At a time when new technologies are becoming the main business carrier,
communication is now all about transparency.
Aymeric Libeau
CIO - Vice President Infrastructures and R&D
CIO - Vice President Infrastructures and R&D
Monica Jiman
COO - Vice President Business Development
COO - Vice President Business Development
Alexandra Mondanel
International Operations Officer
Relying on partnership in diverse geographical, economical and cultural environments is the best way to sustain a strategy based on strong growth and international expansion.
Hélène Hemery
Marketing Manager
Marketing Manager
Sophie Lelarge
WW Sales and BL Director
WW Sales and BL Director
Pierre Peutin
Head of Business Line for Information Systems
Head of Business Line for Information Systems
Mickaël Hiver
Head of Business Lines for Embedded Systems & BPO
Head of Business Lines for Embedded Systems & BPO
Eric Gouin
Administrator
Administrator
Aleth Delcenserie
Quality Manager
Men accept change only when needed and they see need only in crisis", Jean Monnet, founding father of European unity.
Tuan Nguyenquoc
Office Manager Hanoi
A Vietnamese proverb says "When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree". Here, each employee takes part in growing the company and enjoys its fruit.
Frédéric Lasnier Title: President&Chief Executive Officer Bio: After a quick passage in a national marketing service company, Frederic Lasnier founded Pentalog with four colleagues, academics like himself. During a period of economic stagnation (in 1993).
In 1995, he decided to open permanently the capital of Pentalog to the participation of his employees. This participation now has reached 56%. It was a political vision that he shared with the founding members. Starting from 1997, Pentalog exported their first services outside of France. The percentage of foreign activities subsequently reached 60% in 2006.
In 1999, as part of a large software project (10 000 man-days in J2EE), he made his first trip to Romania and laid the foundation for the Pentalog policy of European "low cost". In 2005, he initiated the creation of BPO services (Business Process Outsourcing) and offered a New Business Model to Pentalog High Tech.
In 2006, with the help of Ausy, one of the 5 most important players in the French market of outsourced R&D services, he created Pentalog Technology, a joint venture between Ausy and Pentalog, co-owned equally by the two partners. The Joint Venture aims to provide low cost but high quality R & D to global players. Pentalog took operational control of this alliance.
In 2008, Pentalog Deutschland, the German subsidiary of the group was created.
In 2009, Frederic created Pentalog Vietnam.
In all these areas, the management is provided from Orleans and it is here where 70% of the consolidated value is held.
Frederic is the father of the adaptation of the "design to cost" for intellectual services in France.
Aymeric Libeau Title: CIO - Vice President Infrastructure & R&D Bio: The management of infrastructure and R&D Aymeric is supervising includes all the technical aspects (for the company as well as for our customers), whether they are related to corporate needs, resources to complete a project, R&D activities or quality control.
Aymeric is the one who defines the strategy of development of our infrastructure and information system.
This former peacekeeper has led several international operations, in particular in Eastern Europe. He remains operational for some of our customers, whether as an expert in architecture, a project director or consultant in the choice of technologies.
Monica Jiman Title: COO - Vice President Business Development Bio: Monica graduated in Marketing and Production from the University of
Orleans, and joined Pentalog as a trainee.
She then became the Manager of the branch office in Bucharest, today employing 50 people in the field of outsourced software development on the offshore as well as local market in Romania.
In May 2009 she became Chief Operational Officer. Monica is now in charge of operations in Vietnam, Eastern Europe, France and Germany, involving over 300 employees. She manages sales and business lines, the creation of new branch offices, recruitment, human resources and the responsibility of contractual operations.
Alexandra Mondanel Title: International Operations Officer Bio: After a 4-month internship within the Pentalog Orleans Team, Alexandra was recruited to develop the company's international activities. She holds a postgraduate degree in International Business and foreign languages and she is European to the core: her mother is German and her father is French; she attended a British University, and used to work for the German subsidiary of a French company before joining Pentalog in 2005. Her ability to speak four languages will be determining to find partners all accross Europe.
Sophie Lelarge Title: WW Sales and BL Director Bio: Sophie is the group's Sales Director and manages the 3 Business Lines: Information Systems, Embedded Systems and BPO.
She ensures the dialogue with consultants and project managers, as well as the monitoring of our commitments, in coordination with the project managers.
