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Procter & Gamble knows consumer products - everything from diapers to toothpaste to potato chips. Networks, data centers and help desks fall somewhere down on the company's list.
Not that IT isn't important to P&G.
"We just looked at all the things that we're trying to do with our IT organization and shared services organization, and we felt tapping into an external partnership would give us greater access to IT innovation,"says Damon Jones, spokesman for the Cincinnati company.
Like many companies these days, P&G has looked to outsource its IT infrastructure and services to reduce costs and benefit from the expertise and innovation the consumer goods company likely couldn't provide on its own. Last week, the company announced that it was in final negotiations with HP for a managed services contract that would be the biggest in HP's history
Experts say the deal marks a shift in the outsourcing market, which IBM and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) have dominated, analysts say. According to Gartner's latest figures, IBM leads the IT management market with 14.4% market share, followed by EDS, which holds 10.6% of the market. HP on the other hand,ranked seventh with a little more than 1% of the market.
"This is a huge...