Although the timing wasn’t the best for me to do so, I had to announce the acquisition of Château des Hauts sooner than I would have wanted to. indeed, we purchased the estate for the reasons we explained here and here several months ago. More precisely, we were looking for a space which could enable us to attract the brightest minds in our profession. And this is not easy to achieve if we take into account our frail collective regional identity.

This castle in itself will enable us to explain why we have stayed in Orleans. Its image and power of attraction will facilitate the organization of high-level business seminars at our own headquarters. Among all the projects we have considered during this period, there were only two which really got our attention:

- A headquarters in Paris, closer to most of our clients and providing easy access to our national and international business partners, and, for our collaborators, closer to airports.

- Château des Hauts which offers Pentalog’s teams and partners a special feel which compensates for the physical distance between us and our clients… and which results in hundreds of man-hours (or thousands?) by car or by train per year for the Orleans team.

Finally, by making this decision, we have listened to the silent urge of most of us to stay in this town, close to ours and to our roots. It was also our choice to undertake the heritage conservation mission, which is inherent to such a place.

We HAVE COMMITTED to change nothing to the building and park landscape. We will comply with the legal requirements with regard to renovation, according to the information we receive. We shall never build any expansions which could alter the building’s character.

The village residents will enjoy the sight of a renovated place, in great need of it, without spending any public money.

Pentalog should transfer about thirty collaborators to the Chapelle village and is aiming at generating about twenty additional positions on site in the following years. Fiscally, there are several million euro of the Group’s Sales figure, to be attached to this address.

Pentalog was set up in Orleans in 1993 by students, most of them graduates of the University of Orleans. 18 years later, 700 employees worldwide later, presence in 6 countries and sales in 10, we want to put our energy and resources at the service of this outstanding project. As for our ethical sense, our dedication to our community has always been acknowledged. Therefore, 92% of Pentalog’s capital belongs to its employees and we have co-financed the development of 5 companies of young entrepreneurs, of which 3 in Orleans, supported by our incubator. This castle, not in use for a long time and just a burden for the departmental community, can thus revive and take part in this fantastic adventure, so contemporary and linked to its original land.

Enjoy the IT offshore press review!

- Green IT: In search of an energy yardstick (January 30, 2012, Computer World)
- Twitter’s country-specific blocking brings hazards and hope (January 27, 2012, Computer World)
- Facebook IPO could come next week (January 27, 2012, Computer World)
- Indian IT giant to create thousands of European jobs (January 30, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- Neelie Kroes calls for speedy EU uptake of cloud computing (January 27, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- FBI to monitor Facebook, Twitter, Myspace (January 29, 2012, ZDNet)
- Why you can’t afford to resist the cloud (January 27, 2012, ZDNet)
- How to Document Cloud Design Decisions (January 26, 2012, CIO)
- The Top 10 H-1B Visa Users in the U.S. (January 27, 2012, CIO)
- Deutsche Wirtschaft startet mit Elan ins neue Jahr (January 25, 2012, Handelsblatt)
- Den richtigen Cloud-Anbieter finden (January 30, 2012, CIO)
- 6 IT-Jobs mit Zukunft (January 30, 2012, Computer Woche)
- Die BI-Trends 2012 (January 26, 2012, Computer Woche)
- Android ab 2012 attraktiver für Entwickler als iOS (January 24, 2012, Computer Woche)
- Manager forcieren Outsourcing (January 24, 2012, Automotive IT)

2012 is set to be a year in which new opportunities start to rise for IT professionals. Let’s see what other subjects we have in the IT offshore press review this week. Enjoy!

