Plano, Texas-based EDS signed contracts with $10bn in total contract value in the first half of the year and since then it has signed a number of deals, most notably the reorganization of its contracts with the UK government’s Department of Work and Pensions that are now worth $4.7bn over five years.
In a conference call in July, the company said it was in exclusive negotiations with clients for contracts worth a total of $5bn. Speaking an Citibank analyst event this week, executive vice president of global sales and client solutions Steve Schuckenbrock said the company has already signed half of that total, has added another $1.5bn to its sole source pipeline, and is confident of meeting its $20bn target for the year.
Schuckenbrock admitted that a few years ago EDS was not such an upbeat place to be. Sales volumes went to hell in a hand basket, he said. In 2003 we didn’t even get an invite to the party, in 2004 we were invited by were also-rans, in 2005 we’re winning.
He also revealed that the company now has a policy whereby employees are allowed to wear jeans for a day in any week in which the company signs a deal worth more than $100m. We’ve had five weeks in a row of ‘jeans days’, he said.
