Capgemini wins six-year digital transformation contract from Bayer

Paris-headquartered information technology (IT) services company Capgemini has won a six-year digital transformation deal from German pharmaceuticals giant Bayer AG. The deal is estimated to be worth over 1 billion Euros.

The outsourcing deal, set to be effective from January 2020, will also see 550 IT engineers from Bayer's Mumbai technology office or the global in-house centre (GIC) join Capgemini.

The French IT giant, which has half of its global 200,000 strong workforce based in India, will change Bayer’s IT infrastructure by migrating workloads to the cloud, the company said in a statement. Details were not provided on the technology platforms that Capgemini will implement at Bayer or the predominant cloud infrastructure that the French company is going to choose.

According to various media reports, while most large IT services firms bid for the deal, Capgemini won because of its long-standing relationship with Bayer. Earlier in July, Capgemini had signed a deal with Bayer to take over the latter’s GIC in Mumbai.

With the rapidly evolving and advancing technology landscape, even large enterprises are increasingly looking at outsourcing their technology research to IT companies that have a deeper domain expertise as well as the engineers with advanced technology skills in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, automation and analytics.

“Major IT companies like Capgemini are able to realise scale effects and have an innovative power that we want to benefit from. We will focus our internal IT competencies on generating value for our businesses in the life science industry by providing differentiating solutions in an increasingly digital world,” said Daniel Hartert, CIO, Bayer.

According to the statement, Capgemini will transform Bayer’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, business intelligence or analytics domain management as well as digitise the pharma firm’s entire supplier ecosystem.

“We are now looking forward to delivering a cloud-first strategy at Bayer to support the business in achieving its goals and Bayer’s 2022 transformation plan,” said Olivier Sevillia, CEO, strategic business unit-Europe, Capgemini and member of the group executive board.

Bayer currently employs around 4,700 IT staff across the world. The reorganisation is seen as the company’s attempt to reduce costs and accelerate digitisation.