- How to cope with HTML5’s dueling standards bodies (January 17, 2012, Computer World)
- Need an agile infrastructure? Do your homework (January 16, 2012, Computer World)
- Tips for Facebook Timeline apps: Beware what you share (January 21, 2012, IT World)
- Wall Street Beat: Enterprise spending helps mixed quarter for tech (January 20, 2012, IT World)
- Public sector IT staff sees largest cut in 25 years (January 19, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- Four key trends in business analytics in 2012 (January 17, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- Innovation’s dirty little secret (January 17, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- The cloud is forked (January 22, 2012, ZDNet)
- 5 signs SOA has morphed into cloud (January 19, 2012, ZDNet)
- The Mobile Enterprise: Killing IT’s Sacred Cows (January 19, 2012, CIO)
- 4 Consumer Technologies That Could Change Your Enterprise (January 19, 2012, CIO)
- 2012: Year of Fast Changes for IT Professionals (January 17, 2012, CIO)
- Cloud Activity to Explode in 2012 (January 18, 2012, CIO)
- Cloud Computing bleibt auch 2012 eine Baustelle (January 23, 2012, CIO)
- BI, mobile Computing und die Cloud beschäftigen CIOs weltweit (January 19, 2012, IT Magazine)
- IKT-Branche erholt sich (January 19, 2012, Silicon)
- Cloud und mobile IT sind die Top-Themen (January 18, 2012, Automotive IT)
- Konzerne wollen IT-Dienstleistung aus einer Hand (January 17, 2012, CIO)
- West-Ost-Gefälle: Wechselkursprognose 2012 (January 19, 2012, Industrie Magazin)

Behind this title which is meant to be a trifle intriguing, I would like to tackle two current topics of interest. First, there is the buzz of the moment caused by the launch of offers by the French mobile network operator Free. Second, our contract signed with our current mobile operator (Orange) is coming to an end.

The first issue refers to the recent launch of the first mobile offer by Free. As you all know it, Free has created a buzz by putting forward a €19.99 offer including unlimited calls to 40 destinations, unlimited SMS/MMS and 3Go of fair-use (not unlimited, but still not bad at all), and a second offer at €2 consisting of 1h of calls and 60 SMS. One can really see the willingness of Free (together with its charismatic CEO, Xavier Niel) to turn the unacceptable into something intolerable. Seeing that it is possible to have rates as low as 2 euro cents / min for mobile communication and 1 euro cent / SMS, one can easily understand how the three main operators manage to make such high profits on these activities. For a long time now, operators have chosen package/bundle offers in order to make it easy to read the price list. However, “Conceiving a comprehensive and illegible offer allows to earn a large profit margin”, as I read a great marketer explain. Free is staking on the idea of transparency (separating the mobile device from the subscription price, low prices for calls not included in the package,…) and they are right. Do we have to fear Free’s offers? We have to let their new services start up (too much inflow may immediately reduce the quality of the offer) but the offer is still intelligent and transparent. However, I would like to emphasize a strength that other operators won’t be able to invoke:
- for each incoming call on a mobile device, the operator collects a fee. Free is counting on this bonanza generated by the first 3 million customers to fund its offers, but at least, it does not do so in order to increase its profit margins.
For those who want to know more:
- On refait le mac (my favourite weekend TV show): See the video (in French only). Sunday morning, for a post on Saturday morning, the number of viewers exceeded 42,000.
- A mobile customer calls SFR, in order to find out more see the video (in French only).

Explanations are very limited! Competitors are panic-stricken.
But if operators complain because of data-guzzling users, they themselves have been gorging themselves on profit.

The second item on my agenda is the coming to term of the 24 month contract that our IT outsourcing company signed with Orange for mobile services. Are we going to migrate to Free? Obviously, it is not forbidden, but it won’t be our option for the time being. For various reasons:
- Free is not primarily meant to customize its offers for companies as it targets individual users who are sick of being tricked into committing to contracts.
- As I mentioned before, it is advisable to take a global view on the situation in order to better ponder over it.
- We have to see how the mobile offer works given that Free has a “Best effort” approach while companies expect commitment.
We have seen MVNOs appear where their niche activities are difficult and which are, in the same time, focused towards individual users. With the emergence of MVNEs (companies that provide package mobile services for new MVNEs), within the following months we will witness the introduction of far more competitive offers targeting companies: voice and especially the convergence with company data (4G). It seems certainly likely to bring forward comprehensive offers around cloud services. Therefore, changing “habits” turns out to be too soon. Pentalog shall re-sign the contract with Orange for 24 months.

