Who is electronic data systems

Schaefer Company and F. Brewing Company which alleged that EDS data-processing systems provided inadequate information. As in-house corporate data processing diminished business for outside service providers in the mids, EDS entered the sale of turnkey systems of hardware, software, and peripheral equipment geared to the needs of specific users such as individual hospitals or small businesses.

It also diversified into data-processing services for some 3, credit unions nationwide. The company suspended its services to the latter after the Iranian government became delinquent in its payments and, as the diplomatic situation worsened, Perot ordered all EDS employees out of the country. Eventually, Perot had assembled a rescue team led by Col.

Arthur D. Simons, a Green Beret he had previously hired to look for missing servicemen in Vietnam, and managed to get his remaining executives out of the country in After Meyerson became president, the company pursued federal government contracts, particularly a contract for Project Viable that streamlined and updated the United States Army's computerized administrative facilities and established a nationwide network. While EDS remained oriented to facilities management, the company began to offer customers systems integration-a service through which a company's telecommunications, computer, and software systems were all provided by EDS.

The terms of the sale required GM to keep EDS as a separate corporate entity, retain some personnel, and issue performance stock based on EDS's performance rather than that of General Motors. Perot retained his managerial function and a position on the GM board of directors.

Revenues tripled in the first year after the GM acquisition, employee numbers increased, and the company entered the fields of telecommunications and factory automation. Meyerson resigned, and Lester M. Alberthal, who joined the company as a systems engineer trainee in , became president and chief executive officer; by he was also chairman of the board.

Alberthal continued the diversification that Perot and Meyerson had instigated, moving into energy, transportation, communications, and manufacturing.

He also developed a leadership council to replace the original EDS administration, thereby distributing daily operational powers throughout the EDS hierarchy. The center sends data, voice, and video to destinations across the globe and serves as operational headquarters for twenty-one similar information centers serving 7, customers worldwide. EDS has been instrumental in supporting individual communities and national causes.

Locally, the company supports education through its Education Outreach Programs and public school "adoptions. In Perot ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States. EDS delivers information technology and business process outsourcing services to clients in the manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, communications, energy, transportation, and consumer and retail industries to governments around the world.

The International Directory of Company Histories. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style , 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. By he had invested further funds in Walston and Company, another retail brokerage house, and had proposed a merger between DuPont and Walston. A lawsuit filed in by F.

Schaefer Corporation and F. Schaefer Brewing Company, for whom EDS operated a data processing facility, contributed to the slowdown of revenue growth in the mids. Schaefer claimed that the EDS data processing system was inaccurate and deficient, resulting in inadequate and misleading information.

These kinds of lawsuits would continue to plague EDS to the end of the 20th century. In the company began to aggressively pursue overseas business. A few employees remained, hoping the chaos would be resolved. Since diplomatic channels seemed closed, Perot took direct action.

Although Gaylord and Chiapparone actually left the prison on their own when a rioting mob released all the inmates, they needed the EDS team to get them out of the country. In the mids, EDS began a shift away from facilities management, since many companies were becoming interested in running their own data processing systems. In Meyerson became president, while Perot continued as chairman of the company. Under Meyerson, EDS diversified its business interests through acquisitions of turnkey systems for hospitals, small banks, and the small business field.

The bulk of EDS business still remained in facilities management, with processing of healthcare claims a large percentage of the business through the s and into the s. Always moving with the times, EDS became a systems integrator, sending in teams of experts to connect and coordinate a company's entire computer system, software, and telecommunications. Army's computerized administrative facilities and to build a network connecting 47 bases across the United States. The biggest contract in the information services industry at the time, the landmark agreement signified the start of the large systems integration market.

Roger B. Smith, GM's chairman of the board, thought Perot's management style would be an asset to his giant corporation. Problems surfaced within a year when the differences in management style between Perot and Smith became evident.

