Electronic Data Systems Corporation has announced that the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 relating to Hewlett- Packard Company's proposed acquisition of EDS has expired without a request for further information by the U.S. Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission.

As previously announced, EDS has scheduled a special meeting of its stockholders, to be held at 9:30 a.m., Central time, on Thursday, July 31, 2008, to consider and vote on the proposed merger. The transaction still requires EDS stockholder approval and regulatory clearance from the European Commission and other non-U.S. jurisdictions and is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the other closing conditions specified in the merger agreement.

About EDS

EDS is a leading global technology services company delivering business solutions to its clients. EDS founded the information technology outsourcing industry more than 46 years ago. Today, EDS delivers a broad portfolio of information technology and business process outsourcing services to clients in the manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, communications, energy, transportation, and consumer and retail industries and to governments around the world. Learn more at eds.com.

Recognizing partners that delivered exemplary solutions to customers, Microsoft Corp. has announced the winners and finalists of its 2008 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. The awards honor Microsoft Registered, Microsoft Certified and Microsoft Gold Certified partners that delivered exemplary solutions for their customers during the past year.

Award winners and finalists were chosen from among nominations from around the world. Winners and finalists will be recognized at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008, the company's premier annual event for industry partners, being held July 7-10 in Houston. More than 2,000 entries were submitted by partners worldwide.

The award finalists and winners were selected from a group of nominations based on their dedicated use of Microsoft technologies to provide solutions for their customers' needs.

"The Partner of the Year Awards recognize the incredible innovation and value that Microsoft partners are delivering to our customers," said Allison L. Watson, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft. "The winners and finalists announced today have helped raise the standard for delivery of customer solutions and support. It is a privilege to recognize their work in designing and deploying exemplary customer solutions built on Microsoft technologies."

Categories, winners and finalists appear below. A complete list including category descriptions is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/docs/POTY08FS.doc.

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Active Directory Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Oxford Computer Group, United Kingdom 
• Finalist: NetPro Computing, United States 
• Finalist: Quest Software, United States

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Exchange Migration and Deployment Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Compugen, Canada 
• Finalist: BrightPlanIT, United States 
• Finalist: Janalent, United States

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Hosting Solutions Partner of the Year 

• Winner: groupSPARK, United States 
• Finalist: WebCentral, Australia 
• Finalist: 7global, United Kingdom

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Storage Solutions Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Compellent Technologies, United States 
• Finalist: HP, United States 
• Finalist: NetApp, United States

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Systems Management Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Dimension Data, Australia 
• Finalist: CDW, United States 
• Finalist: Getronics, United States

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Windows Desktop Deployment Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Getronics, Netherlands 
• Finalist: Sogeti, France 
• Finalist: 1E, United Kingdom

Business Process and Integration Solutions Partner of the Year

• Winner: EMC, United States
• Finalist: Frends Technology, Finland 
• Finalist: Solidsoft, United Kingdom

Citizenship Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Citrix Systems, United States
• Finalist: Travi@ta, Belgium 
• Finalist: PointBridge, United States

Custom Development Solutions, Application Infrastructure Development Partner of the Year 

• Winner: imason, Canada
• Finalist: T-Systems Enterprise Services, Germany 
• Finalist: AVIcode, United States

Custom Development Solutions, Smart Client Development Partner of the Year 

• Winner: InterKnowlogy, United States 
• Finalist: Charteris, United Kingdom 
• Finalist: SourceCode -- K2.net Workflow, United States

Custom Development Solutions, Web Development Partner of the Year

• Winner: Vertigo Software, United States 
• Finalist: TI-M Monterrey, Mexico 
• Finalist: Infusion Development, United States

Data Management Solutions, Business Intelligence Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Information Management Group (IM Group) Ltd., United Kingdom 
• Finalist: evidanza, Germany
• Finalist: Satyam Computer Services, India

Data Management Solutions, Database Management Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Integrated Services, United States 
• Finalist: Orion Technology, Canada 
• Finalist: Idera (BBS Technologies), United States

Distribution Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Tech Data Brasil, Brazil 
• Finalist: Express Data, Australia 
• Finalist: Ingram Micro, United States

Enterprise Alliance Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Accenture and Avanade, United States 
• Finalist: EDS, United States 
• Finalist: HP, United States

Global ISV Consumer Partner of the Year Special Recognition Award 

• Winner: Sonic Solutions, United States 
• Finalist: Cewe Color, Germany 
• Finalist: Pinnacle Systems, United States

