Automotive expertise is key to IT contract

An INCAT product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 8, 2008

Jaguar Land Rover has appointed Incat as the preferred services partner on two key roles in the Ford/Tata IT migration process.

Incat has been awarded a managed services contract with Jaguar Land Rover until 2013.

Jaguar Land Rover has appointed Incat as the preferred services partner on two key roles in the Ford/Tata IT migration process.

Incat's first responsibility is to provide expertise in transitioning over 1000 IT applications from Ford into the new Jaguar Land Rover landscape.

This complex and challenging programme role, known as application transition vendor (ATV), will involve a team of up to 100 Incat staff, comprising project managers, functional analysts and technical experts, and will be completed in stages over a period of 18 months.

It will involve working closely with Jaguar Land Rover IT staff, Ford's transition team and Jaguar Land Rover's infrastructure partners and providers.

The Incat ATV team will be colocated with the Jaguar Land Rover transition team on the Land Rover Solihull site.

The second role, known as application management services (AMS), is to provide ongoing support for the transitioned applications for the next five years.

This will involve a team of approximately 250 Incat staff located both onshore in the Coventry area and offshore at Incat's Delivery Centre in Pune, India, and will leverage support from its Group company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The task for the AMS team is to gain expertise of the applications from the current support providers at Ford, and to then manage the ongoing provision of support to equivalent service levels.

Both activities further reinforce INCAT's expansion of facilities and resources in the West Midlands.

"This is a great outcome for both Incat and Jaguar Land Rover", comments Alan Weeks, Jaguar Land Rover IT Transition Manager.

"Incat offers the most robust and complete set of service provisions to meet our needs with the least risk".

"Recognising that Incat is also owned by Tata, we have been particularly sensitive to the need to treat them as we would any other vendor".

"No advantageous insight has been available to the Incat team, who worked with us in a very professional manner throughout the research phase".

Incat, a long term services partner to Jaguar Land Rover, already provides specialist PLM and engineering related services, with around 70 PLM consultants and engineers supporting Jaguar Land Rover projects at the Gaydon and Whitley sites.

Richard Welford, Incat's Vice President of Tata Motors Business Europe, adds: "The Incat team is delighted to have the opportunity to build on our established, long-term relationship with Jaguar Land Rover".

Warren Harris, Incat CEO, concludes: "This engagement with Jaguar Land Rover is a significant expansion of a long-standing and valued relationship between our organisations".

"The expertise that Incat brings to this engagement is two-fold".

"First, there is our dominant position in product development IT services".

"Secondly and most importantly is our intimate knowledge of Jaguar Land Rover including its market, its products and its business objectives".