Let’s come back to these 24 months. In January 2010, I explained our reasons to choose this particular operator. The analysis for the first 9 months of 2011 in terms of our consumer practices is as follows:
- Voice + Data Roaming = 54% of the budget
- The largest consumer stands for 48% of the budget (everybody will guess to whom I am referring)
- There is a strong variability in terms of consumption at Pentalog level (voice & data – France & International).
- Subscriptions represent 12% of the budget
- The “internal numbers” option stands for 6400 min, the budget is consumed.

There is little request for change:
- Increase in service use by the project directors and the marketing of Virtual Fanatic (active participation on social networks)
- We are stopping 3G USB keys for some, as they are rarely used, which makes it better to pool share them

What were we able to improve with this renewal?
- Project directors (and Virtual Fanatic) shall be given a 3GS 8Go Iphone(extremely cheap while remaining fully operational). Some have mentioned the introduction of iPhone Nano (low cost iPhone). With this generation, Apple succeeds in offering low cost products. This device is a high compromise in order to gain a strong position with companies and have a homogenous offer in order to enhance customer service.
- Those who did not opt for change at this point can make it later in case of failure of their device or with a new generation of terminals (for instance).
- We are going to relaunch an internal communication campaign aiming at enhancing the use of our iPhone application. With a budget exceeding 100 euros per month including calls abroad from France, we should be able to reduce this budget from 4 to 5 by accepting to wait a few seconds longer during the call.
- Orange made a significant effort in terms of roaming rates (enough to be underlined)
- Orange accepted to reduce the range of options included in the iPhone package (less SMSs, no more TV or visual voice mail options). Such reduction serves its purpose.
- The adjustment of the budget allowing (without limitations) for the activation/deactivation of options in order to suit our consumer habits (avoiding the permanent activation of an international function) through the portal.

In terms of data usage, I prepared the possibility to use the 3G connection sharing (available on 4G iPhone), but the price of the option and the fact that it is not available in roaming are the reasons why only our Romanian colleagues shall use this option (free of charge) from Orange Romania. In Pentalog, by using Orange in France, the Republic of Moldova, Romania and Vietnam, I can acknowledge what I was saying in 2010 in this line: “We have no interest in using Orange WorldWide”.

I consider the SFR offer interesting. However, its package approach does not suit us in the end. It was cheaper by a few euros per month, but it didn’t compensate for the cost of change management.

Within a constant scope and usage, we could estimate that we will reduce our telecommunication budget by 15% to 20% and even more provided we adapt the options to our needs.

It’s a new week, it’s a new IT offshore press review. We start with 2 articles on the cool stuff seen at CES 2012. Enjoy!

- Cool stuff from CES 2012 (January 12, 2012, Computer World)
- Scenes from CES 2012 (January 13, 2012, Computer World)
- IT shockingly misaligned with the business it supports (January 13, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- Facebook set to reach a billion members (January 13, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- Cloud solves IT innovation and maintenance imbalance (January 11, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- India OKs censoring Facebook, Google, Microsoft, YouTube (January 13, 2012, ZDNet)
- Indonesia, Vietnam favorable investment hotspots (January 12, 2012, ZDNet Asia)
- How to Retool Your IT Skills for the Cloud (January 12, 2012, CIO)
- 5 Tips to Keep IT Outsourcing on Track as Global Providers Cut Staff (January 13, 2012, CIO)
- From now on, in Europe, everything gets worse (January 16, 2012, Market Watch)
- Drei Prozent Wachstum im Jahr 2011 (January 11, 2012, Manager Magazin)
- 6 wichtige IT-Trends für 2012 (January 13, 2012, CIO)
- 12 Outsourcing-Trends für 2012 (January 13, 2012, CIO)
- 6 IT-Trends bis 2032 (January 13, Computer Woche)
- Cloud-Einsatz im Mittelstand steigt (January 13, 2012, Silicon)
- Was bringt das IT-Jahr 2012? (January 11, 2012, Computer Woche)

It was indeed one of the key functions of the Pentalog Group’s website galaxy and one of our main differentiating aspects in the context of the transparency policy introduced in 2008 with our first free download services catalog. Nothing is ever perfect, but we have thus unified our pricing practices, and pricing on a case-by-case basis, as all consultancy and outsourcing businesses usually do, has never been practiced by Pentalog.