Pierre Peutin Title: Head of Business Line for Information Systems Bio: Pierre entered Pentalog as a developer, in 1999. He has worked on web and client/servers projects, on missions of medium and long duration in both France and Belgium. After several years as a developer, Pierre oriented himself towards Business Intelligence by participating in various reporting projects for customers like PSA Peugeot Citroën, Loxam or the ACTICALL group. Later, Pierre became Project Leader for specific application developments, managing teams of 1 to 7 people based in France and offshore for Pentalog. Pierre then naturally served as an offshore Project Director before taking on the responsibility of the Business Line for Information Systems.
Pierre is presently responsible for writing business proposals, monitoring existing customers, commitment control vis-à-vis our customers on projects, compliance with Pentalog quality system procedures and control and optimization of expenses for the Business Line.
Mickaël Hiver Title: Head of Business Lines for Embedded Systems & BPO Bio: Mickaël entered Pentalog as a Network Administrator in February 1997 with the aim to gain global understanding of information technology in order to assist and guide users in meeting their real needs. For 8 years he was an in-house producer for Pentalog clients. With his acquired experience, Mickaël progressively left production to become first a Project Manager, then Project Director and finally the Head of Business Lines for Embedded Systems & BPO.
Mickaël is a hands-on and open person, with an acute sense of organization and priorities. Through his assistance and counseling he gives his clients and prospective clients the opportunity to focus calmly on their actual core business.
Eric Gouin Title: Administrator Bio: Eric graduated from a renown school of Physics and Chemistry in Paris. While he was a student he used to develop websites related to his student activities.
After two research internships within a French company producing mobile phone components in the Sophia-Antipolis Technopole, he joined the IT world in which he held several key positions.
He now is a finance and management control consultant.
Aleth Delcenserie Title: Quality Manager Bio: Associate-founder of Pentalog and board member, Aleth Delcenserie first evolved in the graphics department of the company. Gifted with a strong sense of organization and a taste for detail, she conducted with rigorous methodology publishing projects and electronic media for over ten years, and launched the Pentalog BPO-DTP sector at the end of 2005.
From September 2007, Aleth has been responsible for the definition and for the implementation of the Pentalog Quality Policy, leading to the ISO 9001:2008 certification of the group, on December 24, 2008.
As the Director of Quality Control, Aleth is now based in Moldova since 1 January 2009, where she now shares her time between coaching project managers in implementing effectiveness control and the progress of Pentalog Quality.
Tuan Nguyenquoc Title: Office Manager Hanoi Bio: Tuan holds a Master's Degree in Information Systems and New Technologies from the Paris-Dauphine University, and gained some professional experience in France before returning to Vietnam to start his offshore adventure. He became a team leader in a Datawarehouse deployment project in Africa for a telecom provider, and witnessed violent riots in Kinshasa during a couple of days.
Following this project, Tuan turned to a Marcom position as the offshore business development manager of a big Vietnamese IT services company.
While reading the Pentalog blog Tuan became acquainted with Frederic and they met during Frederic's first visit in Vietnam. He was immediately convinced by Pentalog's business model and now manages the development of the first Pentalog office in Vietnam.
- Telecom 3G Embedded Software Development Engineers – Bucharest, Sibiu (RRO428): Job description: 2008 has represe… http://bit.ly/a6ZB5t - We’ve been travelling from 6AM (St peter time) to 1PM (Orléans). Happy to be back home. Hope to find rest… - acceleration of the growth in Pentalog. January +33%, February expected at +30%! We’re back on the roadmap! - Responsable Administratif et Financier H/F (RORL043): Description du poste : Rattaché à la direction administrativ… http://bit.ly/9OTYYT - Comptable H/F (RORL042): Description du poste : Rattaché à la Direction Administrative et Financière, vous allez a… http://bit.ly/dtPZVe - Vous souhaitez développer une #application spécifique #iPhone? N’hesitez pas me contacter! - Pentalog_deCan #IT switch efficiency gains to business effectiveness? http://bit.ly/dndMdy - Reading: “Une étude de Markess International Vers de véritables modes de collaboration d’entreprise” ( http://bit.ly/anGFqV ) - @tdebaillon je vous remercie pour le RT - Reading: “#Réseaux #sociaux : les français auraient-ils un train d’avance ? | La Génération Y – Julien Pouget” ( http://bit.ly/cE3ktu ) - cridLe réseau social support de l’intelligence collective de l’entreprise: Les résultats de cette étude sont plus qu… http://twurl.nl/102p00 - Reading: “Récupération du portage salarial par l’intérim” ( http://bit.ly/cyGzdk ) - le groupe Pentalog va se transformer en cloud de services IT et d’ingénierie.Tous nos tests valident ce modèle. J’y reviens bientôt… - le groupe #Pentalog va se transformer en #cloud de #services#IT et d’#ingénierie.Tous nos tests valident ce modèle. J’y reviens bientôt… - RT @Pentalog: Get an exact estimate for your #IT#Services requirements: http://bit.ly/bqFWvE
The difficult issue of wages in an international ITO group
Pentalog is now working in 5 countries, which have different levels of practices and types of wage scales. Thus, in addition to the question of salaries, there is a genuine “large difference” between the gross annual salary in France and the salary in Vietnam which is very complex, incorporating a premium (bonus) of the New Year, which can change the monthly salary, from 1 to 3 or 4 times because of the additional earnings.