Global ISV Infrastructure Partner of the Year Special Recognition Award

• Winner: Citrix Systems, United States 
• Finalist: CA Inc., United States
• Finalist: Quest Software, United States

Global ISV Line of Business Partner of the Year Special Recognition Award 

• Winner: Fiserv Inc., United States 
• Finalist: Epicor Software Corp., United States 
• Finalist: Open Text, Canada

Global ISV Technology Innovation Partner of the Year Special Recognition Award 

• Winner: Dassault Systemes, France 
• Finalist: Epicor Software Corp., United States 
• Finalist: Pitney Bowes Inc., United States

Information Worker Solutions, Data Visualization Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Idea Integration, United States 
• Finalist: Sogeti USA, United States 
• Finalist: Visimation, United States

Information Worker Solutions, Enterprise Content Management and Forms Partner of the Year

• Winner: LegendCorp, Canada 
• Finalist: Dataract, Australia 
• Finalist: Concept Interactive, Canada

Information Worker Solutions, Enterprise Project Management Partner of the Year 

• Winner: EPM Live, United States 
• Finalist: AccTech Systems, South Africa 
• Finalist: LMR Solutions, United States

Information Worker Solutions, Office Deployment Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Dimension Data, Australia 
• Finalist: Atos Origin, Netherlands 
• Finalist: Citrix Systems, United States

Information Worker Solutions, Office Solutions Development Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Goodsen Technology, South Korea 
• Finalist: Fujitsu Consulting, Canada & Navantis, Canada 
• Finalist: Triomis, Germany

Information Worker Solutions, Performance Management Partner of the Year

• Winner: Mariner, United States 
• Finalist: TGO Consulting, Canada 
• Finalist: Information Systems Partners, South Africa

Information Worker Solutions, Portals and Collaboration Partner of the Year

• Winner: Ascentium, United States 
• Finalist: Datatel, United States 
• Finalist: IMPACT Management, United States

Information Worker Solutions, Search Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Tam Tam, Netherlands 
• Finalist: Beyond IT, Argentina
• Finalist: Getronics (Australia), Australia

Information Worker Solutions, Unified Communications Partner of the Year 

• Winner: MTS Allstream, Canada 
• Finalist: Ensyst, Australia 
• Finalist: Siemens IT Solutions and Services International, United States

ISV/Software Solutions Partner of the Year 

• Winner: ICONICS, United States 
• Finalist: Integrated Solutions, Hong Kong 
• Finalist: Mimosa Systems, United States

ISV/Software Solutions, Innovation Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Verdiem Corp., United States
• Finalist: ImageTag, United States 
• Finalist: NewsGator Technologies, United States

Learning Solutions Partner of the Year 

• Winner: iSolve Business Solutions, South Africa 
• Finalist: Koenig Solutions, India
• Finalist: QuickStart Intelligence (Irvine), United States

Licensing Solutions, License Delivery Partner of the Year

• Winner: Bytes Technology Group, United Kingdom 
• Finalist: DAQUAS, Czech Republic 
• Finalist: Softcat, United Kingdom

Licensing Solutions, Software Asset Management Partner of the Year 

• Winner: DATALOG Software, Germany 
• Finalist: Specialist Computer Centres, United Kingdom 
• Finalist: Dell, United States

Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Fullscope, United States 
• Finalist: XAPT Hungary, Hungary 
• Finalist: Hitachi Consulting, United States

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year 

• Winner: i5, South Africa 
• Finalist: Ascentium, United States 
• Finalist: Sonoma Partners, United States

Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner of the Year 

• Winner: InterDyn -- Socius, United States 
• Finalist: BDO Dunwoody, Canada 
• Finalist: Touchstone Group, United Kingdom

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Partner of the Year

• Winner: Eclipse Computing Australia, Australia 
• Finalist: Tectura, Germany 
• Finalist: Tegos, Germany

Microsoft Dynamics Point of Sale Solutions Partner of the Year

• Winner: Elypsis, United States
• Finalist: Davidson-Richards, United Kingdom 
• Finalist: POSitive Technology, United States

Microsoft Dynamics SL Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Synergy Business Solutions, United States 
• Finalist: Strategic Information Solutions, United States 
• Finalist: Tribridge, United States

