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
« Creating the ship is not about weaving the canvas, forging the nails, reading the stars, but rather about giving a taste for the sea » Saint Exupéry
Monica Jiman
Deputy CEO
“The only true exploit of Human beings is to invent themselves.” Francesco Savater
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
An innovative web policy deployed through the use of web 2.0 marketing methods ensures a greater visibility of products and services.
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
We take pride in helping our clients to implement their ideas, which is why we make full use of our consulting role.
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.
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: Deputy CEO 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.
Monica has been Pentalog's Deputy CEO (Deputy Chief Executive Officer) since August 2011. She is in charge of operational management, including the management of production and production structures, financial and reporting management, administration and development of existing partnerships, supervision of the information systems, technical management and … the incubator.
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.
After five years of (very) good and (very) reliable services, Pentalog.com V3 was deactivated yesterday evening. This site was a turning point in our online presence policy and helped build perception of the multinational character of our company. Its record of achievements, in millions of euros, in number of prestigious references and start-ups gained, turned it into an indisputable success.
But… the site is dead! Long live the site! Pentalog.comV4 is being launched as I am writing these lines (be patient) and I cannot but wish it an equally successful reign at the head of Pentalog sites. Actually, I have no doubts in this respect. We haven’t given up our essential paradigms that we have been following since the beginning of our web policy (the old Cluetrain Manifesto which is undoubtedly like a Bible to us). Transparency remains at the heart of our activity. Our CVs remain online, despite the fact that we have almost reached the number of 600 employees! Each Pentalog collaborator, in some form or other, IS present on the Pentalog site. It belongs to us all. Business-wise, we all inhabit the corporate site. It is the common home of our development, our careers and the place where we meet our future clients.
We have changed the estimate functions by simplifying the entry point, through the Quick Estimate function which is also, more than any other function, astonishingly transparent. We have animated the site, we have inserted illustrations. CVs have been shortened… You can see for yourselves!
There are a few things which are missing… Of course, we lack a few banners, others will be remade and CVs will be updated to a certain extent. I will stop here, thanking Hélène Hemery, who has been working for Pentalog for 11 years and who has played a key role in the development of all versions. She passionately coordinated content-related aspects and assiduously participated at their conception. I would also like to welcome the return of Anne Le Saux who, 17 years ago, arduously supported the creation of Pentalog. Anne came back a few months ago and, together with her team, particularly with George, but also with Diana in Brasov, she has built this new identity. She joined our company and has become Pentalog’s own creator. A warm thank you to you all. Anne and Hélène will resume this subject in a few days with much more detailed explanations.
Mircea, Frédéric and I spent a few days in Poland last week in an attempt to find a nearshoring solution designed to accelerate our development in Germany and Austria. We made some interesting discoveries in this country: high-level training, a large number of students, a great deal of whom speak German (at least when compared to Romania), professional interlocutors who are all very good English speakers, a highly dynamic economic environment.
In Wroclaw, 700,000 inhabitants, the country’s 4th largest city, 700 IT & Management graduates of the Polytechnic University enter the labour market each year, in addition to the one thousand graduates of the Faculty of Electronics (telecommunications, hardware specializations etc.). The University of Wroclaw even has its own incubator which has supported the launch of no less than 130 start-ups during the last 8 years! The city hosts a Nokia Siemens Networks R&D center which employs 1,500 people (the largest in Europe), not to mention the presence of players such as Volvo IT, IBM, Google etc. That is impressive… In Warsaw, Samsung has recruited 400 young graduates from the Faculty of Electronics and IT in less than 3 years. The partnership policy of the university in relation to the business world efficiently prepares its students for their entry on the labour market, through the work carried out for example in a laboratory created together with the local branch of Germany’s T-Mobile.
As Fred explains it in his article, nearshore outsourcing providers tend to draw closer to their clients, geographically speaking, in order to better understand and get involved in their strategy and fields of expertise. Within this context, speaking the same language is all the more important and justifies higher prices in countries like Poland or the Czech Republic. Administrative easiness (Poland is a member of the Schengen area), which allow Polish engineers to carry out missions on site in the German speaking area, is another reason why Germans are willing to pay a higher price. Actually, the obvious cultural proximity sometimes gave me the impression I was in Germany. And it may very well be that there are French speakers in this country, as well.
