At a time when new technologies are becoming the main business carrier,
communication is now all about transparency.
Aymeric Libeau
CIO - Vice President Infrastructures and R&D
CIO - Vice President Infrastructures and R&D
Monica Jiman
COO - Vice President Business Development
COO - Vice President Business Development
Alexandra Mondanel
International Operations Officer
Relying on partnership in diverse geographical, economical and cultural environments is the best way to sustain a strategy based on strong growth and international expansion.
Hélène Hemery
Marketing Manager
Marketing Manager
Sophie Lelarge
WW Sales and BL Director
WW Sales and BL Director
Pierre Peutin
Head of Business Line for Information Systems
Head of Business Line for Information Systems
Mickaël Hiver
Head of Business Lines for Embedded Systems & BPO
Head of Business Lines for Embedded Systems & BPO
Eric Gouin
Administrator
Administrator
Aleth Delcenserie
Quality Manager
Men accept change only when needed and they see need only in crisis", Jean Monnet, founding father of European unity.
Tuan Nguyenquoc
Office Manager Hanoi
A Vietnamese proverb says "When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree". Here, each employee takes part in growing the company and enjoys its fruit.
Frédéric Lasnier Title: President&Chief Executive Officer Bio: After a quick passage in a national marketing service company, Frederic Lasnier founded Pentalog with four colleagues, academics like himself. During a period of economic stagnation (in 1993).
In 1995, he decided to open permanently the capital of Pentalog to the participation of his employees. This participation now has reached 56%. It was a political vision that he shared with the founding members. Starting from 1997, Pentalog exported their first services outside of France. The percentage of foreign activities subsequently reached 60% in 2006.
In 1999, as part of a large software project (10 000 man-days in J2EE), he made his first trip to Romania and laid the foundation for the Pentalog policy of European "low cost". In 2005, he initiated the creation of BPO services (Business Process Outsourcing) and offered a New Business Model to Pentalog High Tech.
In 2006, with the help of Ausy, one of the 5 most important players in the French market of outsourced R&D services, he created Pentalog Technology, a joint venture between Ausy and Pentalog, co-owned equally by the two partners. The Joint Venture aims to provide low cost but high quality R & D to global players. Pentalog took operational control of this alliance.
In 2008, Pentalog Deutschland, the German subsidiary of the group was created.
In 2009, Frederic created Pentalog Vietnam.
In all these areas, the management is provided from Orleans and it is here where 70% of the consolidated value is held.
Frederic is the father of the adaptation of the "design to cost" for intellectual services in France.
Aymeric Libeau Title: CIO - Vice President Infrastructure & R&D Bio: The management of infrastructure and R&D Aymeric is supervising includes all the technical aspects (for the company as well as for our customers), whether they are related to corporate needs, resources to complete a project, R&D activities or quality control.
Aymeric is the one who defines the strategy of development of our infrastructure and information system.
This former peacekeeper has led several international operations, in particular in Eastern Europe. He remains operational for some of our customers, whether as an expert in architecture, a project director or consultant in the choice of technologies.
Monica Jiman Title: COO - Vice President Business Development Bio: Monica graduated in Marketing and Production from the University of
Orleans, and joined Pentalog as a trainee.
She then became the Manager of the branch office in Bucharest, today employing 50 people in the field of outsourced software development on the offshore as well as local market in Romania.
In May 2009 she became Chief Operational Officer. Monica is now in charge of operations in Vietnam, Eastern Europe, France and Germany, involving over 300 employees. She manages sales and business lines, the creation of new branch offices, recruitment, human resources and the responsibility of contractual operations.
Alexandra Mondanel Title: International Operations Officer Bio: After a 4-month internship within the Pentalog Orleans Team, Alexandra was recruited to develop the company's international activities. She holds a postgraduate degree in International Business and foreign languages and she is European to the core: her mother is German and her father is French; she attended a British University, and used to work for the German subsidiary of a French company before joining Pentalog in 2005. Her ability to speak four languages will be determining to find partners all accross Europe.
Sophie Lelarge Title: WW Sales and BL Director Bio: Sophie is the group's Sales Director and manages the 3 Business Lines: Information Systems, Embedded Systems and BPO.