We are equally aware of the fact that, thanks to this practice, we have brought our contribution to structuring offshore prices in Europe, North Africa and the Far East. Many of our competitors used this system to check their prices and adapt them according to the scale of our IT outsourcing company. In this respect, we have played a special commercial role, even ethical. Downloading the catalog and using the estimate generator have amounted to 1,500 visits per month only for these functionalities!

But, our work has been accomplished by now, the offer is mature, and we now wish to provide such transparency to our “real” customers, partners and prospects only. In fact, our sites have been continuously copied in particular, but not only by British, Romanian and Tunisian companies for some time. They have systematically copied our services: offer design, recruitment, commercialization and pricing processes, etc.

Therefore, we have created a very user-friendly Web2.0 space which will enable us to control the distribution of our higher value contents and to deliver our quotations, to manage project and client-teams, contracts, etc. Based on electronic document management, it will also be equipped with conversational features close to those existing on professional social networks.

Thus, in the coming days, our good old price catalog will be available again in PDF format and it may be downloaded by real customers, partners and prospects, with real identities checked via our services portal. There are also contract models, ISO-compliant quality assurance plans , our future white papers, as well as the updates of all our project documents.

So, please pay attention, this space has already been open for all the aspects related to project management for existing customers and a few prospects. But, starting with next week, we are going to launch our updated price catalog which contains no fewer than 25 new services and competence types. In the following weeks, there will be summaries of Project Quality Plans, the services catalog and the training sessions provided by Pentalog Institute, the offshore white paper, then those related to e-commerce and embedded systems, etc. All these launches will be announced beforehand on our blogs, social networks and newsletters, and they will be available to all those who do not simply call themselves website looters.

In 2011, Pentalog has taken the extraordinary initiative to invite all the employees who started working for the company in 2005 and a few outstanding employees who joined the company after this date to take part in an unprecedented event. Together, these employees have acquired 92% of the capital belonging to one of the most flourishing IT companies in Europe! All the participants invested in the company’s share capital by buying shares at their 1993 price! This unprecedented operation has enabled about 20 more people to attend the General Assembly. The dividend paid several months later granted them a 50% “refund” of their investment! Obviously, shareholding situations are eventually different from one another, as several employees hold less than 0.5% of the capital (however, this amounts to a theoretical value between €100,000 and €200,000) and I have reached 28%. But that’s the spirit! Certain people have cashed several thousand euro since their first participation. I am very proud of this operation which makes Pentalog stand out from other companies, in developing countries and elsewhere. In my view, there is no concrete way to better reward company loyalty. The company founders felt great joy on this occasion!

Welcome to the IT offshore press review. I think we should start with this question: do we really need new programming languages? Have you heard of Dart, Ceylon, Go, #F, Opa, Fantom or Zimbu? It’s just like people are trying to reinvent the wheel. But let’s see what are these new languages and then we will continue with our other subjects. Enjoy!

- 10 programming languages that could shake up IT (January 3, 2012, IT World)
- Bart Perkins: Is social connectivity friend or foe to corporations? (January 6, 2012, Computer World)
- UK IT professionals face nearshore competition (January 6, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- Gartner: Enterprise software spending to rise by 6.4% in 2012 (January 5, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- IT industry attacks plans to ditch GCSE work experience (January 6, 2012, Computer Weekly)
- CES Unveiled reveals little about tech in 2012 so far (January 8, 2012, ZDNet)
- 2012 Tech Startups to Watch Product Sampler (January 5, 2012, CIO)
- U.S. Report Sees Perils to America’s Tech Future (January 6, 2012, CIO)
- 7 Signs You’ve Outsourced Too Much to IT Service Providers (January 6, 2012, CIO)
- Wo sich Deutschlands Zukunft entscheidet (January 3, 2012, Wiwo)
- Die neuen BI-Herausforderungen (January 9, 2012, Computer Woche)
- Outsourcing ändert sich massiv (January 5, 2012, CIO)
- ERP schwach – CRM boomt (January 3, 2012, Computer Woche)
- 8 Beziehungstipps fürs Outsourcing (January 3, 2012, Computer Woche)
- Was aus Outsourcing-Trends wurde (January 5, 2012, CIO)

Welcome to the first IT offshore press review of 2012. Enjoy!

