Toyota puts brakes on outsourcing

Toyota Financial Services has brought its systems back in-house to reduce the risk associated with a third party service provider.

The company, which provides financial services to Toyota, Lexus and their dealerships, has brought its systems back under its own control following the conclusion of a five year outsourcing deal with Lloyds TSB's asset finance division.

'When you have your business outsourced, it's not just the IT, maintenance and support, but the whole organisation,' said Blair Pollock, programme director at Toyota Financial Services.

'You depend solely on that service provider. You have to worry about whether they're going to be in business next year, whether they are able to service you consistently throughout the terms of the agreement and beyond,' he said.

Toyota Financial Services stopped using Lloyds TSB's systems in September, having had a new computing architecture designed for it by IT design and consulting specialist Icoda.

According to Pollock, this new and increased control over the business will allow it to expand.

'We are confident we will have the flexibility to expand our business and that means gaining new business,' Pollock said.

Toyota has spent somewhere in region of £10 to £20m on bringing its systems back in-house.

'We didn't undertake this to see immediate financial benefits,' Pollock said. 'It was more to relieve ourselves of the uncertainty of a service provider.'