She ensures the dialogue with consultants and project managers, as well as the monitoring of our commitments, in coordination with the project managers.
Pierre Peutin Title: Head of Business Line for Information Systems Bio: Pierre entered Pentalog as a developer, in 1999. He has worked on web and client/servers projects, on missions of medium and long duration in both France and Belgium. After several years as a developer, Pierre oriented himself towards Business Intelligence by participating in various reporting projects for customers like PSA Peugeot Citroën, Loxam or the ACTICALL group. Later, Pierre became Project Leader for specific application developments, managing teams of 1 to 7 people based in France and offshore for Pentalog. Pierre then naturally served as an offshore Project Director before taking on the responsibility of the Business Line for Information Systems.
Pierre is presently responsible for writing business proposals, monitoring existing customers, commitment control vis-à-vis our customers on projects, compliance with Pentalog quality system procedures and control and optimization of expenses for the Business Line.
Mickaël Hiver Title: Head of Business Lines for Embedded Systems & BPO Bio: Mickaël entered Pentalog as a Network Administrator in February 1997 with the aim to gain global understanding of information technology in order to assist and guide users in meeting their real needs. For 8 years he was an in-house producer for Pentalog clients. With his acquired experience, Mickaël progressively left production to become first a Project Manager, then Project Director and finally the Head of Business Lines for Embedded Systems & BPO.
Mickaël is a hands-on and open person, with an acute sense of organization and priorities. Through his assistance and counseling he gives his clients and prospective clients the opportunity to focus calmly on their actual core business.
Eric Gouin Title: Administrator Bio: Eric graduated from a renown school of Physics and Chemistry in Paris. While he was a student he used to develop websites related to his student activities.
After two research internships within a French company producing mobile phone components in the Sophia-Antipolis Technopole, he joined the IT world in which he held several key positions.
He now is a finance and management control consultant.
Aleth Delcenserie Title: Quality Manager Bio: Associate-founder of Pentalog and board member, Aleth Delcenserie first evolved in the graphics department of the company. Gifted with a strong sense of organization and a taste for detail, she conducted with rigorous methodology publishing projects and electronic media for over ten years, and launched the Pentalog BPO-DTP sector at the end of 2005.
From September 2007, Aleth has been responsible for the definition and for the implementation of the Pentalog Quality Policy, leading to the ISO 9001:2008 certification of the group, on December 24, 2008.
As the Director of Quality Control, Aleth is now based in Moldova since 1 January 2009, where she now shares her time between coaching project managers in implementing effectiveness control and the progress of Pentalog Quality.
Tuan Nguyenquoc Title: Office Manager Hanoi Bio: Tuan holds a Master's Degree in Information Systems and New Technologies from the Paris-Dauphine University, and gained some professional experience in France before returning to Vietnam to start his offshore adventure. He became a team leader in a Datawarehouse deployment project in Africa for a telecom provider, and witnessed violent riots in Kinshasa during a couple of days.
Following this project, Tuan turned to a Marcom position as the offshore business development manager of a big Vietnamese IT services company.
While reading the Pentalog blog Tuan became acquainted with Frederic and they met during Frederic's first visit in Vietnam. He was immediately convinced by Pentalog's business model and now manages the development of the first Pentalog office in Vietnam.
Pentalog Labbs: “Social networking is a key element of the cloud computing era”
Only a few days ago I was talking to you about the M2M solution that Pentalog intends to put on the market soon and that will join Pentalog’s “cloud” of solutions in order to meet the needs of tomorrow’s economic players.
Among the array of projects deployed in the lab, there is a project which is apparently less avant-garde because it focuses on social networks. Out of thousands of existing projects, wasn’t there a single one that could draw Pentalog’s attention?! In fact, Pentalog wishes to start from the basic structure of an open source platform and initiate a process of reflexion that can lead to different versions of the social network concept. We are going to push this concept towards such fields as skills management, recruitment, market places, helpdesk, crowd sourcing, front-back office relationship etc. I don’t know how to express this yet, but let’s just say that we are dreaming of a social network platform that could become a sort of OS of clouds. It could allow for intelligent and context-based communication between systems and users and it could also enable users to have general functions aimed at finding help quickly, all of this in a natural language and within a very simple interface. Moreover, I have a long-standing belief that social networks are the true market places of online services and that it is the latter that should become the providers of the former. But for that they need semi-plug&play solutions, a field in which Facebook, which is leading the world market, is truly king. Nevertheless, in the era of the cloud, not all service providers will resort to Facebook in order to build their user community; some will want to build exclusive communities while others will want their own community… which will be partially open to Facebook and Google, though.
