Since I became Sales Director I haven’t taken yet the time to look at all the indicators in this sector. My first responsibility was to boost sales and only then count the points.

Since early this year I have become more involved in this part of my activity and have taken the time now to step back from our commercial activities.

In Pentalog France we have an enormous advantage: years of market development, web ranking, with innovations that allowed us to receive requests from prospective clients “naturally”. Whether by searching the web or through social networking, we received on an average 0.71 requests per day since the beginning of this year!

Amongst these 25 requests, some did not complete their requests, others have already received a negative response but there remain a good fifteen dossiers waiting for a response or for which an offer is being elaborated.

And since we also have started using the metric system in our business proposals, I can announce that the average time spent responding with a complete proposal is just less than 3 days.

It will take another few weeks to refine this data and a few months to see if time spent on offers can be correlated with the outcome of the business proposal.

Here is an article that Livia Rusu asked me to publish:

“OPENi is a project organized to bring relevant and valuable impact on all its participants in terms of IT knowledge to which they don’t have access during their studies.
Professors, IT Companies and IT Experts have the opportunity to interact with each other and with students.

Aleth Delcenserie, our Quality Manager, had a presentation this morning on “Sensibilization to Quality in software development process”.

Don’t hesitate to follow also Monica Jiman, Pentalog COO – Vice President Business Development, online on http://www.privesc.eu/ at 4PM presenting “ITOO strategies for East Europe”.”

Yes, from a physical point of view, one seminar after another held every weekend, are difficult. Especially, when they were held with more than 2000 kms between them. Luckily, except from the intellectual rhythm that is required, two seminars I attended two weeks ago were held in Brasov, where it brought together both the Eastern Unit Management Team (the Heads of the branch offices) and Management under the direction of Aymeric, for the Technology, Infrastructure, Quality, and Information system of the company. As for last week in Orleans, the first Business Lines seminar was held under the care of Sophie and Monica.

I believe that never before have our seminars reached such a high level of professionalism and innovative research. Pentalog has indeed recognized the sustainability of the crisis. If we want to defend our jobs, employees, growth, revenues, we need to develop strategies that make us stand out even more so, with rare offers, justifying the higher margins than those of our competitors which give us the means to develop projects even more rapidly.

It is difficult for me to touch on each subject that was discussed. Generally in technology, infrastructure, quality, software groups, we particularly focused on different ideas concerning the Pentalog Lab and the Incubator. We now can do an X-ray on the Lab: 4 vertebrae, corresponding to 4 projects embodying a new strategy, breaking with the past. The Lab’s mission has been clarified, equally in the manner that it functions. It will work, as I already have mentioned, for the ENTIRE group that is to say by integrating the present and future subsidiaries. It will also participate in client missions.

From the Business Lines meeting, I retained 2 principal ideas complementary to each other: Cloud and Green IT. How, indeed, to offer support to our clients in these difficult times? We must be with them, both in technology and development and by adapting to their business models. But what is true for our clients, can it be less true for us? Pierre, who is possibly the most aware amongst us about Green IT, he may possibly be in the future responsible for the carbon assessments for offshore activities generally. Furthermore, we believe that all of Pentalog must build a real cloud for its proposed intellectual services; this should be built around the brick & mortar structures already in place, in order to facilitate access to human and technical resources. I am thinking about management tools for dedicated teams and other competence centers, I am also thinking about project managers and productivity, management of the skills of our team members… All these tools will be offered to our clients, both to optimize overall management of our competence centers but also for their own teams. Already, two companies, in addition to Pentalog, are using these new production tools and perhaps soon a third-one.

The sharpest minds have already understood that the 4 innovative projects which I spoke of for the Lab will include some of the services of the first IT Cloud that I already mentioned… Of course, the major projects, related to the metric system and productivity management will be among them, as well as some of the projects of People Centric concerning skills assessment and management.

These projects will improve the Pentalog services, to distinguish them, making them even more accessible than they already are by using our intensive online marketing, which is already one of the best of many online services. But they will also provide solutions in a market that is redefining its services, where it has been forced to face simultaneously the challenges of the cloud, industrialization… and finally to propose innovations for the future of our profession.

