General Motors Co. recently started construction on its second Enterprise Data Center at its Proving Ground in Milford.
The $258 million facility, including IT equipment estimated at $158 million, was announced earlier this month by GM CEO and Chairman Dan Akerson at the official opening of the Detroit-based automaker’s first Enterprise Data Center in Warren.
Combined, GM is spending $546 million on equipment and infrastructure for both locations, according to GM Chief Information Officer Randy Mott. The twin facilities, which will oversee all of GM’s IT operations globally, are part of a plan to transform GM’s global IT footprint from 23 facilities to two by 2015.
GM said a brief ceremony marking the official start of construction for the second site was held last week at the site and was attended by GM and Milford Township officials.
The two centers are designed to integrate and streamline all aspects of product development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and OnStar applications to speed access to any GM employee anywhere in the world.
The Milford center, according to Mott, is expected to be completed within 18 months. The Warren center took more than three years, but the new center will be a “mirror image” of the Warren facility and should take less time to build.
The IT plan, which includes investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Michigan, has been in the works for years, but escalated following Mott joining the Detroit-based automaker in February 2012.
Before Mott joined GM, roughly 90 percent of GM’s IT operations were handled by about 10,000 people outside the company. By 2017, Mott wants to flip those percentages to have 90 percent — about 9,000 employees, including 3,000 from Hewlett-Packard Co. — be GM employees.
Michael Wayland, mlive.com.