Mobility Solutions Partner of the Year 

• Winner: CDC, Russia 
• Finalist: Tibco Mobile, France 
• Finalist: Trust Digital, United States

Networking Infrastructure Solutions Partner of the Year 

• Winner: Quadrasystems.net, India 
• Finalist: IT Matters, Canada 
• Finalist: LPI Level Platforms, Canada

OEM Hardware Solutions, Device Manufacturing Partner of the Year

• Winner: Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Germany 
• Finalist: GN Netcom, United States
• Finalist: Quintum Technologies, United States

OEM Hardware Solutions, System Building Partner of the Year

• Winner: Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Germany
• Finalist: THIRD WAVE, Japan
• Finalist: UNIT.COM, Japan

Security Solutions, Identity and Secure Access Partner of the Year

• Winner: Omada, Denmark
• Finalist: Oxford Computer Group, United Kingdom
• Finalist: Certified Security Solutions, United States

Security Solutions, Infrastructure Security Partner of the Year

• Winner: Eurodata Systems, United Kingdom
• Finalist: Sentry Metrics, Canada
• Finalist: Quadrasystems.net, India

Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year

• Winner: Quadrasystems.net, India
• Finalist: ITnorth.ca Network & Consulting Service, Canada
• Finalist: Kinetics Group Ltd., New Zealand

International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners Partner of the Year

• Winner: Tech Data Brasil, Brazil

About the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference provides Microsoft's partner community with access to key marketing and business strategies, leadership and information regarding specific customer solutions designed to help partners succeed in the marketplace.

Along with informative learning opportunities covering sales, marketing, services and technology, the Worldwide Partner Conference is an ideal setting for partners to garner valuable knowledge from their peers and from Microsoft. More information can be found on the Partner Program home page at https://partner.microsoft.com.

Tech giant IBM said on Sunday that Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of consulting and outsourcing firm EDS last month is not likely to challenge IBM's leading position on the IT services market.

Rajesh Nambiar, vice-president of IBM India, said: "Hewlett-Packard has bought 'yesterday's business model'... it is unlikely to challenge our presence in the IT services space," adding that the combined revenue of the two companies was estimated at $36 bilion, which is far behind IBM's estimated $52 billion. 

"EDS have a huge labour force, but they are concentrated in high-cost jurisdictions and they really lack the global delivery capabilities that are expected of services, margins... or services businesses these days. So HP is going to have to devote an extensive amount of time and resources to improve this business model that is aged and out of date," Nambiar said.

Analysts believe that the move may propel Hewlett-Packard to the second spot in the technology services sector, which would in turn signify tougher competition with IBM. In instances where systems integration and management projects needed to be won, HP-EDS would have an advantage, according to analysts.  

Nambar added: "Though HP-EDS will try to cross-sell their products, they lack consulting skills. Clients today look for overall solutions and both the companies currently does not have (sic) any consulting capabilities. It is extremely difficult to integrate a services business into a core business like HP's. There's going to be cultural differences to overcome. There will be technical and channel differences that they'll have to overcome"  

 

 

Technology services leader EDS announced that it has appointed Randy J. Hendricks as senior vice president of Applications Services and Systems Integration, effective June 16. He will report directly to Charlie Feld, the organization's senior executive vice president.

Hendricks, 51, will lead all aspects of EDS' nearly $7 billion applications business. He will work closely with Feld to accelerate EDS' growth and investments in high-end, industry applications development and consulting.

Additionally, Hendricks will help expand EDS' current global applications practices - including SAP, Oracle and global testing. He will also drive delivery of end-to-end consulting and systems integration capabilities to clients worldwide.

"Randy brings nearly three decades of deep IT services and consulting experience in the financial services industry and government sector to EDS," said Feld.

"His broad industry expertise, combined with his in-depth systems integration knowledge, will be instrumental as we help our clients modernize their global business processes. I look forward to working with Randy as EDS aggressively competes in a global market estimated at $250 billion."

Hendricks joins EDS from Unisys Corporation. As corporate executive vice president and president of Global Industries, he was responsible for driving sales, business development and delivery for the company's worldwide financial services, commercial and public sector businesses.

Previously, Hendricks served as corporate senior vice president and president of Unisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services. Under his leadership, Unisys' outsourcing operations expanded to become the company's largest services division. Hendricks earlier led the Unisys Public Sector practice in 26 countries in which the company does business in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions.