Britain’s debt set to be higher than that of Greece (19 February 2010, Telegraph)
- Staples Turns Out an IT Outsourcing Option for Small Businesses (19 February 2010, CIO)
- Europeans Prefer Staff Suppliers to Outsourcers: Forrester (19 February 2010, CIO)
- Europe a growth market for outsourcing (16 February 2010, The Hindu)
- Facebook to launch ‘Zero’ version for mobile phones (17 February 2010, Yahoo News)
- The painful truth about age discrimination in tech (17 February 2010, Infoworld)
- VC investors see potential in Irish software sector (18 February 2010, Business and Leadership)
- IT groups warn Chinese on regulation (21 February 2010, Financial Times)
- IT-Abteilungen geht das Geld aus (22 February 2010, Financial Times)
- “Open Source BI ändert den Markt” (19 February 2010, Silicon)
- CeBIT: Haus der Nationen wird zum CIO-Treffpunkt (18 February 2010, Silicon)
- IT-Fehler verursachen Milliardenkosten (16 February 2010, CIO)

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A year ago, I posted a note about Pentalog’s efforts towards reducing its CO2 emissions in our travels. We are moving forward with this project, and it is time to make a progress report.

During this past year we have studied many packaged solutions with a “Western” budget. We have also tested extensively different cameras but the quality of the images was not sufficient.

In 2009, we used a support solution for audio conferences and more intensively since we took over the management of our Centrex (internalization). According to our compiled statistics, there was an average of 450 conferences per month for an average duration of 26 minutes (since September 2009 to January 2010). When we need the video (for management meetings, and training) we use Skype or Yahoo but the low quality images is a problem. This video is basically used to confirm the people’s presence.

These studies, tests and low resolution videos helped define our needs. We need a solution with the following characteristics:

• Organization of HD video conferences. I do not automatically think of tele-presence (level 1) but something that comes close to this.
• Organization of video meetings in an isolated environment for certain occasions (chat room – small meeting room).
• Filming of interviews with groups or individuals in order to supply content for Pentalog TV.
• The cameras should be PTZ (pan / tilt / zoom). This means it can be moved on 2 axes and is equipped with a zoom lense. The value of a fixed camera is minimal.
• The consumption of bandwidth should be limited, so as not to overload our infrastructure during these video conferences. In order to resolve this problem we will be using standard protocols such as H.264 video which will allow us also interoperability.

Recently new models have come onto the market at a reasonable price. I am therefore pushing forward with this internal project so that we can finally reduce our carbon footprint by reducing air travel.

Following a market analysis over the past few months, I wonder if there isn’t a place in this market for solutions which lie between Skype and Polycom / Cisco / Tandberg.

I do not often write in Romanian language on this blog but I have no Romanian blog, so… I would like to follow-up with an article published by the most important Romanian economic newspaper, about the 2009 performance of the IT sector.

“In 2009, estimarile PAC indicau piata de servicii IT la aproximativ 350 de milioane de euro, in scadere cu 5% fata de anul precedent.” (ZF.ro).

Pentalog reprezinta 0,75% al efectivului national din sectorul IT iar cifra de afaceri reprezinta 2,28% din PIB servicii IT. Cresterea, la nivel de grup, in 2009 a fost de 50%. Iar in Romania cresterea efectivului a fost de 44%.
Companiile romanesti, care au pus accent pe productivitate si pe ameliorarea continua a acesteia trebuie sa beneficieze de oportunitati generate de catre criza.
Ceea ce am sustinut de multa vreme incepe sa se adevereasca, anume ca sectorul servicii IT si software a devenit un sector matur si industrializat. Multumesc tuturor pentalogienilor care impart aceasta viziune si care demonstreaza in fiecare zi excelenta IT-ului romanesc si moldovenesc.

A few days ago, we have been interwied by Wall-Street in Romania. The article is about the main figures we released at the beginning of the year, the results of 2009 and the main thrusts of the 2010 Pentalog strategy:

http://www.wall-street.ro/articol/IT-C-Tehnologie/80236/Outsourcing-ul-si-criza-Cum-abordeaza-Pentalog-anul-2010.html

For non-Romanian speakers, in short, the main point we tried to emphasize is the attractiveness of Romania as an offshore/nearshore destination, that we need to maintain. Now the domestic market is still not big enough to create new business. The local IT services market significantly dropped in 2009 and for this year forecasts are directed at the same trend. The public sector used to be a good customer some time ago but now the budgetary deficit has turned the state into a question mark in the new business equation. And when I think of sectors such as embedded systems, I cannot imagine how a market without any strong production (I don’t even dare thinking of R&D) can provide work to thousands of engineers. Therefore let us keep our assets and continue to grow in the framework of international projects, where Pentalog is really successful, with over 50% growth rates our competitors are jealous of.

