Motorola Inc. will outsource elements of its wireless products CRM (customer relationship management), including distribution, warehousing, inventory capability, call centres, and the like to Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), EDS said in a statement Wednesday.
Motorola will use EDS to provide fulfillment and other services to support Motorola’s new distribution model called Motorola Messaging Express, where the manufacturer goes directly to the reseller, EDS said. Services will include call-center fulfillment, inventory management, distribution, and payment processing.
Like other cell-phone companies, profit has been hard to find for Motorola in recent months. The company announced last month it would outsource some cell-phone production to electronics manufacturer Celestica Inc., and two weeks ago announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its Harvard, Ill., campus, shifting its operational focus to customer order fulfillment and new product sourcing while cutting 2,500 jobs.
L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. announced last week that it would exit the cell-phone production business entirely, a concession to weak sales forecasts, a lack of profit from production and losing market share to rival Nokia Corp.
EDS, in Plano, Tex., could be reached at http://www.eds.com/. Motorola, in Schaumburg, Ill., can be reached at http://www.mot.com/.