In Romania and Moldova, with patience, we succeeded, like most businesses, to impose a contractual gross wage scale. The constant changes of taxes and social charges have condemned our ability to establish fixed net wage scales.
The average remuneration scale in these 5 countries are very different, we should not hide this fact. A German company will pay a higher gross salary than that of a French company… but the net earnings are very similar, because of the impressive tax system in Germany. The Romanian wage scale varies greatly from what is established in the capital, to the different parts of the country, also if the employee has a specialty occupation or exceptional training using a specialty tool or program, if he is a junior or senior, and or if he acts as a consultant or is an “in house” employee. Thus, a BO developer in Bucharest, familiar with a leading business sector and after 7 to 8 years of experience will have a gross salary which would astonish a recruiter in Paris. I think I can say, in this case, the senior employee, working in direct interaction with customers, will reach a high pay scale equivalent to those of a provincial French city and often, could even reach the equivalent salary of Paris. In contrast, an unexperienced tester in a provincial town in Romania will make 10 to 15 times less. In Romania, in terms of what is happening in most other offshore countries there is this amazing difference between junior and senior employees, who are not in France, land of the minimum wages which have been contractually established. Thus, a German novice will often be paid less than his French counterpart, but his earnings will grow faster.
Furthermore, depending on the maturity of the IT market of each country, inflation operates differently. The offshore business may be defined as the science of differences, the companies most confident of their production model and project management are going to target these countries where new companies are coming into this sector and who will try to make rapid productivity gains. After an investment period of one or two years, they will seek to achieve the highest profitability. The consequence is obviously that the growth earning rate, will reach higher levels of profitability much faster than in countries with a high degree of maturity and where productivity gains are lower. For example, Pentalog knew very well, when it established itself in Vietnam that the wages would grow a little quicker than in Romania and even in Moldova. In contrast, as Vietnam “grew” very quickly, the interest in this country became more important in the minds of IT decision makers. The risk appears when, for marketing reasons (Romania during 2005-2007), or demographic (Ukraine-Moldova at the present time – emigration of the workforce), wages increase without being compensated with an increase in productivity.
This article is meant to reflect on the complex strategy phases of our company and in determining its fiscal policy. The crisis has shown us in 2009, with our 50% organic growth and our profitability in double digits, that Pentalog has made the right decisions. A profitable business is able to invest in its growth, in productivity gains and market share, when most others are in recession… which, in a service industry, often results in large economic losses and therefore, in productivity.
Pentalog can not build a unique wage budget model. However, we should seek to get closer to it, to facilitate the movement and adjustments in a group of soon to be 500 people. The concept of remuneration based on productivity and employee satisfaction should be the same everywhere. It remains to better integrate the issue of the Tet (New Year) in Vietnam, not to disqualify it but to integrate it into the Pentalog production card. Indeed, if we apply the same rules in other countries, by adding this supplementary payment this may force us out of a hyper competitive market.
So when my production management in preparing the Business Model for this year, asks me how much the salaries can evolve, I am particularly embarrassed. The future remains very uncertain. Recovery or no recovery? I have always believed in a quick recovery. But where are we in this first step to recovery? I feel the need to improve wages in countries where we are already established. But we must also continue to make good profits in order to invest in our business model, continuing to conduct more training, to seek better productivity gains above the average. Thus we can be more aggressive and continue to win more projects than the competition. The group’s growth has been the engine for everyone, in generating job opportunities. How many Pentalog employees have become executives within the group? How many, in offshore countries, are earning more than 1000 € (over $ 1450)? How many, in these same countries, earn over 2000 €? What does it matter to see wages rise by 20% when it comes to achieving a strong financial personal growth? To increase the salary of an employee when he confirms by his work and his intentions are to become an important element in our company?