Pentalog will be an exhibitor at this year’s CeBIT in Hanover Germany, the largest trade show in the world dedicated to the IT sector. In 2009, during a year of an especially acute economic crisis, this event drew nearly 4,300 exhibitors and more than 400,000 visitors.

In the context of a continuing crisis, companies will need solutions particularly profitable. As a global player, Pentalog will offer our prospects IT solutions in Nearshore, in the Euro zone, as well as Offshore in the Dollar zone, to particularly competitive rates. Many French, German and Austrian companies have already been convinced of the irreproachable quality and the excellent support services offered by Pentalog in regards to the exceptional value based on quality-price.

Through its IT development centers, Nearshore and Offshore, Pentalog offers ideal conditions for outsourcing of research and development activities for its customers. The organizational and technology structure established for this purpose can provide many services:

• Software development
• Development of E-Commerce tools, product development
• Development of embedded systems
• Third-party application maintenance, third-party validation
• Research and Development
• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
• Infrastructure Management and Technical Assistance
• Testing & Debugging

95% of our 430 Pentalog employees are English-speaking and have graduated from the best local universities. We invite you to discover our services: Pierre-Jean and Mircea will welcome you at the stand B56 in Hall 4. Feel free to visit them!

Contact us for free tickets to this trade show and arrange an appointment on site with: Pierre-Jean CAYZAC.

- IT spending in western Europe to reach US$68.6bn (09 February 2010, Business and Leadership)
- IT Outsourcing: Why It Pays to Appraise Your Contract (09 February 2010, CIO)
- Global IT industry to return to growth this year (09 February 2010, Computing)
- Japan remains world’s No 2 economy (15 February 2010, Business and Leadership)
- Silicon Valley limps as India dashes ahead (12 February 2010, CIOL)
- What matters for the IT industry in 2010? (12 February 2010, Computer Weekly)
- Indian IT firms turn to Latin America: WSJ (11 February 2010, CIOL)
- Offshoring Research and Development set for growth (10 February 2010, Offshoring Times)
- Der Open-Source-Fahrplan für die CeBIT (12 February 2010, Silicon)
- IT-Branche wieder optimistisch (12 February 2010, CRN)
- Der deutsche IT-Markt erholt sich langsam (10 February 2010, CIO)

After developing an initial application for one of the leading French companies in social networking, tourism and entertainment on the Web, Pentalog followed up with an application for energy management and home automation before starting the development in regards to its own needs in the field of telecommunications. Pentalog has now turned towards real estate, recruitment and social networks. We also have opened discussions up with one of the most important publishers in the French press.

The momentum which started nearly a year ago has accelerated with several specific sales approches. Our latest newsletter has generated 3 leads which are presently being discussed. The NL prepared in Romania also surprised us, since it has generated a lead too, while we were just launching into the process of looking for new customers, in the style “we make iPhone applications, therefore we are cool…”

Pentalog seems to be in a position to become rapidly the leader in the Balkans in this area. The first application based on geo-location, is well known as it is one of the most downloaded Apps in France, found in the Appstore (Cityvox). Admittedly, it was a bit laborious in the development stage, but it’s now perfectly reliable and has been available for several months and is regularly used. I can say, as a user, it is absolutely wonderful. The next two that were developed did not give us any problems. Our friends from Wirecom Technologies asked us to transform the iPhone into a remote control device for the home which we were perfectly able to do and “on time”. Today it is a Skype-like application, merging an iPhone via WiFi with a Pentalog VoIP network that we are preparing to launch.

I won’t talk about the applications that have not yet entered into production, but let me say that we shouldn’t lack any work in this sector over the next two years. We are beginning to feel the interest in this market for Android, a system which is at least as powerful, portable and a lot less expensive. It’s simple, the Google platform will be in my opinion, present in this range of products along with 100% of the smartphone manufacturers in the next 18 months (except Apple of course) and in my opinion the app activities will continue to grow much stronger. The same thing could happen between Apple and Google which happened at the time of the first Windows OS in the 80’s. In the end, the one which is the most open wins… I think Jobs knew this.

From the production side, we should find the development of iPhone will continue to be present in the group, as it seems to have become a generic request. The Chisinau site also seems to be one step ahead of many others and could become the No. 1 Competence Center in this sector for the group. We will soon be making a decision concerning this subject.

I also wonder about the necessity or not, to develop a new generation of mobile platforms in the future Pentalog Labs, which has grown rapidly, thanks to an Executive Meeting with Aymeric Libeau (responsible for R & D, information systems and quality of the Group) held last weekend. I will try to get back to this subject of Pentalog Labs before the end of this week.

