McDonald's replaces IT services provider Atos with Capgemini
Global IT consultancy Capgemini has won a new contract with fast food vendor McDonald's. The firm will provide IT support services to the world-famous burger chain, after McDonald’s axed its former provider, rival firm Atos.
Atos had a mixed start to 2018. The international IT and consulting group was the main IT provider for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, announcing that it would be the first Olympics where all critical IT applications would be remotely managed and hosted on the cloud. Days into the event, however, the firm revealed that it had been hacked with malware.
Later in the year, Atos’ healthcare wing, Independent Assessment Services, was lambasted by Members of Parliament for the firm’s Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments. The outsourcer was set a target for less than 3% of its reports to be marked out as “unacceptable” by the Department for Work and Pensions, however the target has never been met, with 5% of its reports found "unacceptable" between March and December 2017. Meanwhile 68% of individuals who appealed against negative assessments from Atos and fellow contractors Capita are presently winning their cases in court – leading MPs to ask questions of the two firms' performances.
Adding to this, Atos has now reportedly lost its former role providing IT support services to international fast food giant, McDonald's. The long-standing contract, believed to have run for the past seven years, was a keystone point of reference which Atos used to generate business with retailers, according to sources reported in the UK media, making it a considerable headache for Atos’ business plan, despite not being the biggest deal in terms of value. The change will come in spite of Atos’ presiding over the apparent delivery of a more than 90% first-time solution rate to McDonald’s, from its team based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
Meal deal
French-origin IT consulting rivals Capgemini will reportedly take on the contract instead, adding further insult to injury for Atos. The agreement with Atos is understood to have included support for point-of-sales systems, digital signage and payment systems across McDonald's 1,249 UK outlets – is scheduled to end June 26, and transfer to the new provider.
The incumbent team is expected to be TUPE'd across to Capgemini – however internal sources have allegedly leaked concerns to French media group Le Monde Informatique and UK reporters The Register that Atos’ staff were expecting to be made redundant. "Expect pain all round," one source told the media outlets, commenting on speculation that Capgemini would provide some of its support services for McDonald’s from its Indian call centre, enabling it to downsize the cost of its wage bill.
Capgemini has recently come under intense scrutiny from its own staff in India, after a 0-0.50% increase in their pay left employees furious while the company enjoyed a 7% growth in constant exchange rate to Rs 3,153 million during the first quarter of 2018. Employees have since been tweeting about what they see as a negligent increment with the hash-tags #CapgeminiBetraysEmployees and #Capgemini-BetraysEmployees – but the lower wages may also explain why McDonald’s, who are looking to decrease their expenditure on staff pay – and the cost of outsourcers – in order to boost profits, would opt to change their IT support suppliers at this juncture.
The new deal will see Capgemini expand its pre-existing relationship with the home of the Big Mac, after the firm already entered into a multi-year agreement as IT strategic providers with McDonald’s late last year. With support from Publicis.Sapient, another global professional services provider, Capgemini was contracted to work to overhaul the restaurant chain’s digital capabilities, and accelerate McDonald’s digital transformation of its restaurants. The move seemed to come as a response to potential wage inflation at the famously frugal fast food outlet, as employees of UK branches took the historic decision to strike for improved working conditions and an end to zero-hour contracts.
