong emphasis on alliances extends organisationally and geographically, as EDS Agility Alliance partners are embedded into all aspects of the business, including sales, portfolio development, production engineering and service delivery.
"EMC believes in the strong value that the EDS Agility Alliance will provide to clients," said EMC President and CEO Joe Tucci. "EMC and EDS are collaborating at all levels to drive innovation and bring the business benefits of information lifecycle management to our mutual customers through the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform."
Each of the alliance partners are represented within EDS`s Global Sales organisation, and in many instances co-located with EDS solution teams. Architects from each partner company work with EDS strategic sales teams to solution and win business.
Customers are benefiting from the joint efforts. Most recently, EDS and Cisco teamed up to win new business with the Bank of America to integrate the communications infrastructure for the recently acquired FleetBoston Financial into Bank of America`s state-of-the-art voice and data network currently in deployment.
Additionally, EDS and its partners are constantly innovating to bring new services to the market that solve client needs, including EDS solution architects collaborating in our partners` product environments to provide first-hand integration experience and client feedback. In an example of such innovation, the State of Washington worked with Microsoft and EDS to develop an award-winning digital archive system to preserve and provide access to the government`s records of enduring legal, historical or fiscal significance.
Partners are working aggressively to train and certify EDS personnel in their products, capabilities and competitive positioning. The partners provide resources to emphasise their technologies within EDS`s technical curriculum. In particular, there is increased focus on technologies key to the Agile Enterprise Platform.
"Customers require the effective integration of technologies to simplify their workflow and boost efficiency," said Anne M Mulcahy, Xerox chairman and chief executive officer. "As a member of the EDS Agility Alliance, Xerox is satisfying those requirements by combining our innovative document management solutions with leading IT services from EDS."
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