You will therefore have understood: Pentalog was rather seduced by the Polish alternative in terms of nearshore outsourcing. Certain elements are still to be analyzed in more detail, but in a few weeks we should be able to make a choice between a first Polish office and a fifth office in Romania, which could also join the Schengen area in 2011… We have therefore embarked on a new Eastern-European adventure
Our trip to Poland last week allowed us to analyze the Nearshore outsourcing practice in other countries, particularly in the UK and above all in Germany. One cannot but notice that the latter country, which invented the nearshorebusiness, has a predominantly similar methodology to the one favoured by Pentalog. While the level of labor cost is lower by 13.5% compared to France (for a gross wage level which is higher by 15% – but the employers’ contribution is twice higher than that in France, which grants 7 additional leave days per year). However, despite this favorable difference in labor costs, German companies are fond of Czech, Slovak and Polish services, which are more expensive and easily exceed 200 € / day on average, even 230.
The gap in labor costs between a German and a Polish employee of the same level hardly exceeds 33%. What the Germans particularly appreciate in these bordering countries is the high quality of their training, their German-speaking skills and … the time they have them spend in Germany with no duration restrictions or visas. Thus, these companies, like me, consider that remote teams must have a maximum amount of competences and that project management must absolutely be carried out locally for maximum efficiency. This is the paradigm that is precisely implemented by Pentalog to avoid intervention by project leaders who aren’t used to international projects and that the usual IT service providers of our clients are trying to sell us. Certainly, our project management structure in France, Germany and Israel allows us to have a close and constant contact with our clients but it is true that the lack of visa requirements for our Romanian employees is what makes the difference compared to their Moldovan and Vietnamese colleagues and our competitors in the Maghreb. Germans do not hesitate to have the employees of their Polish or Czech partners spend 183 days per year in Germany (this figure represents a well-known tax limit). We also practice this system, with only one client, German, that continuously receives approximately 15 people out of a total of 30 in the team. Non-EU nationals are generally limited by visa and work permit systems (I will resume this topic one day).
This trip, whatever city we may choose between Cluj, Timisoara and Wroclaw to open a new nearshore outsourcing production unit, has strengthened my conviction that our teams, at least those located in EU countries, must meet their clients more and more often to develop their knowledge of activities and learn about their economic stakes and their strategy.
Pierre-Jean, Mircea and Thomas are sending us news from Frankfurt:
“Rund um den Globus” – “All around the globe” is the title of a recent article published by “IT Director”, one of the most important magazines of the German IT-business sector.
The globalization of production capacities in the IT development field is pursued not only in India, but also in countries such as Egypt, Romania, China and Vietnam. The conditions offered by Romania, the youngest member of the European Union, which has a legal framework matching our Western European standards, as well as low-cost resources, are ideal for companies that wish to optimize their IT budget while maintaining a very high level of quality. Even though cost reduction can reach up to 60% of the development costs in Germany, it is important to consider the quality of developers involved in nearshore/offshore projects, as well as the data/IT security level. It is in the purely economic interest of large nearshore/offshore outsourcing providers to ensure the best service with a maximum level of security. The best approach is to begin with a European law contract with a competent relevant court from the client’s country. This is precisely what Pentalog High Tech proposes to its French and German clients and it is for this reason that we have had the honour of publishing this interview in the IT Director magazine.
About IT Director: IT Director is a monthly magazine published by MEDIENHAUS Verlag. This publisher is part of the leading press of the German high tech sector and has exclusively targeted the IT business industry for almost 20 years.
Here is a preview of our latest, fresh-look newsletter that announces the launch of the new version of our corporate website in the following weeks… To be continued!
If you have a project or questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at +33 (0)9 70 75 47 61.
Sophie Lelarge, Pentalog’s Sales Director, is inviting you at the Salon eCommerce Paris, Versailles gate, for the award ceremony that will take place this Wednesday, September 22nd, at 6.00 pm.
Pentalog is participating for the first time at the E-Commerce Awards in the “Innovations” and “New Service” categories.
As a reminder, Pentalog has launched an original range of new online services aimed at assisting the visitor in purchasing offshore/nearshore IT services.
The www.choosingmyitserviceprovider.com site allows the client to go through the key questions related to an offshore service. In just a few minutes, it is now possible to put together an offshore business case which also contains an offer in figures thanks to the Price Maker solution.
Afterwards, through the secured service portal, it is possible to directly order our services and to manage these different encrypted business cases.
The client can also consult our client references and success stories on our site www.madeinoffshore.com.
he language question at Pentalog has always been perceived as fundamental. On Tuesday evening, during a visit in Bucharest by representatives of the greatest client of our Pentalog Technology subsidiary, co-owned with the Ausy Group, one of them, surprised by the fact that he was surrounded by 11 French-speaking Romanians (although George must make improvements ), asked me what the group’s first language was. I answered him that it was English, as it is a mandatory language which, at any rate, is spoken by all engineers today (i.e. 550 people). As for the second language, this is a bit more difficult. I hesitate between French, spoken by 80% of the Romanian staff, 40% of Vietnamese employees and 90% of Moldovans, by the 3 Germans and the 0.5 Israelis… and Romanian, spoken by all Romanians, of course, but also by Moldovans. Following a rapid statistical calculation, French is spoken by 443 people and is situated behind Romanian, which is spoken by 470!
