R.J. Reynolds Outsources IT

In January, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company signed a new services contract under which EDS will manage the company's information technology (IT) infrastructure environment. The contract was signed in the fourth quarter of 2007 and financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. Beginning in August 2008, EDS will manage R.J. Reynolds' mainframes, mid-range servers, databases and data centers, which are all housed at R.J. Reynolds' facilities in North Carolina. EDS will also provide fieldlevel and helpdesk support for the R.J. Reynolds network and computing environment, which includes WAN/LAN, video conferencing, telephones, PCs and laptops for its employees nationwide. "EDS has a strong foundation of proven tools, processes and people. This partnership will enable us to leverage speed, flexibility and effectiveness in technology to support our business growth strategies in the tobacco marketplace," says Donald I. Lamonds, executive vice president and chief information officer, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. "This will give us a strong platform to support our systems and applications, such as SAP."