Ho-hum - another $ 4 billion outsourcing announcement. Shell outsources various infrastructure components to EDS, AT&T and T-Systems.
But look closer. First big international win for AT&T. T-Systems supporting data centers around globe. Another sign the telcos are becoming global. And EDS not doing the data center stuff - long its core competence. Roughly $ 800 million a year for major IT infrastructure for a $ 400 billion revenue run rate company. The benchmark of .2% of revenues will make most peer CIOs salivate.
But look again. Under their cover and program management, these 3 vendors will have hundreds of other vendors, contracts, SAP instances, etc. Unless Shell has re-defined the governance and vendor management game book, expect the age-old finger pointing. And margins that come from the tiered technology supply chain. So the deskside, messaging and mobile support for its 150,000 users will average by my estimates over $ 100 a user a month. The higher price of staying with the more traditional on-premise, Microsoft centric technology.
So in some ways, a new day. In other ways, just another Monday.