I am going to answer the question that was asked of me. With several figures depending on the country. But more than ever, I believe in the remuneration by the effort of everyone who works for the survival and stability of the group and international social community that we comprise. This is the fairest way and most beneficial to everyone and this is ultimately the only common rule that we should adopt.
- aponcierThe Horizon Report 2010: the impact of emerging technologies on learning - aponcier30+ Best Tools for building and managing your twitter popularity http://j.mp/5GzgTH via @jeanlucr - aponcierLe social au secours de l’entreprise 2.0 by @VinceBerthelothttp://bit.ly/6IOwMj via @tweetmeme - jpbarralisRT @fred_montagnon: Comment les réseaux sociaux restructurent Internet http://bit.ly/5WmE0Q - networkvbRT @asselin Internet 3.0 – une analyse économique et sociale http://bit.ly/8obAg2 // Historique et enjeux intéressants. - now in Saint Petersbourg… It’s fantatic to see it in winter. Neva is an ice river. Ermitage is… I loose my words. - Profesor de limba germana (RBRA427): Descrierea postului : Grupul Pentalog recruteaza pentru agentia din Brasov un… http://bit.ly/5AiDEf - Ingineri Hardware 3G (RRO426): Descrierea postului : Anul 2008 a reprezentat pentru Grupul Pentalog lansarea in R… http://bit.ly/7Iw3z2 - Software Tester Anglofon (RIAS425): Descrierea postului : In vederea extinderii echipei pentru un proiect de mari … http://bit.ly/5NxSFx - Team Leader PHP (RIAS424): Descrierea postului : Pentalog cauta un Programator Senior/Team Leader PHP pentru proie… http://bit.ly/8hD3Hd - Ingineri Embedded pentru Aplicatii Multimedia 3G (RRO423): Descrierea postului : Anul 2008 a reprezentat pentru… http://bit.ly/6c0mE4 - forgot to tell about the degustation of a Haut Marbuzet 2000 in Perm.Parker had given it an 85.It would deserve an 89.May be more in Perm - OutsourcingGuruS. Korea, India to expand IT, software cooperation http://is.gd/73LOR - @networkvb de rien. un article tres interessant. - #Pentalog, la #Russie, une offre #SAP: http://bit.ly/87Ka3R - Akostic“80% des entreprises pensent offrir aux clients une expérience supérieure, ms seulement 8% des clients sont d’accord.” http://bit.ly/4OGGN1 - OutsourcingGuruVirtualisation projects fail ROI http://is.gd/73X6f - Pentalog_deMoving forward in #OpenSourcehttp://bit.ly/6N58sj - Reading: “Le Monde.fr : Supplément spécial” ( http://bit.ly/6rb2xc ) – le monde de l’innovation - Looking at: “Prévisionnels de #recrutement des #SSII en 2010″ ( http://bit.ly/6ChApO ) - Reading: “Dépenses IT mondiales : 2010 devrait revenir aux niveau atteints en 2008 – ( http://bit.ly/51BLug ) - DFo you need a specific #iPhone application? - NetEcoPolémique autour du répertoire open source SourceForge http://bit.ly/70X9un - Incredible we’re discussing of true business opportunities in Finland and Norway! - Tartare aux truffes noires du Périgord NeXT to the Ermitage… spéciale dédicace pour Johann… - forresterIT security budgets on the rise; spending on new security tech up significantly in 2010; survey of 2000 global orgs http://bit.ly/4JuHes
Alex and I are on our way to Perm, at the foot of the Urals. Why?
Without saying too much for the moment, we entered into a relationship, a few months ago with several companies established in the ERP sector in several regions of the planet. Pentalog is not really inclined to develop its own department in this sector, relations with the editor is generally restrictive and very slow to build. However, considering our current size, and for our future, we must be increasingly able to answer all the queries of our customers. Thus possibly it is necessary to consider tightening our relations with suppliers. ERP is a sector in which Pentalog has not yet filled and possibly should be considered.
Moreover, this type of service is often synonymous with higher tariffs, often misunderstood by the customers. Thus wages in France, but also in Romania, India… for these skills go beyond the logic of these various local markets. To go so far into such an unexpected region also is for us a way to compensate the exaggeration of this market. Is this a good calculation? We shall see. For now, the idea of working with a few French or German consultants, working on the front line and completed with our new Russian friends seems interesting and the motivation of a partnership seems very strong. We are entering into the operational phase of the process.