- 2012 tech predictions: From IDG’s editors worldwide (December 30, 2011, Computer World)
- Cloud computing changes everything (December 23, 2011, Computer World)
- Five open source technologies for 2012 (December 28, 2011, Computer World)
- Top 10 social media stories of 2011 (December 30, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Top 10 outsourcing stories of 2011 (December 22, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- 2012: Nine business tech predictions (January 3, 2012, ZDNet)
- Words and expressions I want banned in 2012 (December 28, 2011, ZDNet)
- 12 IT Outsourcing Predictions for 2012 (December 22, 2011, CIO)
- Polen sind die Gründerkönige der deutschen Wirtschaft (December 29, 2011, Welt)
- Die IT-Trends 2012 (December 30, 2011, Silicon)
- Die 6 meistgefragten IT-Jobs 2012 (December 29, 2011, CIO)
- Trotz Krise steigen die IT-Budgets leicht an (December 28, 2011, Silicon)
- Cloud Computing etabliert sich nur langsam (December 27, 2011, Automotive IT)

The results of a hiring survey show that the IT job market will improve in 2012, but most companies choose not to expand. This and other subjects in the IT offshore press review.

- IT hiring expected to rise in 2012, says survey (December 15, 2011, Computer World)
- Cloud adviser: Where’s your data? (December 13, 2011, Computer World)
- CIOs must trade off innovation and maintenance in 2012
- Pages stalemate for Google, Facebook (December 19, 2011, ZDNet Asia)
- Cloud UI Design Mistakes to Avoid (December 15, 2011, CIO)
- IT Outsourcing Year in Review, Rating Our 2011 Predictions (December 14, 2011, CIO)
- This Week in Cloud: PaaS, Virtualization Leading Trends (December 17, 2011, Silicon Angle)
- France finally realizing what a bad deal euro was (December 19, 2011, Market Watch)
- Euro schlägt D-Mark (December 16, 2011, Focus)
- Europäer laden die meisten Android-Apps (December 16, 2011, CIO)
- Deutsche ITK-Branche “sehr zuversichtlich” (December 15, 2011, Silicon)
- IT-Markt wächst auch 2012 noch kräftig (December 15, 2011, Automotive IT)
- 10 Gartner-Trends bis 2017 (December 13, 2011, CIO)

Gartner considers that IT budgets and responsabilities are moving out of the control of the IT departments and into the hands of others, due to consumerization and cloud computing, among others. That is the Gartner vision for 2012 and the coming years. Don’t miss the other subjects of today’s IT offshore press review.

- Gartner Predictions for 2012: More Cloud, Consumerization, Loss of IT Control (December 2, 2011, CIO)
- Offshoring comes under bipartisan attack in Congress (December 9, 2011, Computer World)
- Mobile device management — what you should know (December 8, 2011, Computer World)
- Twitter unveils redesign, touts ease-of-use (December 8, 2011, Computer World)
- Making industrialisation work (December 2011, Computer Weekly)
- SOA paves way to ‘postmodern’ software regime: Gartner’s Anne Thomas Manes (December 11, 2011, ZDnet)
- 4 Facebook Security Tips to Stay Safe in 2012 (December 8, 2011, CIO)
- Infographic: Facebook Reveals Top Trends of 2011 (December 7, 2011, CIO)
- Beware Cloud Computing Advice from IT Research Firms (December 9, 2011, CIO)
- Inflationsangst in Deutschland wächst (December 8, 2011, Capital)
- Cloud-Services aus Deutschland (December 9, 2011, Computer Woche)
- IT-Budgets der Unternehmen steigen (December 8, 2011, Automotive IT)
- Bilanz 2011: Ist nach der Cloud vor der Cloud? (December 8, 2011, Silicon)
- ERP-Systeme – zu langsam für das Business? (December 7, 2011, Computer Woche)
- ITK-Branche will Frauen als Manager (December 5, 2011, Automotive IT)

We start this week’s IT offshore press review with an article on Gartner’s top predictions for IT organisations and users for 2012.

