EDS Will Boost Hiring to Meet Needs of Parent GM

Electronic Data Systems, whose work force has nearly tripled in the past 15 months, will be adding more employees as its parent company, General Motors, expands its data-processing requirements, an EDS official says.

EDS Vice President James Buchanan said his company will have to recruit about 2,000 new employees a year for the foreseeable future.

Buchanan, in a speech Thursday to the Troy Chamber of Commerce, said GM’s data-processing requirements are expected to increase by 40% a year for the next few years.

GM acquired Dallas-based EDS in the fall of 1984 to do all computer operations for the world’s largest corporation.

Since the fourth quarter of 1984, the EDS payroll has expanded to 40,000 from 14,000, Buchanan said. About 9,700 of the employees are based in the Detroit area.

Buchanan said that some of the new employees will be replacements for EDS workers who, for one reason or another, drop off the payroll. But some of the projected hiring will involve new employees needed to handle expanding business at EDS, he said.

GM’s acquisition of EDS has created a completely new organization, Buchanan said.

Buchanan said he originally thought it would take between 12 and 18 months for EDS to absorb GM’s data-processing operations. But in late 1984, GM Chairman Roger B. Smith said he wanted the transition to take place as quickly as possible.

“The transition is now history,” said Buchanan, who said that at times the process of integrating the two companies was difficult.

But he said the merger gave GM more clout with companies supplying computer equipment and services. It also gave EDS an opportunity to develop technical and computer services that it eventually can sell to other manufacturing companies.

In addition, EDS now has the opportunity to expand its international operations on the strength of GM’s reputation, he said.