Swimming against the prevailing trend to outsource IT operations, General Motors has announced it will repatriate 10,000 IT jobs.
It’s a significant announcement on several counts. First, there’s the sheer number of jobs being brought back in house. CIO Randy Mott (formerly of HP, Dell and Wal-Mart) wants the majority of the automakers IT work to be done by internal employees within three years.
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There’s also the volume of outsourcing GM has traditionally done, reportedly signing $7 billion in outsourcing contracts in 2006.
Then there’s the curious triangle involving GM, Mott’s former employer HP, and Electronic Data Systems. EDS, created in 1962, was bought by GM in 1984 for $2.5 billion. In 1996, GM spun off EDS as an independent company and became one of its largest clients.
Hewlett-Packard bought EDS in 2008 to strengthen its consulting services presence.
Mott was hired by GM in February.