Before joining Unisys in 2002, Hendricks served as president and CEO of Digite, a Silicon Valley based technology firm that develops integrated applications for software lifecycle management.

Previously, Hendricks spent more than 10 years with Andersen Consulting, serving in senior partner positions in the firm's government and higher education consulting practices.

Hendricks earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial administration from Iowa State University.

Electronic Data Systems (EDS) has acquired the Feld Group, a small, privately held technology consulting company that helps technology businesses reorganize their operations. With the acquisition, EDS hopes to boost its outsourcing services.

EDS paid $89 million in cash and stock for the consultancy. The deal was announced on Monday.

EDS chief executive Mike Jordan said:

“We see tremendous growth opportunities in the business process outsourcing and business transformation services market, and the addition of the Feld Group will greatly enhance our offerings and expertise in the field.”

As part of the deal, EDS will get Feld’s information technology and business process implementation software as part of the deal. The company will keep most of Feld’s employees (about 60 of them) and several Feld executives will be given key roles at EDS.

Charlie Feld, founder of the Feld Group, will assigned to the position of executive vice-president of EDS’ portfolio management operations, while Feld’s CIO Steve Schuckenbrock will become executive vice-president of EDS’ global sales and client solutions operations.

The Aberdeen Group, the leading research and market intelligence company in the technology sector, has released its Annual State of the Market Report.

This year, the report includes the list of the top 100 organizations – hardware, software and service providers – whose contribution to the business community has excelled in recent years.

The report also pinpoints the top criteria businesses use when choosing technology solutions: total cost of ownership (43%), product functionality (42%), vendor stability (24%), market specific knowledge and experience (24%), domain or industry expertise (22%) and reputation (21%).

Microsoft, Oracle and SAP took the leading spots on the list of the top technology vendors. They were followed by other prominent global technology providers like IBM, Dell, HP, Cisco and others.

The IT services sector is well represented in the Top 100 with technology companies like Accenture (#25), EDS (#36), Tata Consulting (#43), Infosys (#56) and Capgemini (#79).

The report is based on five years of research and a survey of 4,645 respondents. In 2008 alone, the Aberdeen Group will conduct more than 240 benchmark studies. 90 percent of the Fortune 500 and 75 percent of the Global 500 companies rely on the Group's research.

 

Here are the top 25 technology vendors for 2008:

 

1. Microsoft

2. Oracle

3. SAP

4. IBM

5. Cisco

6. Hewlett Packard

7. Dell

8. Salesforce.com

9. EMC

10. Sun Microsystems

11. Google

12. RIM (Blackberry)

13. Siemens

14. Adobe

15. AT&T

16. Apple

17. Sage

18. Infor

19. Nortel

20. Avaya

21. Red Hat

22. Motorola

23. Verizon Wireless

24. Dassault

25. Accenture

 

For the full list, go here.  

World's biggest PC maker Hewlett-Packard was reported to be in advanced talks to acquire IT services provider Electronic Data Systems (EDS) yesterday and news about the acquisition, as the Wall Street Journal predicted, arrived as early as today: HP has agreed to buy EDS for $13.9 billion. 

HP chief executive Mark Hurd said:

"The combination of HP and EDS will create a leading force in global IT services. Together, we will be a stronger business partner, delivering customers the broadest, most competitive portfolio of products and services in the industry."

The acquisition will be a tremendous boost to HP's IT consulting arm and more than double its size to produce a new business that will be better equipped to take on International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) as a rival on the IT services market.

Hewlett-Packard has tried for years to challenge IBM in the lucrative field of IT services by improving its technology consulting and data management arms.

In 2000, HP's attempt to buy the PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting division failed and the PwC consulting business ended up in IBM's hands instead.

“While Hewlett-Packard has over time built up its own outsourcing practice, this clearly is a move by Mark Hurd to challenge IBM in the services area,” said David Garrity, director of research at Dinosaur Securities.

The information technology services market is particularly interesting to HP because experts predict that it will grow more than eight percent annually over the next five years. At the same time, Wall Street analysts predict that HP will grow about five percent.

EDS reported revenue of $22.1 billion last year. The company's main rivals are Accenture and Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) on the U.S. market and Indian tech giants Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys Technologies Ltd. internationally.

In 2007, IBM held 7.2 percent of the share of the technology services market. EDS followed with three percent and HP had 2.3 percent and was fifth overall, according to a Gartner report.

