Bridgestone goes for Satyam IT services

Tyres and rubber manufacturing giant Bridgestone is using offshore consulting, implementation and applications development firm Satyam, India’s fourth biggest IT company, for its SAP ERP implementation. The deal follows work done Satyam for Bridgestone in Japan, and will cover the whole suite, including manufacturing, Business Warehouse and APO (advanced planner and optimiser. It includes consulting, implementation and operations for SAP, as well as Siebel CRM (customer relationship management), Cognos business intelligence and content management. Dr Keshab Panda, who heads Satyam in Europe, says Bridgestone chose the company because of its core strength in SAP, and its depth and breadth in manufacturing industry. “It’s the bandwidth of services we have.” To that can be added the cost reduction achieved through offshore IT development and assistance. Satyam, which operates in 45 countries, employs 23,500 and last year turned over $249m, is increasingly challenging the big five consultancies. Panda reckons that last year manufacturing industry accounted for its largest slice of business by revenue. Europe accounts for 17% of its revenues, and 75% of that comes from the UK.