- Gartner Reveals Top Predictions for IT Organisations and Users for 2012 and Beyond (December 2, 2011, CFO News)
- Mobile giving grows up (December 2, 2011, Computer World)
- Developers see growing HTML5 importance (December 5, 2011, ZDNet Asia)
- Cloud at ‘chapter zero’ presents opportunities (December 1, 2011, ZDNet Asia)
- Google’s highly profitable secret war against small businesses and jobs (November 30, 2011, ZDNet)
- Is Cloud Support ‘Racing to the Bottom? (December 1, 2011, CIO)
- Skills-Based Visa Change Helps Some, Hurts Others (November 30, 2011, CIO)
- Google’s Android 4.0 Ported to X86 Processors (December 1, 2011, CIO)
- The Big Data of Social Media: Balancing Methods and Mayhem (December 2, 2011, Silicon Angle)
- Romanian National Bank organizes public bidding for IT maintenance services (December 2, 2011, Business Review)
- Arbeitslosigkeit geht überraschend stark zurück (November 30, 2011, Welt)
- 2012: Die Bedrohungen für die IT nehmen drastisch zu (December 2, 2011, Automotive IT)
- So ergeht es Firmen in der IT-Wolke (December 2, 2011, Computer Woche)
- Was die Systemhäuser 2012 erwartet (November 30, 2011, Computer Woche)
- Lösungen für Enterprise-Resource-Planning (November 29, 2011, Computer Woche)
- Gartner: Weltweiter Servermarkt wächst um 7,2 Prozent (November 29, 2011, ZDNet)
- Der BI-Markt in Deutschland (November 28, 2011, Silicon)

Here’s the IT offshore press review! Enjoy!

- Government opens consultation on definition of IT open standards (November 25, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Nokia Siemens Networks to axe 17,000 jobs worldwide (November 24, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Facebook security still has a long way to go, say experts (November 23, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- 51% of ecommerce site visitors are logged in to Facebook (November 24, 2011, ZDNet)
- Is 2012 the Year Android Invades the Enterprise? (November 22, 2011, CIO)
- Salesforce.Com’s Heroku Launches Stand-Alone Database Service (November 23, 2011, CIO)
- 9 Best Practices for Successful IT Projects (November 23, 2011, CIO)
- This Week in Cloud: PaaS Expansion on the Rise (November 26, 2011, Silicon Angle)
- IT-Mittelstand: Gedämpftes Wachstum (November 25, 2011, Silicon)
- Deutsche IT-Profis suchen Auslandserfahrung (November 25, 2011, Silicon)
- Cloud Computing – 3 Behauptungen und die Tatsachen (November 24, 2011, IT Business)
- Schweizer IT-Markt bewegt sich nicht, bewegt sich doch (November 23, 2011, Inside IT)
- 70 000 neue Jobs durch die Cloud (November 23, 2011, Automotive IT)
- ITK-Branche: Prima Klima für 2012 (November 22, 2011, Automotive IT)

E-financing, geolocation marketing, mobility, M2M.. just a few of the subjects of this week’s IT offshore press review. Enjoy!

- E-financing : a new market on the shoulders of e-invoicing (November 7, 2011, CFO News)
- The Benefits Of Geolocation Marketing (November 7, 2011, Forbes)
- Apple To Make Billions On Google’s Android (November 4, 2011, Forbes)
- Wi-Fi tethering 101: Use a smartphone as a mobile hotspot (November 4, 2011, Computer World)
- Is the offshore contact centre honeymoon over? (October 31, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Does Oracle’s Larry Ellison care about open source and Java? (November 6, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- IT operations in Malaysia could offer the near China experience (November 4, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Mobile Goes Data Mad (November 7, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Android handsets top hardware failures list (November 5, 2011, ZDNet)
- Asia-Pacific to become largest M2M market in 2013 (November 3, 2011, M2M Now)
- Are wireless sensor networks and energy harvesting coming together? (November 3, 2011, M2M Now)
- Enterprise Social Software: What Businesses Need to Do Next (November 3, 2011, CIO)
- Can You Trust One Outsourcing Provider to Manage the Rest? (November 4, 2011, CIO)
- Gartners Top 10 Technologien für 2012 (November 7, 2011, CIO)
- Informatik-Studium wieder gefragter (November 4, 2011, Inside IT)
- Wie man mehr aus BI herausholt (November 3, 2011, Computer Woche)
- Starke Tools für die Private Cloud (November 2, 2011, Computer Woche)
- 38.000 freie Stellen für IT-Fachkräfte (October 31, 2011, CIO)

We made it, we are achieving business development in Asia. The rumour was going around the block (well, the blog) for a long time now, but we wanted to wait for the first deal to be closed before letting you know more about it.

