Toyota Material Handling Europe outsources IT to CGI

Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE), a truck manufacturing and material handling firm, has decided to outsource its entire IT operations to CGI. The contract has an estimated value of $33 million, across a time span of five years.

TMHE, the European regional organisation of Toyota’s global Material Handling Group, began operations in 2006 to manage the materials handling business in the European continent. The firm has approximately 4,500 service technicians in more than 30 countries across Europe. TMHE’s production facilities are based in Ancenis (France), Bologna (Italy) and Mjölby (Sweden).

Driven by TMHE’s strategy to focus on its core business, the firm has decided to outsource its IT operations. Following a competitive tender procedure the firm opted for CGI, with 68,000 professionals one of the largest IT services companies of the globe, headquartered in Canada. In a press release TMHE has confirmed that freeing up additional resources for business development is the main purpose for the outsourcing deal. Other motivating reasons include cost savings, quality improvements and access to expertise and innovation from an experienced IT partner.

CGI has been given responsibility for TMHE’s data center, as well as its application management, service desk, email, network, collaboration, storage and security services. In addition, CGI will deliver its standardised IT services for workplaces for approximately 6,000 users in Europe.

“We were looking for a strategic and innovative partner and selected CGI because of its experience with similar projects and its ability to improve our IT on a continuous basis,” says Johan Kroon, CIO of TMHE. “Another crucial factor is CGI’s HR strategy and processes for transferring personnel. In addition, increased cost control and the transit to more flexible capacity services will result in better quality and lower costs for our customers.”

“We are pleased with the confidence TMHE has placed in us to provide a broad spectrum of IT services and look forward to having a continuous dialogue about new ideas to develop and streamline its IT operations,” comments Pär Fors, Senior Vice President of CGI in Sweden. “TMHE’s choice of CGI as its outsourcing partner is proof that our outsourcing services are well in line with current market needs and expectations.”