In the last three years, HP has mostly seen its business flourish. Since Mark Hurd came onboard as the new chief executive, the company has overtaken IBM as the largest global technology company and Dell as the world's number one seller of personal computers.

The acquisition of EDS will also help HP yield more government contracts: EDS' government projects are worth about $2.5 billion. The company is among the top 10 government technology contractors in the U.S. and the number one government contractor in the UK.

This will be HP's biggest acquisition since 2002, when the tech giant bought Compaq Computer Corp. for $19 billion.

In the wake of the acquisition talks, EDS shares rose almost 28 percent, while HP's dropped more than five percent, reflecting investors' concerns over the deal.

Commenting on yesterday's reports, an IBM representative said: “Integrating services companies is difficult. And to be competitive today, you have to be globally integrated.”

Echoing the thought, AMR Research analyst Dana Stiffler warned: “Palo Alto versus Plano wrangling will destroy any short-medium term benefit unless there’s a strong integration roadmap.” 

EDS announced yesterday that it would adopt the Run SAP(R) methodology and use it in its hosting operations and application management services. The announcement came at the SAPPHIRE (R) 2008 Orlando conference, where the tech company is exhibiting its products and solutions.

The methodology will also be incorporated into the EDS consulting practice. Run SAP is an operations methodology designed to help business and information technology professionals better implement their SOA strategies and focus on application management, administration of the technology platform and business process operations.

The SAP-based tools that the adoption of this technology will provide access to include training, operations methodology, support components and services.

EDS is the first SAP partner to adopt Run SAP. This will allow the company to play a crucial part in the future development of SAP applications management solutions.

Bob Hershey, EDS vice-president and SAP Consulting Practice head for Americas and Asia Pacific, says:

“Run SAP will provide our clients with lower cost and reduced risk through standardized tools and methodologies, as well as greater agility to manage and innovate their SAP platforms. As our clients’ business ally, EDS’ adoption of the Run SAP methodology globally will enable us to compete more effectively in the enterprise applications market.”

SAP AG executive vice-president Uwe Hommel adds:

“We are pleased that EDS intends to strengthen its long-standing relationship with SAP by adopting the Run SAP methodology. EDS will be among the first SAP hosting partners to adopt the end-to-end solution operations approach provided by Run SAP into its applications management services and hosting operations.”

As partners, EDS and SAP have delivered business software solutions to their clients for more than 17 years.

Fortune Magazine will release the annual list of the 500 top ranking and most profitable companies in the world on May 5.

The top 10 technology companies that made this year's Fortune 500 list based on total revenue in 2007 are:

1. Hewlett-Packard ($104.3 billion)

2. IBM ($98.8 billion)

3. Dell ($61.1 billion)

4. Microsoft ($51.1 billion)

5. Intel ($38.3 billion)

6. Motorola ($36.6 billion)

7. Cisco Systems ($34.9 billion)

8. Apple ($24.0 billion)

9. Electronic Data Systems ($22.1 billion)

10. Oracle ($17.9 billion)

 

The top 10 most profitable companies in the technology sector are:

1. Microsoft ($14.1 billion)

2. IBM ($10.4 billion)

3. Cisco Systems ($7.3 billion)

4. Hewlett-Packard ($7.3 billion)

5. Intel ($7.0 billion)

6. Oracle ($4.3 billion)

7. Google ($4.2 billion)

8. Apple ($3.5 billion)

9. Qualcomm ($3.3 billion)

10. Dell ($2.9 billion)

 

The top 10 companies on the 2008 Fortune 500 list are:

1. Wal-Mart Stores

2. Exxon Mobil

3. Chevron

4. General Motors

5. ConocoPhillips

6. General Electric

7. Ford Motor

8. Citigroup

9. Bank of America

10. AT&T

The University of Wolverhampton will host an IT careers event – the annual IT Careers Fair – on Thursday to allow graduates and students learn more about careers in the information technology industry.

The open day will take place in the Exhibition Hall at the City Campus on Thursday, April 10. It will start at noon and last for four hours.

Some of the employers who will send representatives to promote IT graduate jobs and training schemes at the event include Capgemini, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp. and Hays Information Technology.

In reference to the careers day, Employer Liaison Officer Kam Atwal said:

“This is a great opportunity for students and recent graduates to meet representatives from top companies and find out more about pursuing a successful career in the IT industry.”

To book a place call 01902 518570.