Motorola offloads IT tasks on CSC

Seeking to lower costs and improve its IT operations, Motorola has decided to outsource a variety of computing systems tasks to Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) in a 10-year deal worth about $1.6 billion, the companies announced Thursday.

Motorola is handing over to CSC the infrastructure part of its global IT operations, which includes the day-to-day management, support and maintenance of Motorola’s midrange systems, desktop platform, data centers, help desk and network, said Mike Manley corporate vice president and director of Motorola’s global infrastructure solutions.

“This is so far the most significant sourcing arrangement we have within IT,” Manley said.

Motorola will not outsource work related to enterprise applications, such as their architecture design and development, Manley said. Also not included in the outsourcing agreement is work related to IT security, governance, standards and oversight, which Motorola will continue handling itself, he said.

Motorola chose CSC over IT services rivals IBM, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Affiliated Computer Services, Manley said. CSC’s plan stood out from the rest for a variety of reasons, including its cost, technology proposal and commitment to offer comparable compensation packages to the about 1,300 Motorola IT employees getting transferred over to CSC as part of the deal, Manley said.

About half of those employees are in the U.S. and the rest mostly in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, while a few are based in Canada and Latin America, CSC said in the statement. Some will continue to work on site at Motorola facilities, while others will work out of CSC offices, Manley said.

Manley declined to say how many IT staffers will remain employed by Motorola after those 1,300 become CSC employees.

The contract also calls for CSC, in El Segundo, California, to buy Motorola IT assets. Manley declined to provide further details about which assets CSC will snap up.

Motorola, in Schaumburg, Ill., expects that CSC will streamline and standardize IT processes, integrate its IT infrastructure architecture worldwide and lower IT costs, thus making IT operations more flexible and agile, Manley said.