- Ingineri Telecom 3G (RRO383): Descrierea postului : Pentalog anunta in iunie 2008 lansarea in Romania a unui proie… http://bit.ly/dJSb4 - I’ll leave tomorrow to #Perm, #Russia. Looking forward to meet #embedded systems #engineers in St. Petersburg. - Ouverture du procès de cyberdissidents au #Vietnam: http://bit.ly/6ufbxf - La croissance de #Twitter ralentit fortement: http://bit.ly/6FFR5r - WE in Perm, Ural… Safari by -30 in the mountains!!! Bears, trouts, birds…Fantastic, great! - Cele mai căutate 10 joburi care nici măcar nu existau acum 10 ani: http://bit.ly/8qcVC6 - de plus en plus difficile d’être : le patron d’une boîte de 500 people + entrepreneur + citoyen du monde… + blogueur - AlexDumitruRT @TechCrunch Facebook Valued At $14 Billion On SecondMarket http://is.gd/6EEA9 - l’inflation opère différemment. http://bit.ly/4vbv10 - MaxSchleifferLe lien entre management et réseaux sociaux http://bit.ly/8S1N5Y - gregfromparisRT @Armano: Forrester updates their social technographics ladder to accommodate real time communication such as Twitter http://bit.ly/8aenIB - eogez[eogez] Entreprise 2.0 : gestion de la connaissance, innovation et productivité http://bit.ly/6GtyRm
- @networkvb voila, probleme resolu. - Administrator sisteme si retele (RSIB419): Descrierea postului : Grupul Pentalog recruteaza un administrator de si… http://bit.ly/7uFKgs - equipes dediees, #regie distante, regie sur site? #euro ou #dollar? faites votre choix! http://bit.ly/8oIOCw - networkvb@bduperrin Nouveau post [fr] :: Hello ! Je suis ton ERP et je te parle ! http://bit.ly/4LpeI5 // Excellent article, car très pragmatique. - aponcierDes entreprises françaises encore peu coutumières du 2.0 ? http://short.to/13yj1 - La très difficile question des salaires dans un groupe #ITO international: http://bit.ly/4vbv10 - AlainGerlacheBonne mise en perspective RT @benoitraphael: Twitter: notoriété 63% / utilisateurs 5% des internautes http://bit.ly/8inyqR - FredMartinent2010 Gartner forecast for Application Stores: $6.2bn paid-for apps + $0.6bn in-app advertising: http://bit.ly/6021fz - jeanlucrLa France: moins de 1% des usagers de Twitter. Paris absente du Top 15 des capitales où l’on tweete le plus http://j.mp/7Y7D2P - Interesant! @joobs.ro Cum vor evolua salariile din IT? http://tinyurl.com/ydcgrnz - Need a new #iPhone#application? We have the appropriate experience! Tell us what you want. - moscovici Noua strategie de politică monetară in Moldova acum in direct pe http://privesc.eu - eogezAfter social networks, what next? http://is.gd/6zkm2 - @Charles_Nouyrit je l’ai et ca marche normalement pour moi. - @fred2baro pas encore de ce que je sais. mais soon to come. - all executives of the Pentalog Group in worlwide confcall for the presentation of our new salary management solution - des tarifs enfin transparents et clairs dans une SSII : http://bit.ly/8oIOCw - With the new salary management and budgeting solution we’ll be able to create virtual teams and make simulations of profitability! - eogezDossier Télétravail dans 01informatique (N°2021 du 07 janvier 2010) http://short.to/140bj - Tous les chiffres 2009 de Pentalog + les faits marquants. La monographie: http://bit.ly/5qD2vV - c’est la version définitive: CA, effectif, taux… http://www.pentalog.fr/communiques/communiques_monographie2009.htm - @alext_1020 Nu. nu am facut asa ceva, nici in 2009 si nici 2010. In plus salariile au crescut in 2009 la Pentalog. - AudiofeelineRT @jeremyjoly: Twitter 4e réseau social en france : http://tinyurl.com/yaaawfx - AndreiCurelaruA quoi ressemble la France de 2010? – Libé.fr | chiffres INSEE http://ow.ly/Y8xU - ANIS_20RT @arenabiz: Local vs International: Proiecte online romanesti in 2009 http://bit.ly/5MWvRD Care proiect crezi ca are cele mai mari sanse? - En #R&D, vous etes le R et nous sommes le D. Faites vos estimations tarifaires ! http://bit.ly/8oIOCw - tres utile. RT @aponcier 40 outils pour agrémenter votre utilisation de Twitter http://bit.ly/6rbg0U via @nblas - aponcierDéfinir une stratégie de présence sur les#ReseauxSociaux http://ow.ly/Y5r5 by @fbrahimi - I Heard That a french graduate vietnamese engineer could be sentenced to death. True? - @Taradaciuc ba da a scazut sectorul ITO cu -9% in europa de west si -50 pe piata locala romana - @_JSH_ i found more info: http://bit.ly/5ciUrp - Pentalog_deElaborate your offshore project with Pentalog in less than 10 minutes. Offshore profiles starting from EUR 70 per day. http://fb.me/4w3vj2j - @LaurentClementz Bravo bravo!! - The new social technographics ladder: http://bit.ly/7pDhyG - Nicole_BarkerImproving Application Performance Calls for Approaches that Cross IT Support Functions http://budurl.com/NB16CommT - __contagious__(blogging) Le dossier PSST de la semaine : l’entreprise et l’innovation sociale via les réseaux sociaux (10 … http://bit.ly/7lHf0X#PSST_ - @moscovici de ce ai nevoie?