Well, no it isn’t yet the New Year for us

Vietnam (and other countries across Asia) is celebrating the New Year following the lunar calendar. In Vietnam this period is called the Tết. The first day of the year usually falls in January or February depending on the year. This year it will be Sunday 14/02 (and yes, a promising year for love!)

Tết is a special time for all Vietnamese, whatever they do, wherever they are. All Viets want to go home, and spend time with their family, relatives, and friends. Just look at the number of Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) returning back to Vietnam during this period of “chaos”: there are many people traveling on the roads now because all those who work in big cities return to their hometown.

I would like to use this post to wish you all a great year of the Tiger, only happiness, success, and health. I wish that the Tiger will be with you in this exceptional year.

Chúc mừng xuân Canh Dần 2010!

How long has this lull lasted? Thursday, the 4th february saw the return of fear in the financial markets. The debts of developing countries have created a lot of panic. Whether it’s in countries like Greece, Portugal or in Spain. What I find extraordinary when listening to JC Trichet (head of the ECB), Ben Bernanke (from the FED), the Spanish Prime Minister, or the Bank of England, is that they keep repeating the same discourse that we have been hearing from the bankers for a little over a year now. How pathetic. The same central bankers and politicians were demanding the truth from the banks concerning their actual situation. They must play fair and finally tell us the truth now. What will Spain do now with its 20% unemployed, with no budgetary room to maneuver? What will happen to American power if it loses its triple-A standing? The truth about markets, and the truth about power, is simply that no one is telling us the truth.

However, some members of Congress and Joe Bidden, the American Vice President himself, acknowledge the fact that the U.S. debt raises a national security issue.

The response of supporting the concept of consumption is fundamentally the most stupid idea that anyone could have been imagined. This demagogic shortsightedness will widen even further the deficits of developed countries and will simply strengthen the Chinese and Indian industrial and commercial machines. Fiat asked Rome to stop paying car scrap allowance! All for what? Gain 6 months, one year for something that will eventually happen? All these astronomical sums that today’s parents are transferring shamelessly on to their children! Do they really care for them or are they simply simple-minded, glued to the radiators of the Euro and the Dollar, in a class were the best would be the Brazilians, Indians and Chinese?

The financial and monetary wars are perhaps not very far away. Obama took a tougher stance with China last week, but isn’t it too late for America? Europe can still do it, but it has no economic government. So what will happen? Cyber attacks, massive sale of currencies, bull operations on the Brazilian Real, border closures… I do not know, but this is probably the most disturbing part of the crisis which is just now beginning. And when we see the politicians who have not been able to confront the banks seriously, how can we imagine they will be able to reform the state, in short, to reform themselves? Here, we are at the top of the pyramid in regards to responsibility. After this there is nothing. And courageous politicians, well, there are few of them around.
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In this context, deflationary pressures on intermediary prices and sub-contractors is not yet over. I return now to the realities of my management, tactics and strategy. Companies like Pentalog must remain focused on their business model and control their prices. The companies which benefit from government contracts and nationalized companies, everywhere, will see their orders drop and then collapse literally, starting in 2011 because of the failure of the states. Central banks are on the verge of running the printing presses at full speed. Otherwise, how does one support Greece? What to say, in the context of the huge volume of demand in our industry (Pentalog has never had so many requests for a month of January in its history)? But isn’t this just a “technical” recovery following a year of downturn? Certain projects must be started! We feel the febrility in every decision that our big accounts must undertake. Only those working in Asia are a little more confident in themselves.

I have no regrets over our past strategies that have enabled us today to dispose of an economic situation and financial margin which allows us to have significant growth opportunities. We will remain very attentive, torn between these tremendous opportunities and the obligation to be careful.

From 2nd to 4th of March 2010 in Nuremberg, for the second time, Pentalog will be part of the exhibitors at Embedded World, the largest exhibition in the world, dedicated to embedded technology. This event draws nearly 700 exhibitors, and 17 000 professional visitors.

Since 2007, Pentalog has considerably expanded its embedded activities for projects in software development, maintenance and quality assurance. Major customers like the european leader of bluetooth technologies or ST Ericsson have placed their confidence in Pentalog and 70 of our engineers are working in Romania and Moldova on complex projects in the field of telephony and energy management.