Perot is a self-made man and iconoclast used to calling his own shots Smith [is] a product of the GM consensus-by-committee school of management, never an entrepreneur. EDS saw revenue increases as the result of the GM purchase. By , personnel had grown to 44,, almost triple the number from EDS also branched out into telecommunications and factory automation. Although EDS revenues increased substantially, profit margins fell to 5.

GM preferred contracts which stipulated a certain percentage for profit; EDS, on the other hand, wanted to continue the fixed-price contracts it had been using since inception.

Additional problems arose as the result of the differing company cultures. Meyerson also resigned. At that time, Lester M. Alberthal, Jr. He had joined EDS as a systems engineer trainee in In June , he was named chairman of EDS. Under Alberthal's leadership, EDS broadened its customer base and reduced its dependence on GM-generated revenues from 70 percent in to 55 percent in Revenues climbed to new highs. The company diversified, moving into energy, transportation, communications, manufacturing, and other new areas of business.

Diversification included further expansion of international business. Administration of the company was reorganized through a leadership council, to spread responsibility and authority for daily operations to lower levels of the EDS hierarchy and allow the top executives to focus attention on development of long-range strategy. The ,square-foot facility served as the heart of EDS's extensive worldwide communications network and information processing centers where voice, data, and video transmissions travel to their destinations via state-of-the-art media.

The center was the hub of operations for 15 North American and six international Information Processing Centers, allowing EDS to respond immediately to the needs of its thousands of customers, who were then able to take advantage of the leading edge of information technology. Throughout the years, EDS contributed to the community and the nation as part of its company policy.

Robert D. Ballard, the scientist who discovered the wreck of the Titanic in EDS provided satellite links and solved technological problems to ensure the success of the undertaking, created an Education Outreach Program for the communities where the company was located, and "adopted' several public schools and worked with teachers to help improve the quality of education.

In the early s, the company won a string of big computer services contracts with regional and super-regional institutions in the banking industry. The company also discussed a merger with Sprint Telecommunications, and though nothing came of the talks, they were prescient of the convergence that occurred between telecommunications and computing over the next few years.

In addition, the company began working with Hong Kong-based CargoNet, a company which provided a comprehensive trade and transportation communication network designed to handle millions of trade-related documents each year, beginning a total transformation of the traditional trade cycle, using electronic commerce and logistics services to support Hong Kong trade and transport companies. Some of the subsidiary's products included Post Paint an application which reduced "paint crawling,' an animation problem which occurred when restoring animated films that were more than 20 years old in which the paint on individually painted frames tended to smear , Post Camera which simulated a camera move after film had been shot , and Post Rez which improved film resolution and produced a sharpness to the picture.

In June , the company was spun off from GM and became an independent company once again, triggering two years of restructuring, including related costs. The company struggled with a string of disappointing quarterly performances for a time, and the stock dropped to nearly half of what it had been trading at a year previously before bouncing back.

In addition to a division pursuing multinational banking contracts, headed by Stephen R. Bova, the reorganization also spawned three other divisions--community banking, U. Reddy, respectively. Early in the year, Rolls-Royce, one of the world's leading providers of aircraft and helicopter engines, engaged EDS and its management consulting firm, Kearney, and charged them with three goals: improve customer service, increase quality, and achieve significant business improvements.

EDS created a "CoSourcing' relationship and improved many of Rolls-Royce's core business processes, including external purchasing, project management, product development and manufacturing, and information-handling and support systems.

Rolls-Royce's U. By over 70 percent of the automated teller machines ATMs in the United States were manufactured by the company, making EDS the nation's leading designer and supplier of such. Early in , the company began working with Italy's Ministry of Education to help update their information technology infrastructure and help decentralize power and responsibilities from central government to peripheral offices.

In December , Richard H. Also at the end of December, Vice-Chairman Gary Fernandes, a veteran EDS executive, retired, leaving industry analysts concerned about turnovers at the top of the company. The arrangement would couple EDS's industry knowledge and consulting expertise with NCR's data warehousing capabilities. Such deals, coupled with a continuing emphasis on employee training and customer service, virtually guaranteed EDS's prominence within the information technology industry.