EDS needs no introduction in the global services industry. The company has been steadily adding new lines of business to reflect the new realities in the market. For a company like EDS, which handled payroll processing as far back as the sixties, getting into activities higher in the HR value chain was an opportunity. In 2005, EDS teamed up with Towers Perrin, an HR consulting company to create a unit called ExcellerateHRO as a full-service HR Outsourcing (HRO) company offering benefits administration, compensation services, payroll administration, performance management and staffing services.

 As of the third quarter EDS’ revenues totaled to more than $16 billion. EDS does not provide a break up of revenue across various service offerings, but broadly categorizes it in IT outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and applications. BPO here includes HRO, and in 2006 revenue generated from the former was nearly $3 billion.

Last year, in order to strengthen its BPO arm, EDS acquired majority stakes at MphasiS, one of the leading applications and BPO services provider.