A recent
WSJ article attributed EDS's turnaround to its Agility Alliance strategy. Alliance partners include Cisco, EMC, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun and Xerox. EDS has invested in development centers that has a dedicated staff of around 1000 members (including 200 from the partners). This investment has produced a platform that has the ability to seamlessly integrate offerings from the partners into a robust, reliable service (see
link). EDS reports that in 2006 40% of their revenue came from the alliance relationships. From a customer perspective, using the alliance team allows them to focus on the business and not spend their time in coordinating the vendors. The other advantage comes from the experience these ecosystem partners have in delivering many projects together and working in the development/innovation centers that EDS has created.