We have therefore opened an R&D operation dedicated to social networks in the lab. Like for M2M, we already have two early adopter projects which, although they won’t revolutionize the field, will help place Pentalog among the players on this market. The Hanoi site has been chosen to carry out the RS platforms, as well as the web services that will enable providers to present their offers in the best places possible, in corners, groups… you may call them as you like.
This project will prove the intellectual force of an R&D solution based in two emerging countries, like Romania and Vietnam. The origin of these projects (Vrotnamia ) will make the difference in comparison with West European and Californian competitors and will also help reduce costs, which will undoubtedly increase agility during the design phases. I am particularly optimistic about the feasibility of this choice when each day I notice the amazing dynamism of Social Networking in these countries.
Elaborate your Offshore project with the European leader in Offshore Outsourcing!
Tuan and I just returned from a long weekend in Singapore. Our mission was simple: launch a first approach into the Asian nearshore market for our Vietnamese subsidiary. I would like to note, however, that we didn’t see many companies and we are not about to make a quick decision on this matter. We have time and presently I am speaking only in terms of an exploratory approach. We will also soon go to Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei.
I had never been to Singapore and Tuan neither. Our impression is rather unclear. Is this truly Asia? This 100% English speaking population, this ultra clean city, incredibly monitored, with a crime rate near 0 confuses us, both in the same way, despite our differences.
Singapore is also an amazing construction site, worthy of the Kings of France or the Pharaohs of Egypt – I am thinking about the Sands Casino (the same as The Sands of Las Vegas) which is absolutely amazing – and the incredible density of skyscrapers. But something else surprised me. There is no trace of an embarrassing construction site. No mud behind the trucks, no piles of construction materials. Professionalism is the rule everywhere. This is remarkable and almost oppressive.
I would like to revisit Singapore with an architect and an urban planner to better understand how it works, how traffic can be so smooth, despite the incredible population density. But also to understand how the air can be also so breathable in a place so close to the equator and so populated. I could not help thinking of Voltaire… Singapore… is this, the place, of an enlightened dictatorship advocated by the French philosopher? In any case, what is certain is that Singaporeans do not want to change anything, especially not the political system. It is very surprising because we also visited an IT exposition where we were faced with the behaviour of people displaying collective madness, with people creating an ambiance of excitement, singing or screaming the prices, spontaneous auctions, and promotional papers thrown around the aisles of the show. In any case… this is Asia.
Elaborate your Offshore project with the European leader in Offshore Outsourcing!
I do not do this often… here is a Facebook message I wrote a few days ago.
Something else is surprising me: francophony! Over 50% of our Hanoi team now speak French! And 8 of them have studied in France: Paris Dauphine, ENST Paris, Paris 6 (Pierre et Marie Curie), Paris 7, Toulouse… The result: 0% failure since the creation of Pentalog Vietnam!
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.
The difficult issue of wages in an international ITO group
Pentalog is now working in 5 countries, which have different levels of practices and types of wage scales. Thus, in addition to the question of salaries, there is a genuine “large difference” between the gross annual salary in France and the salary in Vietnam which is very complex, incorporating a premium (bonus) of the New Year, which can change the monthly salary, from 1 to 3 or 4 times because of the additional earnings.
In Romania and Moldova, with patience, we succeeded, like most businesses, to impose a contractual gross wage scale. The constant changes of taxes and social charges have condemned our ability to establish fixed net wage scales.
