IBM Writes a Prescription for HRO Blues
Following a recent period of angst and trepidation in the Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) market, IBM quieted all fears with it’s announcement of a 10-year, $324 million global agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Big Blue will support BMS’ global HR operations through call centers in the United States, Manilla and Budapest. The scope of services provided is quite comprehensive:
“Under the agreement, IBM will provide compensation, benefits, recruiting, learning, payroll administration, call center support and related IT systems services to Bristol-Myers Squibb. Additionally, IBM will implement a SAP solution and integrate Bristol-Myers Squibb’s global workforce data into one portal that can be accessed by employees, managers and HR professionals around the globe. The services will support Bristol-Myers Squibb’s operations in the United States, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium, as well as, limited support to 40 of its additional country locations in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas.”
Phil Fersht of AMR Research has heralded this agreement in his popular blog Horses for Sources, citing this contract as further validation of the yeomen’s work being performed by leading global outsourcing providers:
“As the global providers become increasingly proficient at deploying offshore resources to support these processes, they will generate more cost-savings and compelling business cases for their customers.”
This contract will have interesting implications in the growing solutions and outsourcing battle between IBM and Hewlett-Packard, with HP’s new beau EDS having been awarded a seven-year, $715 million IT infrastructure outsourcing contract with Bristol-Myers Squibb just this past December.
Let’s keep the conversation going.
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