[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 89 (Friday, June 28, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1188-E1189]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY, EDS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PETE SESSIONS

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 27, 2002

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, it is not often a $1,000 investment 
becomes a $21.5 billion

[[Page E1189]]

powerhouse. But a modest investment is how Electronic Data Systems 
(EDS) started 40 years ago today.
  EDS is a leading provider of information technology and business 
consulting services to businesses and governments worldwide. During its 
first 40 years, EDS changed the face of information-technology (IT) 
services while helping IT services grow into a global, half-trillion 
dollar market. For 40 years, EDS won its customers' trust through 
diligence and innovation.
  American business could learn a lot from EDS' focus on long-term 
trust-building.
  EDS had an unconventional operation when it opened for business on 
June 27, 1962. The company that would found the information-technology 
services industry didn't own any computers. So managers convinced a 
Dallas insurance company to rent EDS time on its idle computers at 
night.
  With only 30 employees and a shoe-string budget, EDS relied on 
employees to sell data-processing services during the day and process 
that data at night. Everyone wore more many hats and put in long days.
  EDS' first contract was with Collins Radio in Iowa, and its next was 
a five-year agreement with Frito Lay to provide facilities management, 
a service in which EDS assumed responsibility for operating, 
maintaining, and upgrading companies' computers.
  It was 1965 before EDS bought its first computer. By 1969, EDS owned 
31 computers, employed 1,407 employees, and earned revenue of some $100 
million.
  Besides computers, the 1960s brought EDS new public-sector business 
that would ultimately transform the small company into an industry 
giant: Medicaid and Medicare, fundamental components of the Great 
Society. The late '60s found states struggling to implement these 
essential health-care programs for the elderly and the economically 
disadvantaged. The workload was overwhelming. EDS was prepared to help 
with proprietary systems and processing methods, many adapted from its 
previous transaction-processing work.
  The many partnerships among EDS and states' Medicare and Medicaid 
programs flourished. By 1981, EDS processed Medicare claims in 16 
states. The corporation now processes more than a billion health-care 
transactions--public and private--every year. That's one claim for 
every four Americans.
  From its 1960s position as a modest Texas company that processed 
health-care insurance claims, EDS grew into a global corporation with 
140,000 employees worldwide and more than 35,000 clients in more than 
60 countries.
  In EDS' early years, few understood how IT would change business. No 
one yet grasped how crucial information and access to it would become, 
not just for companies, but for the approaching global information 
culture.
  From the beginning, EDS understood information's importance. That's 
why the company spent the last four decades ensuring the security of 
its clients' information and infrastructure technologies.
  EDS has a rich history serving the federal government. In 1977, EDS 
signed its first major U.S. government contract with the National Flood 
Insurance Program. Some 25 years later, EDS continues that 
relationship.
  In 1982, the U.S. Army awarded EDS Project Viable, the largest IT 
contract ever let by the U.S. Army at the time. The $650 million, 10-
year contract called for EDS to build an information technology system 
for the Army to support its worldwide human resources activities. EDS' 
work on Project Viable not only launched the systems-integration 
market, but demonstrated EDS' ability to handle the largest and most 
complex IT projects on the planet.
  Despite its focus on thorny information-technology projects for 
corporations, governments, and military organizations, EDS people know 
that IT has humane applications. In 1990, for example, EDS helped 
develop In Touch, which enabled veterans to find the families and 
friends of Americans who died during the Vietnam conflict--veterans' 
buddies, friends, confidantes, and commanders. EDS has replicated the 
In Touch system during the last 10 years for similar humanitarian 
applications.
  Also in 1990, EDS collaborated with the Smithsonian Institution in 
Washington, D.C., to create Information Age, a hands-on exhibit that 
walked visitors through the decades to witness information technology's 
progress from ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer, to high-
definition television.
  In 2000--some 18 years later--EDS won the $6.9 billion Navy Marine 
Corps Intranet contract, the largest IT-services contract ever awarded 
by the U.S. government. NMCI gives the Navy state-of-the-art 
information security while providing it the technology and bandwidth 
for business transformation.
  EDS became a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors in 1984. GM 
bought EDS to manage its global telecommunications network to link 
suppliers and dealers and thereby create the first large-scale 
electronic data interchange. The GM relationship gave EDS swift access 
to new markets, resulting in explosive growth. EDS zoomed from some 
13,000 employees to more than 60,000 in just a few months.
  EDS also helped prove the relationship between companies' IT 
investment and their productivity. Based on the performance of EDS' 
clients, many came to understand that efficient IT investment leads to 
more efficient business operations. It became clear that IT turns data 
into information and information into the kind of knowledge that drives 
growth.
  By the 1990s, EDS was a global corporation with operations in some 30 
countries. EDS designed and installed the official Results Reporting 
Information Systems for the 1992 Olympic Games in Spain, making it 
easier for fans and the press to get results faster. Also during the 
'90s, EDS won a $1.5 billion contract with the United Kingdom's Inland 
Revenue, and a similar contract with New Zealand's tax-gathering 
agency. The government of South Australia followed suit. Meanwhile, 
Rolls Royce contracted for EDS to it with a full range of IT services, 
including infrastructure, network, systems, and applications. The 
Commonwealth Bank of Australia also became a major EDS client. In 1998, 
EDS technology helped more than 12 million Internet viewers watch the 
1998 World Cup live.
  As 1999 drew to a close, EDS worked with its global clients, and even 
non-customers, to ensure a flawless transition of myriad public and 
private IT systems to the Year 2000. EDS was so confident of its Y2K 
solutions that it opened the Millennium Management Centre to the press 
so everyone could witness what ended up as a flawless transition from 
December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000.
  On Super Bowl Sunday 2000, millions watched the Cat Herders, EDS' 
first Super Bowl commercial. It humorously explained what EDS does 
better than anyone else in the IT industry--help clients work better, 
smarter, faster, and cheaper.
  EDS originated the idea of a Service Excellence Dashboard, a two-way 
interactive on-line tool EDS leaders and EDS clients can use to gauge 
and critique EDS' performance. The innovative dashboard and became a 
differentiator for EDS. It is continuously updated and improved based 
on client feedback. Others in the IT industry now use similar systems.
  So, please join me in congratulating EDS on this auspicious occasion. 
At a time when ``dot-coms'' popped up and then, just as abruptly, 
disappeared, EDS continues to offer insight on how to be successful: 
Offer clients what they need, then provide even more.
  Happy 40th anniversary, EDS.

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