The average remuneration scale in these 5 countries are very different, we should not hide this fact. A German company will pay a higher gross salary than that of a French company… but the net earnings are very similar, because of the impressive tax system in Germany. The Romanian wage scale varies greatly from what is established in the capital, to the different parts of the country, also if the employee has a specialty occupation or exceptional training using a specialty tool or program, if he is a junior or senior, and or if he acts as a consultant or is an “in house” employee. Thus, a BO developer in Bucharest, familiar with a leading business sector and after 7 to 8 years of experience will have a gross salary which would astonish a recruiter in Paris. I think I can say, in this case, the senior employee, working in direct interaction with customers, will reach a high pay scale equivalent to those of a provincial French city and often, could even reach the equivalent salary of Paris. In contrast, an unexperienced tester in a provincial town in Romania will make 10 to 15 times less. In Romania, in terms of what is happening in most other offshore countries there is this amazing difference between junior and senior employees, who are not in France, land of the minimum wages which have been contractually established. Thus, a German novice will often be paid less than his French counterpart, but his earnings will grow faster.
Furthermore, depending on the maturity of the IT market of each country, inflation operates differently. The offshore business may be defined as the science of differences, the companies most confident of their production model and project management are going to target these countries where new companies are coming into this sector and who will try to make rapid productivity gains. After an investment period of one or two years, they will seek to achieve the highest profitability. The consequence is obviously that the growth earning rate, will reach higher levels of profitability much faster than in countries with a high degree of maturity and where productivity gains are lower. For example, Pentalog knew very well, when it established itself in Vietnam that the wages would grow a little quicker than in Romania and even in Moldova. In contrast, as Vietnam “grew” very quickly, the interest in this country became more important in the minds of IT decision makers. The risk appears when, for marketing reasons (Romania during 2005-2007), or demographic (Ukraine-Moldova at the present time – emigration of the workforce), wages increase without being compensated with an increase in productivity.
This article is meant to reflect on the complex strategy phases of our company and in determining its fiscal policy. The crisis has shown us in 2009, with our 50% organic growth and our profitability in double digits, that Pentalog has made the right decisions. A profitable business is able to invest in its growth, in productivity gains and market share, when most others are in recession… which, in a service industry, often results in large economic losses and therefore, in productivity.
Pentalog can not build a unique wage budget model. However, we should seek to get closer to it, to facilitate the movement and adjustments in a group of soon to be 500 people. The concept of remuneration based on productivity and employee satisfaction should be the same everywhere. It remains to better integrate the issue of the Tet (New Year) in Vietnam, not to disqualify it but to integrate it into the Pentalog production card. Indeed, if we apply the same rules in other countries, by adding this supplementary payment this may force us out of a hyper competitive market.
So when my production management in preparing the Business Model for this year, asks me how much the salaries can evolve, I am particularly embarrassed. The future remains very uncertain. Recovery or no recovery? I have always believed in a quick recovery. But where are we in this first step to recovery? I feel the need to improve wages in countries where we are already established. But we must also continue to make good profits in order to invest in our business model, continuing to conduct more training, to seek better productivity gains above the average. Thus we can be more aggressive and continue to win more projects than the competition. The group’s growth has been the engine for everyone, in generating job opportunities. How many Pentalog employees have become executives within the group? How many, in offshore countries, are earning more than 1000 € (over $ 1450)? How many, in these same countries, earn over 2000 €? What does it matter to see wages rise by 20% when it comes to achieving a strong financial personal growth? To increase the salary of an employee when he confirms by his work and his intentions are to become an important element in our company?
I am going to answer the question that was asked of me. With several figures depending on the country. But more than ever, I believe in the remuneration by the effort of everyone who works for the survival and stability of the group and international social community that we comprise. This is the fairest way and most beneficial to everyone and this is ultimately the only common rule that we should adopt.
This is perhaps not the final version, but it is fairly complete. You can compare from last year’s version. This little exercise allows you to have a public record. Let’s say that for 2009, it is good. Pentalog gained more business than it lost. Only the pace of the new business has been slower, affecting the profit margin in 2010 rather than 2009. But we are now certain it will be again in double digits in the first quarter. At first we were a little alarmed by the weight of our first client, even when the eventual growth was reduced. For a moment, we thought it would reach 18-20% of our sales but it was finally reduced to about 13.
