EDS snaps up more overseas work

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

IT services firm EDS has landed more overseas work that will create 20 more jobs at its Smales Farm centre in North Shore City. It has a target of 360 new positions by March 2006.

The giant American company promised Industry New Zealand it would add 360 jobs to its books as part of a pitch that snared a $1.5 million grant to help it lure business Downunder.

EDS New Zealand managing director Rick Ellis said that since launching its initiative the company had generated $18 million in export earnings and he expected the figure to double next year.

The latest deal is for application development for an undisclosed Texan multinational. This and a similar win will add 70 jobs at EDS in IT and network infrastructure design.

EDS has now created 123 new jobs - up to 200 are possible by Christmas - under its Best Shores scheme designed to lure IT business to New Zealand.

Ellis said both deals were worth millions of dollars and the prospects for more work were strong.

EDS was poised to take another floor in its Smales Farm building, he said, lifting the number to four. Another might be taken soon. Floors can take up to 150 staff.

Ellis said advertising had started for the first job and a search for staff for the next project was about to begin.

New Zealand had had to pitch for these deals on a global basis, he said, with other companies in the EDS family.

The country had many attributes in its favour, he said, such as price, skill, good English language skills and economic and Government stability. A recent study by Meta Group had also heaped praise on EDS's call center in New Zealand, rating it No 1 in many categories in the region.

A recent study by the University of California's Berkeley Haas School of Business said that if white-collar jobs that could be easily done by people in Russia, China and India were transferred the way customer service call centres had been, 14 million positions would be eliminated in the United States. The study said 11 per cent of all American occupations were vulnerable to such a move.

Ellis said that customers were dictating to his company where they wanted the work done, and while the issue had gained political notice, in the end it was customers who would decide where work was done.