To save time and money, a French international tire manufacturer today inked a 3-year contract with a London-based IT and business services organization, the companies announced.

 

Officials from Michelin say they contracted with Logica for help in North America and Europe in the areas of finance and purchase reporting, supply chain management, market and sales, customer relationship management and demand to cash.

 

Logica officials say the contract marks a major opportunity for the company.

 

“I am delighted that Michelin has chosen Logica to be its strategic partner for applications management in one of the most significant contract awards in Europe this year,” said the company’s chief executive officer, Andy Green. “This is a transformational win for Logica, clearly demonstrating our ability to combine our close European customer relationships with consistent and competitive global delivery to deliver real business value for our customers.”

 

Michelin officials describe their company as “dedicated” to improving mobility by making tires for airplanes, bicycles, farm equipment, trucks and even a U.S. space shuttle.

 

The company, headquartered in Clermont-Ferrand, France, may be best known for introducing radial tire technology to the Formula One racing circuit. Though it withdrew in 1984, Michelin returned to Formula One in 2001 and supplied Williams, Jaguar, Renault, Prost and Toyota with tires. Initially a non-factor, the tires saw success in 2005, partly, experts say, because tires are required to last an entire race distance.

 

Officials say that Michelin’s new contract has an option for a 3-year renewal, and includes services and systems implementation.

 

“The contract will draw on Logica’s blended delivery model, which allocates the optimal IT resources from across Logica’s service centers in the world,” company officials say.

 

Logica says it employs nearly 40,000 in 36 countries, and they provide business consulting, systems integration and IT and business process outsourcing.

 

According to Patrick Guimbal, chairman of Logica France, the contract award shows that his company understands Michelin’s business and how it can transform its IT makeup.

 

“This project demonstrates our ability to support our multinational European clients in their complex international projects,” Guimbal said.