Current technologies grow to acceleration

After a year marked by the crisis and the freezing of customer projects, the sector of computer services and of the Council gradually out the head of the water. Companies begin to reinvest in their information systems. Remains that, in the meantime, the market has changed profoundly of face, with the entry of new players (HP, Dell...), and the master of accelerated cost, via an action reinforced on the offshore. Paul Hermelin, CEO Capgemini, returned to "Les echos" on these developments and how his group will be able, according to him, take advantage of the game this.

Your business is a good thermometer of the economy. Are you crab-wise the recovery

Today, we feel the first signs of a return of the application, but not those of a true re-engagement. Out of the crisis is very progressive. As a first step, companies had arrested all the projects that were not vital. Then they have sought to achieve savings by lowering the prices of their suppliers and by reducing the number of beneficiaries. And now, clients reinvest for the future. We are beginning to enter into this more positive phase. Our unit banks succeeded, for example, to finish 2009 with sales up 3 in the United States, after having started the year by a decline of 15 in the first quarter. All sectors of activity are not at the same stage. Energy remained dynamic, especially on environmental topics. Similarly, the public sector has played a role of stabilizer - it now represents 28 of our turnover. On the other hand, we were surprised of the violence of the downturn in the telecoms. In the distribution or the automobile, investment levels remain still very low.

What indicators allow you to be confident

The rate of turnover, traditionally high in our trades, is is restated in the Council as well as in the United States and India after declining during the crisis. This means that the demand on the labour market is restarts. Another interesting indicator, the volume of projects in preparation. Last year, the demand for large-scale projects had collapsed, with very few projects above EUR 10 million, while those included between 30 and 70 million were deferred. Today, our portfolio is again what it was before the crisis. This is a sign that clients want to reinvest. The great rest query rate decision-making. Will businesses be confident enough to sign In all cases, they opt for difficult and innovative solutions with tense prices. In short, the market is to revive, but it is too early to determine the timing and the extent of the remedy.

That will be changed the crisis in your sector of the Council and it services

Many have in mind the general slowdown of the years 2001-2002, with the collapse of the dot-com bubble. The impact of the current crisis on the sector is not comparable. At the time, the crisis was preceded by massive investment, which has created a bubble. Today, our major customers do not want to stop their it investments. Current technologies grow to acceleration. We see including two promising movements. The first is the "cloud computing", this new technology wave is for companies to "virtualize" their data management by outsourcing. The "cloud" announces a new mode of access to data with a better user interface and communication through all types of terminals. Second mutation: the re-evaluation of the importance of emerging markets in the world gives. Now, the strategy of our major customers includes very often Asian or Latin American.

How evolved the competition

Our market is redrawn since the acquisition of EDS by HP, in 2008. This purchase resulted in the reaction of Dell, which has made the acquisition of Perot. More broadly, we see the emergence of new actors on the "cloud", such as Amazon or Google. Similarly, Cisco enters the world of servers, the EMC and VMWare alliance. But one thing is certain: the culture of the service is not improvised. It requires a genuine cultural revolution, to adapt to the needs of the client, and not only to sell its product. Well, IBM made this shift by developing an autonomous services activity, in a dedicated subsidiary.

What are the prospects for Capgemini in 2010 Will you continue your cost reductions

The priority for Capgemini is to resume the path of growth in the second half with five bids that we at this moment, one dedicated to the "cloud", named "infostructure Transformation Services". As we said at the publication of our annual results, our conservative scenario, it is a sequential stability, one semester

on the other. And our the most optimistic scenario, it is a reboot in the second half. What will make the difference is the speed of decision of clients on projects on which we are negotiating. Beyond that, we will continue our effort on the costs, because that is what makes a healthy industry. We launched internally work on "lean" or management smart and frugal ways. Known in the automobile, the "lean" also applies to the service industry. Thus, we are going to review this year 3,000 workstations to optimize, before a broader deployment then.

On the offshore, will emerging countries continue their rise

We go out of the crisis with a pyramid of ages in the less favourable business, because we have hired less than young. For 2010, our priority is to resume these recruitments to accompany the economic recovery, which will reduce the average cost of employees and improve our competitiveness. We anticipate a moderate increase in personnel onshore and sustained on the offshore growth. We do not delete France jobs for relocate them! From 2006 to 2008, the onshore employment increased by 3 per year. Last year, with the crisis, it decreased by 6, including Spain and Netherlands, but the France has been preserved. We are in a cyclical market, always in acceleration or braking, withdrawal times are inevitable. I have asked to boost hirings on-shore technologies: "business information", virtualization techniques...

On these new offerings, I feel that the machine starts strong enough. Our aim is 2,300 recruitment this year in France, from 1,400 in 2009. The off-shore, which represents 31 of our workforce, it should increase by 15-20 per year. The crisis clearly led some customers to use, including the Benelux or the Scandinavian countries, where English is spoken more easily. The evidence is not yet made the France and the Germany are ready to pass the Cape. One thing is certain, it is this combination between collaborators in the West as the customers and competitive offshore resources and quality which allows us to adapt to the needs of customers.

Your Council activity was strongly shaken last year. What are its prospects, ten years after the purchase of Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young - did that made of the Council, nearby-a Capgemini a player world, and more just European. This operation made us grow decisively. It is this acquisition that allowed us to develop in the United States or India, which had about 100 employees at the time. This has brought us another culture, which is fundamental. It is also from collaborators of E & Y that we won large outsourcing contracts during difficult periods. Even today, among the eight operational entities of the group, four are led by elders of E & Y! Some people have found this very risky operation. You can always discuss the timing - the redemption was a few weeks before the collapse of the bubble, which put us in danger-, but the reality is that it has transformed Capgemini. Today, the Council is a master asset for us. To the Indians who are growing in strength, we must invest in added value, in the knowledge of the client. Then, surprised not if one decides to strengthen in this job...

You have almost 1.3 billion euros of cash. What are your projects

We will only conduct targeted acquisitions of medium or small size that build us in some countries or segments of the market as in the BPO with IBX, Swedish society that we have to buy, which has developed a solution of purchases with an integrated service platform. At the geographic level, it is clear that the group is still too weak in developing countries. Step India, but in China and the Brazil. In the United States, we must make progress in the Government domain or the healthcare sector.

Conversely, can Capgemini be a target

Frankly, it would be imprudent not to imagine that; in a market dominated by American players, with a "pure players" Indian formidable, we would not be also a target. Our level of cash paradoxically makes us even attractive. But we are the leader of European societies and a potential predator must know that Capgemini, its managers and its staff have independence fitted to the body. And I would add that, in the global competition of a strategic sector - that of technologies - it is valuable as an actor of French origin maintains its independence.