These are followed by Russian, with approximately 100 speakers in Moldova and Vietnam. Then comes Vietnamese. I don’t know if the sixth place is taken by German or Hungarian. Then there are the languages which are only spoken by less than 20 people and that I am not taking into account here (Japanese, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish etc.).
Does this linguistic distribution reflect our sales figure? Yes and no. The French market (but we don’t have only French projects in France) is by far the most important market of the company. This year it will account for 12-13 million euros, out of the 16-17 million that the group will make this year.
The second market source is Germany, with more than 2 million euros. Actually, we see the lack of German-speaking collaborators as an obstacle to our expansion in this country. However, we are working on it… and, in fact, this is one of the reasons why Monica, Manu and Raluca are traveling to Western Romania and why I will be traveling to Poland together with Alex next week. Nevertheless, we must admit that our German cousins are more used to working in English than the French.
The third revenue is generated by the Romanian internal market, with a sales figure of 1.5 million euros in 2010.
Thus, the linguistic distribution within our company doesn’t correspond to that of the sales figure. Therefore, it is only natural that we should work on this aspect. Our priority is to increase the number of German-speaking employees, of course. But I think more and more that we will have to promote our Russian-speaking resource in order to help our German and French clients to conquer Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union, like we did two years ago with BNP PARIBAS in Ukraine or even, although to a lesser extent, with Société Générale in Moldova.
Languages and culture are more than ever a business-stimulating factor, not only for the French market. Globalization comes at this price. Today, Pentalog remains the leading French-speaking nearshore company; its workforce and offer place it on top in the EU, but it must step up its efforts to further reinforce and consolidate its position in Europe.
I had the moral duty to talk, one of these days, about the particular relationship that brings Pentalog and PeopleCentric together. This start-up, directly stemming from what was to become Pentalabbs, has had a string of successes for a while now, and I owe them this article.
First of all, because they have an exciting start-up culture which blows a fresh wind into the group. In fact, 64% of the capital is owned by Pentalog employees or former employees. Secondly, because the PeopleCentric team together with Raluca, their dynamic manager, despite certain tense moments with the rest of the group (a growth such as that of Pentalog cannot be achieved without moments of tension), have done a great job in assisting Pentalog with the recruitment of almost 150 people (see the Romanian joblog) since the beginning of 2010, mostly in Romania, but also in Moldova.
Each client that we meet asks me how we can manage to assume ramp-ups for 50 developers in three months. I invariably answer them that this performance is achieved by combining the efficiency of PeopleCentric and that of Pentalog’s production unit Directors. This is above all the history of two experienced partners and very well-defined business processes.
Moreover, the tool strategy employed by the Romanian start-up is also yielding excellent results. Competence marketing tools, first used by Pentalog and PeopleCentric itself, have also been sold to a Romanian temporary employment company… which has already generated online sales of almost €500,000 in less than a year. Its manager told me yesterday that he expected to double the sales figure generated by the tools of Raluca’s team.
As far as I am concerned, I am looking forward to the release of their latest tool, a sort of competence booking extranet which, in my opinion, is going to be a big hit among IT companies and which we are going to integrate in a few weeks, as soon as Pentalog’s fourth generation of websites has been released. We are going to make a small campaign when the time comes. This will be the fourth tool already developed in less than a year (online test, joblog, CV generator…).
Therefore, I congratulate the entire team. They are genuine start-up ladies. Excuse-me Laurent, I don’t want to downplay your male contribution, but I couldn’t resist the charm of this expression used in the feminine. According to my latest figures, PeopleCentric should generate a sales figure between 400,000 and 500,000 euros this year. PeopleCentric Romania and France both contributed to this figure by 40% and 60% respectively. The Labbs is very proud of its first shoot. It will continue to water it regularly by making as many contributions as possible to its innovation strategy.
Last April, Frédéric Lasnier was personally nominated for the Top 100 – Entrepreneur of the Year Award, organized by “L’Entreprise” magazine, Ernst & Young and “Les Echos”. Tonight, Sophie Lelarge, Sales Director, will be the one to represent Frédéric Lasnier who is away on a trip abroad.
