Volvo IT Renews Agreement with Ford-Owned Volvo Car Corporation

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--May 8, 2006--AB Volvo's subsidiary, Volvo IT, is signing a new three-year agreement involving all mainframe operations for Ford-owned Volvo Cars. The agreement represents the continuation of a 40-year partnership.

Volvo Cars uses mainframe systems for the design of new cars, production at its plants and for handling parts, among other things. These mainframe computers are monitored and protected around the clock by Volvo IT, which has set up one of the Nordic Region's largest facilities for mainframe computer operations in Goteborg, Sweden.

The Volvo Group started using mainframes back in the 1960s. The first models had limited capacity and took up a great deal of space at the computer centre. Nowadays, however, Volvo Cars uses modern mainframes that process hundreds of millions of instructions per second (MIPS) and are about the size of refrigerators.

"Our long-term commitment to delivering high operational quality and reduced operating costs has paid off. We have now been asked to continue running IT operations that play a decisive part in Volvo Cars' operations," says Olle Hogblom, market director at Volvo IT.

Last year, Volvo IT inaugurated a new computer centre in Goteborg to accommodate the growing demand from customers both within and outside the Volvo Group.

Volvo Information Technology AB provides IT solutions for the whole industrial process from product development and manufacturing to sales, the aftermarket and administration including IT operations and infrastructure. Customers include AB Volvo, Ford Motor Company, Volvo Car Corporation, Nobel Biocare, SCA and Skandia. Volvo IT's global activities achieved sales of SEK 7 billion in 2005, and the company employed 6,000 people in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Volvo Information Technology AB is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AB Volvo.