Services giants to offer one-stop ERP

IT services giants EDS and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have teamed up to effectively be a one-stop shop for best-of-breed SAP enterprise resource management (ERP) services.

The alliance will provide a single source for installation, delivery and maintenance, and will bring over 10,000 SAP-trained professionals from both companies to offer SAP consulting, implementation, systems integration, outsourcing and production support services.

Both companies are hoping to get hold of a large share of future ERP services revenue, which IDC estimates will grow from $40bn this year to $62bn by 2005.

The initial market focus will take place in the US, but the companies plan eventually to move to the larger global market, with Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific coming to prominence early in the first quarter of next year.

John Wilkerson, vice president of EDS Global Alliances and Indirect Market Strategies, said in a statement: "Enterprises are driven to single source providers for simplicity and high quality solution delivery."

He explained that the alliance addresses an emerging outsourcing trend in enterprise applications that will allow companies to focus on core competencies which strengthen their respective competitive positions.

PwC last week announced a similar alliance with Sun Microsystems to promote each other as the preferred partner for customers that want to install customer relationship management software.

And in July, Sun signed an agreement with EDS under which both companies would create combinations of hardware and software that work well together.