It seems that the month of December was an anniversary month for Pentalog. Frederic told us two stories: the history of the war against nature that the Pentalog Family had fought and won and the story of the birth of Pentalog in Romania, both in 1999. I should not forget to mention the pride I felt that my hometown had been chosen for this birth.
But Frederic forgot to mention that December celebrated also the birth of the first French and English versions of Pentablog http://blog.pentalog.fr and http://blog.pentalog.biz/ That’s how the Web 2.0 adventure began in December 2005. In December 2008 we launched the Pentablog.
I still remember some other dates related primarily to the use of Web 2.0 tools within the enterprise.
I read recently that companies are still reluctant to participate in the web community. The decision not to get involved is due to the lack of understanding of these tools and the lack of time. Yet Pentalog took the initiative to launch itself into the web. We understood the benefits of controlling our image on the net with the social networks and we’ve taken very seriously Linkedin, Viadeo, Xing, Facebook and Twitter, because the e-reputation of businesses also depends on their presence on these social networks, a marketing tool which is almost free and rich in possibilities.
March 2008: Pentalog began to make its presence known on Viadeo.
April 2008: Pentalog became visible on Twitter through the profile of Frederic.
May 2008: we started using more and more Linkedin to communicate in English.
From June 2008 we began to communicate in English on Xing and now we do it in German also.
For the past two years, very rich in experiences and challenges, Pentalog began using more and more Facebook, Youtube, Dailymotion, Plaxo, along with the tools already mentioned.
Another source of pride: this year the team that manages the image and communication on social networks has grown by 2 people, which means that Pentalog now has a team of the secret agents communicating in four languages (French, English, German, Romanian) and ensuring that the information concerning Pentalog is properly transmitted and the image of the company is impeccable.
- hungry? http://bit.ly/4JcenR - good morning from Brasov, Romania. - Is The Time Right To Build A #Mobile#App? http://bit.ly/55dD1Z - eogezL’AFP lance son application pour iPhone : le courrier de la high-tech http://tinyurl.com/ydhylkd - Interessant! Les 4 P du social marketing: http://bit.ly/8LIuff - @linkcrafter morning Mawuna! I will, hope you’ll do the same! - I need some #university contacts from St. Petersburg in #Russia. can anyone help? - was wondering about the global amount to allocate to Pentalog Incubator: from 1 to 10M€? with the help of BAs and VCs I well know. - Discover the new Iasi Pentalog Office… the new reference in the group: http://www.pentalog.fr/entreprise/fpn_visite_iasi.htm - Les_BEL’innovation en perte de vitesse au Etats-Unis ! (Innovation et transfert de technologie ) … http://tinyurl.com/ykrm79x - is very happy to welcome our clients of Parrot in Pentalog Brasov. Celebrating the 3rd birthday of or collaboration. - Vous savez pas quelle location offshore choisir? Vous verrez ici les differences de prix: http://bit.ly/8oIOCw - #Facebook reste le réseau social le plus connu en #France: http://bit.ly/74xCYC
The moving season of Branch offices has finished with the branch office in Iasi (Romania). Since Friday 08/01 (a bit before), everyone was ready to move into the Tudor Office Center. In one of my last posts I described moving the office in Hanoi; I quantified our relocations to 3 branches over the past 15 months. We have just completed a successful 4th move in 16 months.
