DETROIT ? EDS Corp. CEO Michael Jordan, speaking Tuesday at the Detroit Economic Club, said the IT consulting company?s 8,000 person Michigan headcount will take a hit in 2006 when EDS? 10-year contract with General Motors Corp. expires. He didn?t say by how much.
The trend towards using non U.S.-based IT talent, in places like India and China, also will be responsible for some of the Michigan EDS job cuts, he told about 300 people at the Detroit Renaissance Marriott. The company has cut its overall headcount by 13 percent in the past two years, he said.
GM remains a top target for EDS, since the No. 1 automaker is shopping some $3 billion in annual IT contracts. The EDS deal expires in June and GM is expected to spread this contract wealth among several companies.
Jordan said EDS has been offering GM new products, such as virtualization and control-mechanism products, to try to win as much of the contract back. But EDS will lose some of the GM IT work and fewer EDS Michigan employees will be needed in 2006.
But EDS earlier this year did create a 1,000-employee engineering center in Auburn Hills with its partners – the future of the company, Jordan said.