As a French version of the famous American “Entrepreneur of the Year”, this award will reward entrepreneurs, both men and women, with outstanding achievements. The laureates who will be distinguished tonight by the Ile-de-France jury will have the possibility of competing for the National Award which will be granted on October 21st at the Opéra Garnier.
As I am flying from Tel Aviv to Bucharest, I am about to give you an account of my third trip to Israel in ten months. Before presenting my actions in detail and trying to sum them up, I realize that I can’t talk about this country without mentioning once again the extraordinary and somewhat paradoxical faith in the future that I feel this country possesses. I am just coming back from a visit to Bar Ilan University, whose strategic committee I recently joined in France and I have nothing but admiration for the willpower that drives any manager in this country. Bar Ilan, like Technion, shows extraordinary ambition in practically all its disciplines. Thus, the university has a building for nanotechnologies which is almost unique in its kind, practically isolating it from all vibrations and rendering it a premium research institution in this truly specialized subject.
I don’t want to dedicate this text entirely to Bar Ilan, but the exemplarity of this global-scale public-private financing, added to an obligation of budgetary excellence towards donors, can’t leave insensitive the supporter of the university model that I am in France. Ultra-exclusive French-type schools and universities in decline aren’t inevitable… if we can break the left-wing or right-wing doctrinaire deadlocks. University must stand for humanism, universalism, excellence and not elite, and should serve society and individuals.
I also spent my first weekend in Israel and I am extremely grateful to Lina and Eli for their great welcome. I had the chance to appreciate unique sites at the Dead Sea, such as the Masada citadel and the extraordinary feeling of freshness that one may find in the oases of the Negev desert. Even if only for these sites… you should visit Israel.
The business part is expanding. The proposition portfolio is becoming larger. And let’s say, without mentioning too many names, that Pentalog is carrying out negotiations with one of the country’s top software editors, with one of the most important telecommunication equipment manufacturers and that it should soon announce, thanks to Pentalog Israel’s contribution, an extension of its range of services for electronic system design… a few more days of patience.
I also answered the questions of an extraordinary reporter from Globe, the local equivalent of “Les Echos”. I will provide the article (undoubtedly in Hebrew for those who can read it) in the following days. She perfectly understood the strategic stakes of outsourcing in the following 20 years and I think that could be one of the main ideas of her article. This is opposed to the plaintive tone of the French professional press which, for good measure, interviews an average IT business owner, then an employees’ union representative, then an employers’ union representative. As all three have the same interest, no original and diverging opinion is ever expressed: “no experienced managers”, “oh, gosh, the turnover”, “not the same work culture” etc.
We talked about the real stakes in this field, the real risks the IT industry and the companies that won’t be able to use the offshore/nearshore sector are facing.
This trip has lived up to my expectations and today I am confident in Pentalog’s future in this country.
The 12th moving in Pentalog’s history has just come to an end. The Sibiu office is now established in its new premises and production can be resumed.
Since Friday afternoon, the production teams, IT team and removal men busied themselves moving the almost 80 workstations to the brand new 800 m2. The increase in our production surface proved indispensable with the ramp-up of an Embedded project team which will eventually reach 50 members.
We only stayed for 15 months in our previous five-floor headquarters and now we have moved to a new, three-level building offering more space than we previously had.
The moving procedure is well organized: everybody stops production at the end of the afternoon to put in place their personal things, their professional equipment. Then, the IT department takes charge of things by putting together resources (cables, dock, monitors) while another IT team disassembles the server room in order to assemble it again in the new headquarters as soon as possible. External accesses are given priority. Desks are put in place, machines are installed and the network is tested.
The task of the IT team was substantial, as this office hosts an autonomous infrastructure for these Embedded projects (source server, compilation server etc.). Everything is working well, therefore I congratulate them.
The single problem we faced on Monday morning was the blocking for a few minutes of the access control system of certain desktops. But everything went quickly back to normal.
We have no planned future movings for the moment, but teams remain ready. For these last premises changes, we used a more intelligent approach of tasks to be carried out. The objective is to develop a metric system for these punctual actions. The size of our offices is increasing, which makes it important to keep the required workloads under control, as the duration of these movings cannot be reduced. Everything must be operational on Monday morning!
), asked me what the group’s first language was. I answered him that it was English, as it is a mandatory language which, at any rate, is spoken by all engineers today (i.e. 550 people). As for the second language, this is a bit more difficult. I hesitate between French, spoken by 80% of the Romanian staff, 40% of Vietnamese employees and 90% of Moldovans, by the 3 Germans and the 0.5 Israelis… and Romanian, spoken by all Romanians, of course, but also by Moldovans. Following a rapid statistical calculation, French is spoken by 443 people and is situated behind Romanian, which is spoken by 470!
