Technology Tools Help Sway Some Clinets To EDS

The Plano, Texas-based systems integrator, for example, has made its Services Excellence Dashboard,an internal Web-based tool for tracking client accounts,available to some customers. Last month, EDS invited its 800 North American clients to use the Dashboard to more effectively direct and monitor EDS consulting teams.

"This gives the client a virtual chair at the [consulting table," said Charles Kiser, director of global service excellence at EDS.

The Dashboard and another EDS management tool, the Project Workbook, were big factors in the company's $160 million contract win with the Kansas State Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, said Diane Davidson, senior manager of new projects for the Kansas department. Under the deal, unveiled in February, EDS plans to deliver Web-based technology for the state's Medicaid program.

Davidson said EDS landed the deal after losing the contract six years earlier to an outsourcing unit of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. "The major change we have seen is [EDS has really found new ways to listen and hear what the customers' needs are and then take that and find the best technology to meet those needs," she said.

The Dashboard reflects EDS' new openness in dealing with clients, whether it's "good news or bad news," Kiser said. On the competitive front, EDS figures it has a two-year lead on IBM and Computer Sciences Corp. with the patent-pending technology, he added.