Renault Sharpens Global IT Focus
Client: Renault
Challenge: Reduce IT costs and provide a global, competitive IT system focused on automotive expertise.
Solution: Outsource sites in France and Spain to CSC for supervising, operating and managing all technical platforms, mainframes, midranges and networks and equipment maintenance.
Results: Successful completion of the deal's first phase, including total transition of 45 Renault employees and 120 contractors into new roles with value-added tasks and functions.
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As Europe's leading automotive manufacturer set out to reduce costs, increase value and spread a refocused information technology (IT) initiative across the company, it turned to CSC to provide a key piece of the puzzle.
The Renault Group's automotive division has pursued an in-depth transformation of its IT since 2003, including a 2005 infrastructure services agreement with CSC to help equip the French manufacturer with a global, competitive IT system focused on automotive expertise in a centralized, consolidated and automated environment.
In this multi-sourcing deal, CSC joins HP and Atos Origin to adapt Renault's IT systems and networks to the company's new global outlook and support a reduction in IT costs, increase of IT value and internationalization of IT across the company.
"Renault drives its international growth strategy with partners who are experts in their own fields, and information systems are an integral part of this strategy," says Gérard Ciblat, head of Renault's Infrastructure Department. "Today, IT requires both a sharp vision and a precise execution. That’s why we chose to partner with CSC."
Building a 'Refoundation' for success
Renault's automotive division, which accounts for most of the Renault Group's revenue, designs, builds and markets passenger cars and light commercial vehicles under the Renault, Samsung (Korea) and Dacia (Romania) nameplates to customers across the world.
The division is accelerating its international presence, aiming to increase production by 800,000 vehicles a year and pursuing its alliance with Nissan, which will make it the third largest automaker in the world by 2009. However, the division needs to develop a new way of operating that will effectively bring internal expertise and its IT suppliers' competencies together.
CSC is responsible at the manufacturer's sites in France and Spain for supervising, operating and managing all technical platforms, mainframes, midranges and networks, as well as maintaining that equipment.
The overall approach to the IT transformation project is a part of Renault's "Refoundation" project, which aims to assist the company in realizing its full potential in the global marketplace by making IT and information systems a professional, high-performance tool to serve Renault's automotive expertise in a strategy of worldwide, profitable growth.
"Refoundation has several impacts on global infrastructure. First, it will allow us to progress faster on the quality level we provide to our customers through IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and associated tools deployment," says Gerard Ciblat, head of the Renault Group Infrastructures Division. "Secondly, it will allow us to cut down on production costs by rationalizing technical infrastructures budgets. I also consider that Refoundation will lead to consistent management procedures throughout the entire infrastructures division."
Transitioning into the future
As phase one of the five-year outsourcing deal was completed in five months, it showed how efficient sourcing, controlled knowledge transfer and effective risk management can create a solid foundation for a cost reduction and consolidation objective to be successful.
During this time, the staff resourcing program of the Renault transition became the first time in CSC's global outsourcing history in which no staff was released. Instead, 45 Renault employees were retained and redeployed while transferring knowledge to CSC. CSC also provided approximately 220 new staff within 12 months to ensure service delivery.
The Renault transition also required a customized approach and delivery as well as new methodologies that were combined into the staff resourcing program, including discovery of functions and in-scope roles; demand forecasting; resourcing; induction and technical integration; and renewal of subcontractors' contracts and cutovers.
This delivery is uncommon and will set the standard for which CSC will be able to create value for Renault moving forward, explains Bruno de Saint Chamas, CSC's global account executive.
"CSC anticipated and identified clear objectives, how to approach this plan with an end-to-end process, which optimizes inter-relationships between individuals and entities and makes the best of various skills and competencies," he says. "We also incorporated a new transition deliverable, an SRP [staff resourcing program], which manages end-to-end process to deliver operational teams on time."