General Motors (GM) is to spend $15bn (£8.5bn) over the next five years on a series of outsourcing deals with IBM, HP, EDS, Capgemini, Compuware Covisint and Wipro.

The contracts, which are due to start in June, will replace the global car maker's previous 10-year contract with outsourcer EDS.

Ralph Szygenda, GM's chief information officer, says the comapny has gone through an 18 month process to consider all major IT outsourcing suppliers.

'Of critical importance is the focus we have had on driving innovation and supporting future globalisation and digitisation of the company,' he said.

GM has signed a $500m (£282m) agreement with Capgemini that will cover the support of enterprise-wide application integration management including global purchasing, sales, business services and supply chain organisation.

'Although traditional IT outsourcing represents a significant portion of this new outsourcing endeavor, Capgemini will assist us in key systems architecture management in the future,' Syzgenda said.