In addition to enhancing its production capacities by setting up the new branch office in Cluj, Romania, at the end of July this year and very likely another one in Tunisia shortly, the Pentalog group strives to increase sales in other parts of the world as well, namely in Israel, in the US, in Poland, and, of course, in Asia as we have been present in Vietnam for the past 3 years now!

We knew right from the very beginning that selling in Vietnam would be (quite) different from our trade habits in Europe, so we had to carry out proper market research in order to establish where, how and what to sell. The numerous meetings we had with our potential buyers enabled us to define some of the market requirements, the purchasing habits and, above all, the services which definitely set our IT outsourcing company apart from local players.

Our expertise in large-scale IT projects, our industrialized work processes, our certified quality assurance system, our recruitment and training capacity, as well as our highly proficient international team are so many of our strengths. However, the fast growing market in Vietnam has the following distinctive characteristics:
- Mandatory face-to-face contact (online purchase is still faraway), referral-based contact is strongly recommended
- Services are seldom purchased, instead customers look for solutions including customization and maintenance services
- Difficulty in defining the needs (and in the same time the fixed-price contract is seen as a standard), the customer does not have the required proficiency to follow up and control the project development
- A few issues related to the transparency of the supplier selection process, to say the least

Therefore, we most definitely have to add a client control and a project management support layer to our regular services. Already, we have been chosen by THE very first Vietnamese customer in the insurance business sector to assist them in their strategic portal project from scratch, namely to draw the list of requirements, to plan the progress and to implement it.

Apart from the Vietnamese market, we are also aiming at reaching nearshore destinations – with reference to Vietnam – like Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore in the near future. I am well aware that, in the past, we already targeted Japan and canceled it out because of the global recession, but this time we are definitely going to make it.

Taking advantage of the presence of our CEO, Frédéric LASNIER, in Vietnam, on Thursday, November 3rd, we set up a meeting in the Hanoi office with potential buyers from different business sectors: banking, telecommunication, consulting, industrial production… Our dear visitors had the opportunity to better understand Pentalog and the IT services we provide, to visit our production site which is in compliance with European standards, to have a chat with our employees and enjoy a lovely lunch together. Many thanks to them for what we see as a win-win situation as there are some promising collaboration opportunities underway following this meeting.

For further information on the services we provide in Vietnam and in the Pacific- Asia region, you are welcome to contact us in order to set up a meeting or a visit to our premises:
Phone.: 00(84) 43 79 50 699
E-mail: hightech@pentalog.vn
Website: www.pentalog.vn

The best articles of the IT offshore press review!

- Research: Do CIOs have more clarity about cloud computing? (October 27, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Public sector IT jobs plummeting and software suppliers are recruiting the most (October 28, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Why do IT Projects Succeed? (October 28, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Facebook goes frozen: new data center in Sweden (October 28, 2011, IT World)
- Software skills survey reveals SQL highest in demand followed by C programmers (October 28, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- Offshoring and Security: IT Managers, Network Admins Divided on Risk (October 25, 2011, CIO)
- ‘Big Data’ Prep: 5 Things IT Should Do Now (October 25, 2011, CIO)
- Diese Firmen bestimmen Schicksal der Weltwirtschaft (October 25, 2011, Welt)
- Vom CIO zum CEO durch Cloud Computing (October 28, 2011, CIO)
- Cloud ist das IT-Thema Nummer eins (October 26, 2011, CIO)
- Gartner identifiziert die zehn wichtigsten IT-Trends (October 25, 2011, IT Business)
- Die innovativsten ITK-Unternehmen (October 24, 2011, Silicon)

Enjoy the best articles of the IT offshore press review!

