IBM bought Paris-based KeyMRO from its three principal shareholders – Schneider Electric, Rhodia (a chemicals supplier) and Thomson Multimedia – who originally launched the company back in 2000 to reduce their own procurement costs.
As part of the deal, the three firms also signed a seven-year services agreement with IBM Consulting Services for the continued provision of indirect supply procurement services from KeyMRO. Indirect supplies are categorized as non-raw material supplies and include services like telecommunications, IT, business travel, and marketing/advertising.
IBM says the purchase will strengthen its strategic sourcing services in Europe and North America – particularly in the so-called multi-billion dollar business process outsourcing (BPO) market which hands over responsibility for routine back-office functions to external service providers.
KeyMRO has offices in Europe and a US subsidiary based in Florence, Kentucky.
IBM recently offloaded its commodity PC hardware business to Chinese manufacturer Lenovo Group and is starting to focus on BPO to drive revenue growth next year. The cash from the sale of its PC business is likely to be used to fund more acquisitions in the BPO space.
IBM plans to integrate KeyMRO’s process expertise into its own consulting methodologies.