The objective of Pentalog for 2010 is to continue to develop this part of its activities in embedded engineering throughout Europe. To optimize and accelerate this development, the group is seeking to create partnerships similar to the joint-venture Pentalog Technology created with Ausy, a French IT company, in Brasov. Embedded World 2010 will be an excellent opportunity to identify potential partners amongst the IT companies specializing in embedded services.

Come discover our embedded engineering services, but also our services in information systems, Business Process Outsourcing and our low tariffs. Mickaël and Thomas will welcome you at the Booth 121, in Hall 11. Feel free to visit them!

Your sandwich:

- Flight Bucharest Paris canceled. Shall be in plane at 6.50 am!
- Already 10 iPhone AppS in pentalog’s road map! Will Chisinau become skill center?
- Reading: “Net : un outil de recrutement pour 48% des employeurs par Neteco.com” ( http://bit.ly/9nQPTl )
- Will you attend #Cebit2010?
- Reading: Felicitations! “Eric Isabey, nouveau Président du directoire chez Pierre Audoin” (http://bit.ly/ajWhCs)
- Reading: “LeMagIT::Choix d’un prestataire : se repérer dans un discours désormais banalisé” ( http://bit.ly/anHkzi )
- Pentalog Good news: Global IT industry to return to growth this year – http://bit.ly/dqB6Dd
- aponcier Très cher serious game pour recruter http://bit.ly/aCzdkH
- Montez votre dossier #offshore sur http://www.jechoisismonprestataireit.com/ en moins de 10 minutes.
- Venez découvrir nos prestations d´ingénierie embarquée au Embedded World 2010 sur le stand 121, Hall 11. N’hésitez pas à nous rendre visite.

Formerly this domain name was dedicated to the Pentalog BPO business line, but it has recently changed its vocation as it now houses references and other Pentalog success stories. Following in line with other new sites, such as www.choosingmyitserviceprovider.com and www.pentalog-jvprogram.com, this site tells the success stories that we share with our customers. You will find our oldest client in our offshore business propositions, our biggest volume of business or the fantastic project we have undertaken alongside Altadis. They are all there, or almost…

Why another website? It’s like iPhone applications, we considered we needed to provide a site to meet each customer’s needs. Some customers are reassured with references, they will find this in madeinoffshore, there are those who want to discuss, and they will find this opportunity on choosingmyitserviceprovider. Those who want to look at our prices will have pricemaker and those who want it all will find it on the next version of www.pentalog.com.

Having “vocation” websites will also allow us to better steer our adwords budget by offering everyone, in sponsored links, to respond promptly to the questions they may wish to ask.

Pentalog sites now receive 60 000 hits per month. Do you know that our service catalog is downloaded 1,000 times… every month? Definitely with a bilingual catalog this makes Pentalog a key player in determining prices in Europe. Presently, we are now considering the possibility to request contact details of all those desiring to access to this information. We are now aiming at one million visits annually on our sites in 2010. We can only succeed by providing the answers, as transparent and well structured as possible… but also better referenced, and that is not easy.

Enjoy:

- Pentalog remporte une consultation de l’Agence de Presse Autrichienne. Bravo à Pentalog Deutschland !
- Reading: “Des blogs dénoncent les dérives en #SSII” ( http://bit.ly/aOYIPC )
- Reading: “Les prédictions 2010 de Deloitte pour l’IT” ( http://bit.ly/dpT7ui )
- Reading: “Les éditeurs de logiciels doivent se préparer au tsunami du Cloud” ( http://bit.ly/9NAXbE )
- @networkvb Merci.
- Vous cherchez un presta? Vous voulez faire vous meme votre propale en moins de 10 minutes? www.jechoisismonprestataireit.com
- Yesterday evening with Eric, Virginie and Monica we quoted all international development opportunities. We are satisfied with the result.
- “Blog de l’offshore / nearshore outsourcing, de l’Europe à l’Asie » Les crises… car ce n’est pas fini” ( http://bit.ly/a85I0x )

Don’t forget your sandwich:

- 2 seminars in Brasov this WE. All eastern unit managers are talking about recruitment&management. IT,R&D, infra managers focuse on strategy
- Coliba Haiducilor in poiana brasov cu prietenii
- Day 1 for Pentalog labs!
- We never have saluted Pentalog De’ s since its creation. I vote for 99 luftballons! Ramstein verboten!
- @Pentalog Deutschland bitte
- @Pentalog Deutschland jetzt gehen wir ins night club mit anderen collegen
- Pour un grand projet bancaire Moldo-franco-roumain : Felicitare tuturor! Ati facut un great job! Bravo les gars, champagne !
- Bucarest est dans la neige…
- Thx to this WE seminar we have a clearer idea of the Pentalog Labs’ organization. It’ll be both multi-projects/multi-expertises
- ANIS_20 RT @newad: White Paper: Business Outsourcing Process, an Effective Answer to the Financial Crisis http://bit.ly/a17pMW
- Pentalog validates an attribution of free shares to 16 managers (rank 2 to 4) representing some 6.45% of the company’s total equity.

