GM Aims to Absorb Most of Its IT Work

General Motors Co. says it will boost the proportion of information technology work performed in-house from 10% currently to 90% within five years.

The policy reverses decades of IT outsourcing that began when GM bought Electronic Data Systems Corp. in 1984. The carmaker continued to use EDS after spinning off the unit in 1996 and after EDS was acquired by Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2008.

GM's policy shift will prompt it to hire several thousand people, according to Chief Information Officer Randy Mott, who joined the company from HP in February. He tells reporters that only about 1,500 of the 10,000 people currently handling GM's IT functions are directly employed by the company.

Mott says bringing IT in-house will make GM more efficient and productive. He also expects the project to simplify data transmission, help standardize the company's global IT platform and cut the number of IT applications it uses by at least 40%.

GM plans to shut down 21 of its 23 data centers worldwide and centralize those operations at two existing facilities in Michigan. The company also intends to expand the number of software development centers it operates from one to four.