Over the past 14 months in the previous premises, the growth of the branch permitted us to occupy space for 40 + people. Now it has been necessary to provide for larger premises to keep up with the branch growth. The Tudor Office Center quickly became our choice in relation to its quality according to our usual selection criteria (power, generator, location, Internet operators…). Besides its remarkable appearance which can be distinguished easily from the plane upon arrival at the airport (first time in the history of Pentalog branches). What we have lost in the view of the city (we probably had the best), we have gained in luminosity.
For the arrangement of these premises, it was the first time we called upon an architect. For 760 m² of overall space, we got an original proposal, different from a traditional division. The specifications consisted of the following: 2 adjoining and communicating meeting rooms, 2 discussion rooms (small meeting room), vast space-friendly open spaces for production, but yet separated. We were not disappointed with the results. After some adjustments, we got what we wanted for the moderate budget that we had provided for:
- The office design allows for the distribution of the workplace for up to 120 people in a friendly and modern arrangement.
- The 2 meeting rooms communicate, allowing for a larger space by simply pushing back the partition-walls.
- The discussion rooms are used for privacy for one to three people for discussions, follow-up meetings or phone calls.
- A designed floor (provided for upon construction) which provides great flexibility in organizing the offices spaces.
- The production areas are not completely segregated. They are segmented into work areas for 15 to 30 people.
- Even if the spaces are open, the temperature control system shows its effectiveness in the management of the work areas.
- User-friendliness was not ruled out with a reception area and a spacious kitchen sitting 15 people.
- In regards to IT there is a server room. The building is equipped with optical fiber by national operators who give each a connection of 50 Mbps.
It is also clear that our landlord is unusual in a country like Romania. He understood that his first priority was not to make us cough up a lot of money but rather to establish a relationship of trust and add value to his property.
The move was completed without difficulty and without damage. It must be said that it was assured by the super motivated employees of the branch and some of them had already participated in the previous move. The objective therefore was known to all: Production must continue Monday morning! The maturity level has increased. In addition, the team preparing the move under the supervision of Gregory [Constantin, Sebastian, Cosmina] did a very good job. This move started with the lowest risk ever in terms of the IT elements. Saturday at 12 am, the former office was empty. At 3 pm, everything was in place in the new-one. I would like to thank all those who participated in this successful move.
I would like to go back to the designed floor. The gain in flexibility is not immaterial. It also reduced the budget for wiring to around 4k euros. We will need to study whether the gain in flexibility and in the wiring and speed of implementation will not make this kind of floor a must-have in our next branches.
Several factors are at the origin of the low level of risk at the beginning of this move:
- We have internalized many services in 2009 which gave us greater autonomy than before: Management of the Level 3 network, Centrex. It had been systematically in changing the IP addresses (level 3) and the migration of the Centrex that deployment has not been realized on time.
- The move was anticipated so that we were able to negotiate costs and manage the unexpected. We realize that this cannot be done systematically.
Here is a quick video presentation of the branch. A further video commentary will be prepared in the coming days which will be given by the Branch director, Gregory.
Currently, there are no plans for further moves or openings in the first quarter of 2010. But things change quickly and we will adapt quickly.
Since November, we have launched into a competition process to find a mobile operator. For the past 4 years we have been with SFR and have reached the end of the contract period, and we have put them back into competition with other operators. This is the rule of our (certified) procurement process.
We have just retained Orange at the conclusion of a selection phase on the basis of propositions followed by a phase of exclusive negotiations. To start this consultation, I worked with Mejdouline to analyze our practices and to determine what the profiles of our users are. We have 3 major categories: great nomads (x2), nomads (x4) and non-operating users (x16). This last category, even if it represents 3/4 of the fleet, is an insignificant part of the budget. We thus concentrated on the analysis and the needs of the other two categories.
The categories of nomad users generally request roaming of voice and data and this is increasing constantly. The nomads are demanding more access to data (3G key). We therefore focused our needs on roaming and on the generalization of dual data access (computer + mobile phone). It is on these expenses that we have concentrated the greater part of our efforts.