- What Google+ Brand Pages Could Look Like (October 23, 2011, Mashable)
- Forrester: Tech Changes to Expect in Next 3 Years (October 21, 2011, Computer World)
- Study reveals sectors boosting investment in IT outsourcing (October 19, 2011, Computer Weekly)
- ICT sustainability maturing in APAC (October 21, 2011, ZDNet Asia)
- Pyramid predicts growth for cellular M2M (October 24, 2011, M2M)
- Private Social Networks Playing Facebook Role in More Workplaces (October 20, 2011, CIO)
- Gartner: the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2012 (October 18, 2011, CIO)
- Salesforce.Com to ‘unlock’ SAP’s Core Software for ’social Enterprises’ (October 21, 2011, CIO)
- A Strategy for Gaining Maximum Value from Cloud and Mobile in Your Business (October 22, 2011, Silicon Angle)
- Gefragte IT-Experten für 2012 (October 24, 2011, CIO)
- Agilität als Schlüssel zu Business Intelligence (October 24, 2011, Computerwoche)
- Weniger High-Tech-Gründungen in Deutschland (October 20, 2011, Silicon)
- Weltweite IT-Budgets steigen (October 19, 2011, Computerwoche)
- Trotz Konjunktursorgen: Firmen investieren weiter in IT (October 18, 2011, Silicon)
- Punktlandung Outsourcing – der Vertrag macht das Projekt (October 17, 2011, Silicon)

The best articles of the IT offshore press review. Enjoy!

- The $20 Billion Upset (October 13, 2011, Forbes)
- Transfer your MobileMe account to Apple’s iCloud service (Octobre 13, 2011, IT World)
- The limits of Agile: Emergn CEO on Universal Credit (Octobre 14, 2011, Computerweekly)
- Businesses told to work better with education to plug critical IT skills gap (Octobre 14, 2011, Computerweekly)
- PC vendors tie innovation, strategies to consumerization (Octobre 12, 2011, ZDNet Asia)
- IT Outsourcing Survey: Provider Profits Shrink, Growth Slows in India (Octobre 11, 2011, CIO)
- Best Buy Rebuilding IT Capability it Outsourced, Starts Hiring (Octobre 11, 2011, CIO)
- What is a ‘Connected Device,’ and Why Does it Matter? (Octobre 14, 2011, TMCNet)
- NFC telecom’s next big thing? (Octobre 3, 2011, Business Review)
- Semiconductor inventories are rising (October 10, 2011, Electronics Weekly)
- 10 Schritte zur Outsourcing-Strategie (October 17, 2011, CIO)
- Die 15 häufigsten IT-Fehler (October 17, 2011, Computerwoche)
- Deutschlands Hightech-Exporte legen zu (October 12, 2011, CRN)
- Deutschland exportiert mehr ITK-Technik (October 11, 2011, Automotive IT)

Fresh news! Everything about the offshore IT here on Pentablog, but also on our Pentalog Fanpage!

- Technology industry figures pay tribute to Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs (October 6, 2011, Computerweekly)
- Are Western IT services providers letting the Indians in for a second time? Or is it just IBM and Accenture? (October 6, 2011, Computerweekly)
- 5 tips to manage risk in mega IT projects (October, 5, 2011, ZDNet Asia)
- User-generated reviews tricky but rewarding (October 7, 2011, ZDNet Asia)
- Oracle reveals social network for business (October 10, 2011, ZDNet Asia)
- Cloud Computing: 3 Tips for Overcoming Implementation Anxiety (October 5, 2011, CIO)
- IT Outsourcing: Study Ranks Best Nearshore Locations for U.S. Customers (October 6, 2011, CIO)
- Two-Thirds of Firms Send Jobs Offshore, Survey Shows (October 4, 2011, CIO)
- Die Outsourcing-Pläne der CIOs (October 5, 2011, CIO)
- Was freie IT-Projektleiter auszeichnet (October 4, 2011, CIO)
- Weltwirtschaft stottert, Rezessionsgefahr steigt (October 4, 2011, e-Fund Research)