Chrysler moves more IT work to offshore giant Tata
posted in Outsourcing News and Top Outsourcing deals, Outsourcing to India |Source: www.computerworld.com
Indian offshore firm Tata Consultancy Services is getting a bigger share of Chrysler LLC’s outsourcing by taking over IT work handled by separate service providers.
Under the agreement made public this week, Tata will be responsible for a variety of IT systems at the automaker, including online vehicle ordering systems for dealers and maintenance of the company’s dealer and brand Web sites, according to David Elshoff, a Chrysler spokesman. He said the consolidation under Tata will deliver greater efficiency for the automaker, but will not affect the jobs of any existing Chrysler employees.
The cost of the contract was not disclosed. Tata officials sent out a note Wednesday indicating the contract is worth $120 million but didn’t say how long it runs. Tata subsequently asked that the figure not be used, but by then it had been published on the Internet and in media sources. Chrysler does not disclose contract terms as a matter of policy, but in this case said that the dollar value claimed by Tata was inaccurate, said Elshoff.
A union at Chrysler, United Auto Workers Local 412, believes that Tata’s role at the company will expand beyond this week’s announcement, at least for one group of employees. Last week, the union group claimed that foreign workers on H-1B visaswere being trained on systems used by recently laid-off employees at its technical center in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Dennis Greathouse, the third vice president of the local, said cost estimators - people with technical backgrounds who look at competitive price issues involved in parts work — believe their jobs will be eventually transfered to Tata. Any such move would affect about 20 employees, he said.
The job of cost estimator pays roughly between $70,000 and $80,000 a year, said Greathouse. “What I have been told is they (Tata) can hire two or three people for one of us,” he said. Greathouse retired last year from Chrysler.
