Conti Appoints Tire Division R&D Application Management Provider

On January 13 it was announced that Continental AG has entered into an agreement with T-Systems (the enterprise customer division of Deutsche Telekom) and business process outsourcing provider Cognizant. The two companies will jointly provide application management services to the research and development operations of Continental’s tyre divisions in Hanover, Germany, beginning in 2009.

As part of the three-year contract, the partners will replace Continental’s current service provider of over ten years, and Cognizant will provide the bulk of the services from India. All services are covered under a fixed price, thus it is expected Continental will achieve a high level of cost transparency and save significant administration and maintenance costs on its Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems. The external support, says Cognizant, will enable Conti to boost efficiencies by freeing up its IT staff to focus on further IT development for the company’s core business.

“Profitable growth and consistent cost management in all business areas are the basis of our success as a company. T-Systems’ business model is another building block of this success,” said Continental’s Passenger and Light Truck Tires division CIO Elisabeth Höflich.

“Our expertise and a strong alliance with Cognizant are the keys to reliable global outsourcing at competitive prices,” said Joachim Langmack, responsible for business customers at T-Systems. “The contract with Continental shows that the alliance between T-Systems and Cognizant continues to bear fruit, as we won the deal against stiff competition. At the same time, it also allows us to consolidate our position in the automotive market.”

“Our complementary capabilities of deep industry expertise, scale of operations, and market-leading global delivery platform will help Continental rationalise their operating costs and reinvest the savings into their core business,” said Santosh Thomas, vice-president and head of Continental European Operations, Cognizant. “The highlight of our alliance is our ability to synergistically go-to-market and provide customers like Continental a unique value proposition of local knowledge coupled global reach and expertise.”