In 2002 Atos Origin and DSM signed an extensive application hosting outsourcing agreement covering a period of seven years. The agreement is international in scope and valid for Europe, the United States, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand.

An important element of the cooperation lies in the construction and administration of an Enterprise Resource Planning environment - an infrastructure that also provides a link to e-business and web applications. DSM and Atos Origin will together lay the foundations for this service which will then be implemented and managed by Atos Origin, as IT service provider, for seven years.

DSM chose Atos Origin as its 'preferred partner' due to its flexibility and commitment, as well as their previous positive experiences with Atos Origin. Jo van den Hanenberg, Corporate Vice President and CIO of DSM said, "Considering the dynamics of the market in which DSM operates, it is essential for us to have a partner that is technically and organizationally capable of developing along with us".

DSM is active worldwide in life science products, performance materials and industrial chemicals. The group has annual sales (pro forma including the recently acquired DSM Nutritional Products business) of around EUR 8 billion and employs about 25,500 people across the world.