- IT industry fights tax changes (02 February 2010, Misaustralia)
- India Telecom outlook for 2010 is stable to negative (02 February 2010, CIOL)
- Asset Protection Offshore! (03 February 2010, PR Inside)
- Cairo ICT to reflect dynamism of the IT sector (08 February 2010, Yahoo News)
- IT recovery on, India ranks high (03 February 2010, Yahoo News)
- How will the Carbon Reduction Committment affect IT outsourcing? (03 February 2010, Computerweekly)
- IT Outsourcing: Why It Pays to Appraise Your Contract (03 February 2010, CIO)
- 10 best IT jobs right now: Source: The Industry Standard (02 February 2010, The Standard)
- Rumänien: Der Lockruf des Karpaten-Goldes (03 February 2010, Die Presse)
- Russland nach der Krise: Wütende Bürger trotz Wirtschaftsaufschwung (02 February 2010, Handelsblatt)
- Europäischer Outsourcing-Markt stark gewachsen (05 February 2010, Inside IT)
- Deutsche Sprache – schwere Sprache: Neulich in …Bangalore (03 February 2010, Computerwoche)

I never thought one day of attending business meetings wearing snow boots… In Russia, it is common. And rare are the few people who do not wear the fur hat, it is THE essential accessory for your survival on the streets of St Petersburg as well as in the Ural countryside in winter. There are hats for everyone, of all colors, leather, rabbit skin, felt, with brilliants, pearls, but in any case, always something that goes with your coat! Going up Nevsky Prospect in the early morning, amid all these people wrapped up in their own way, going to work with a firm step, reminded me of my literature courses in highschool, and the grotesque characters that Gogol portrayed in a satirical tone in his St. Petersburg Short Stories, which I reread at the moment of this trip: Akaky Akakyevich Bachmatchkine, petty official shivering in his worn coat on the way to the Ministry (The Overcoat) or Major Kovalyov who awoke one morning without a nose (The Nose)…

In Perm, after we had been introduced to the ritual of tasting the “Ruski Standard” (remember to drink only half of your glass and then leave it on the table is very rude to the person who invited you to drink), Denis and his colleagues talked to us about survival skills in the taiga, that we (thankfully) did not have the time to practice. Besides these very good moments that made me completely forget my prejudices about Russian austerity. Anyway, our friends both in Perm and St. Petersburg demonstrated to us their strong commitment to international development and improving their technical and business skills from every point of view. This was an encouraging attitude when thinking of creating a prospective partnership in this country, despite the past legacy which seems to continue to weigh heavily on professional relationships. One entrepreneur explained to us how he launched his business at the time you could read signs saying “No business is no good” in the streets. Today the dream of Russian entrepreneurs is to do business with France, Germany …

Fred spoke of the language problems in his post; it’s true that the use of English is not yet systematic amongst IT engineers. But after thinking about it, overall I didn’t feel any more difficulty in communicating than I did in India, where people spoke English well enough but with a “local” colored accent and with various expressions which I didn’t have the habit to use. I will not speak of French language (the “Alliance Francaise” courses in Perm seemed to be attended mostly by young women from well-to-do families) but on the other hand we met German-speaking people, which is an additional positive point. The language problem is of course less obvious in Saint Petersburg which is a doorway to the Western world, a very cosmopolitan and modern city of 7 million inhabitants, with 120 universities and engineering schools. It is probably the 2nd largest city in the world for engineering outsourcing, maybe even the 1st when compared to Bangalore in terms of the percentage of the population going to university.

So in conclusion, many interesting things to think about after this trip, both in terms of SAP, as well as embedded systems or the opening of new markets in Scandinavia. We were really impressed by the people we encountered. Russia almost seems an obvious choice for the future development of our business and the presence of Pentalog. These projects came at the right moment; the France-Russia year was inaugurated yesterday in Paris… We will return with great pleasure to these frosty regions, but so welcoming!

Pictures can be seen here: Perm & Ural, Saint Petersburg