Then we had to answer the question “iPhone or no iPhone? It is true that we can wonder about its autonomy, its fragility and its security level. But in comparing the other terminals presently available, the answer is clear. Symbian is late. Windows Phone is too early, as is Android. The only alternative was the BlackBerry but it does not reach the level of user friendliness of the iPhone. For the past 6 months, I have personally used an iPhone that allowed me to validate its integration into a Pentalog environment. I really have not been disappointed with its user friendliness, its speed, and its simplicity. The choice has thus been made, the entire population of nomads will be equipped with a 3GS 16GB iPhone.
Previously, the terminals were managed by the Administrative & Financial Service. We had already agreed that this team would continue the management of the terminals at the time of the change-over in the contract. These terminals are now managed just like computers are (inventory, configuration management, emergency stock). We are presently defining the operational procedures of the iPhone as Romania and the Republic of Moldova are already equipped with iPhones. Users will not be able to do what they want with their iPhones. We will deploy profiles on the iPhone to manage their configurations (list of Branches wifi access points, mail settings…). Even if management tools have not yet reached a very satisfactory level, we found the management of the profiles has reached the minimum of our expectations.
With the same activities, we reduced our budget by approximately 9%. The simulation of roaming voice traffic over the past few months applying Orange tariffs showed a reduction of 10%. As we become better equipped to follow our consumption data, we estimate the budget reduction will be approximately 400%. It is this sector that we will realize the most important part of our savings. In any case, we will organize ourselves to monitor our consumption, to better manage our budget where the options of automatic adaptation of the offer do not exist.
I still would like to make the observation that Orange did not come to us and propose a global offer. Has Globalization not yet arrived here? Indeed, wherever we operate (Romania, Moldova) Orange is already our mobile solution provider. It is in and around these countries that we do the most roaming. Orange is not able to operate networks to offer a global solution. In order to limit the impact of this lack of service, we will set up our own VPN with our Centrex which already covers France and Romania. Other countries will follow. An iPhone application is already under consideration right now.
For their part SFR only updated the offer we had on our fleet without taking into account the actual evolution of our needs. Too bad, because the competition was completely open.
In conclusion, Orange has done what it took to answer our main concerns. Until 2001, we were 100% FT and for the last 4 years we were almost 0% Orange. There are still some analog lines (fax, backup…). But our needs have been understood by Orange and they have provided the products adapted to these needs.
Various Pentalog committee leaders were very busy during the month of December 2009 because 3 of the 4 general committees were held: an Extraordinary General Meeting, a Board of Directors and Presiding Committee, finally only the Steering Committee, exceptionally, did not meet.
Amongst the many subjects discussed, many were focused (but not exclusively) on the potential roles of research and investment in the future. We have endorsed a policy which I previously mentioned… incubation, and its link to R & D and financial resources followed by the necessary human resources.
In 2009 Pentalog’s sales clearly rose above the EUR 10M mark to 13.5 M. But more importantly, we were able to generate profits which would more typically be found in companies 2 or 3 times larger than Pentalog. We must use these profits wisely, without wasting them.
The advantage of being nearly 40 years old (or soon to be), including 16 years as an entrepreneur, is that the mistakes one usually makes generally at 20 to 30 have already been made. If the volume of our profits gives us a means to act, we must ensure the return on investment for the company that generated this profit, that is to say, Pentalog. In order to do this, our efforts in R & D must be related either to the activities of Pentalog or those of its customers. But definitely this leverage must be used directly and MANDATORILY in the core business elements of the group.
For more than 10 years Pentalog has been working on developing its competence in marketing and its development is based on this. It is natural to continue in this manner. The group, along with PeopleCentric and with the help of Pentalog Labs (currently being constituted), and the Technical Management, will therefore make an investment in professional social networks. Pentalog will start developing its own software in this sector. People Centric will progress in evaluating competence and career management. Our strategy is to combine these two elements together.
That’s not all. Pentalog will also move forward and invest in building a development monitoring platform, based on the actual performance of the development teams, which will enable them to be challenged on all levels but will also finally rationalize the dialogue with the client in regards to the evolution of service prices. It will no longer be necessary to tell a client that because of the inflation in wages, we are obliged to request a price increase. I’ll tell him that now, thanks to our efforts in education and project management, in all sectors, we are able to present a substantial gain in productivity. This investment is probably the most crucial for our future.
Finally, the various committees endorsed the launching of a policy of external incubation (PeopleCentric-type ) using, in addition, the leverage of investment in engineering capital and in management. One of these first companies could emerge in the coming weeks…
It remains lastly for me to wish everyone a happier year 2010, more fun, more prosperous, better than 2009!