This version may still evolve a little before the final release. But for the reader of the blogs and social networking tools, it is normal to give them a sneak preview.
2009 annual report
- 50% growth in sales when the overall performance in IT services is -6%
- N° 1 of the French-speaking IT offshore / nearshore business in France
- N° 1 in Nearshore business in France
- N° 2 on the Romanian IT outsourcing market
- Among the top 10 of European nearshore companies
- EUR 13.5 M in sales
- 458th company in Europe and Middle East for positive growth in 2008, according to Deloitte Technology Fast 500
- double digit profitability ratio, up 50%
- Doubling of the overall profit margin
- Opening the Pentalog Vietnam offices in February, with over 40 employees in December
- First operations in digital television
- Rate of time & material operations reduced to 10% of the productive workforce in December
- 60% of actual sales came from competency divisions (in multi-year contracts), 20% in time & material, 10% in consulting, 10% fixed price.
- 80% of production staff is evaluated on a daily basis, using 25 to 40 criteria points
- Progressive deployment of production metrics on projects
- EUR 0,6 million spent on training
- 32 people trained on project management this year
- 169 people trained on quality awareness
- 152 people trained in French and English
- 541 people were trained (that is to say 100% of the permanent staff, + 100% of those in the Pentalog incubator)
- 77% for overall customer satisfaction (75% corresponding to “very good” and 85% “excellent”)
- Too low an index of internal satisfaction: 61% (66% = good and 50% = fair)
- The overall number rose from 290 to 430 employees
- 100 people were recruited in Romania and Moldova
- Specializing in Telecom: 40 engineer for ST-Ericsson mobile platforms (lower layers), 15 people for LHS-Ericsson billing system, 8 people in internet services for CityVox (Orange group), 3 BI consultants for Orange Romania, 6 people for the management of web services for Nordnet (Orange Group, web access control, management services and equipment).
- 26% of our Sales were signed outside of France (30% of foreign sales in Romania, 40% in Germany and 30% in Switzerland, Austria and Moldova).
- 128% German revenue growth to EUR 1.6 million
- 65 000 hits per month on Pentalog sites up till year end or 2200 hits / day! This figure does not include videos on web sharing sites
- 50 000 downloaded catalogs – Offshore prices for Pentalog services in Europe
- 12 new customers monthly
- Dependency ratio: the first customer represents 13.6% of sales. This figure is rising.
We have just finished moving our Hanoi branch office into their new premises. Having reached our initial objectives, it was necessary to acquire a larger production site in order to allow for future growth. This new office is located 200m from our previous location.
Moving branch offices is always critical. We must lose the minimum in production downtime and maintain the same level of efficiency as at the previous office. The established process has already proven successful over the past 15 months: 3 branch offices have more than doubled the production area each time, with an increased workforce of more than 200 people in total. The Iasi branch will once again move in January. It’s always a competition for the branch manager and IT department to keep the delay between the decision making process and the move as short as possible. Presently the delay is on an average 3 months (including finding new premises). The professionalism of this process is essential to ensure a good result: a new operational office, Monday morning after having “stopped” on Friday afternoon.
On Friday, all activity stops so that everyone can start gathering their things and putting them into boxes. The infrastructure team dismantles the network elements to be re-established immediately in the new offices. The internet access for our business is the most critical element after electrical power (which is validated when choosing the new premises). This validation always precedes moving. This was done Friday night with the remote intervention of the IT team in Europe. The move would then continue the following day.
With the short distance between the two offices, we decided to make this move in the “Vietnamese” manner. We therefore called on 20 people (50% less than a truck) to move all our furniture, chairs and other things. It was the IT team who took care of loading the car and moving our equipment. The move proceeded smoothly, without any hitches, and without any surprises. Saturday evening, all the furniture was in place, the machines were checked.
Sunday was spent completing all the finishing touches: telephones, cleaning, storage of personal belongings, mounting the dedicated hardware for customer service in our server room (expanded to support the VOD project test materials). The new branch offices was now ready for Monday morning to start production as if the premises has not changed. This new office still has an area of approximately 200m ² to be fitted out.
Of course, the success of this new move would not have been possible without the preparations of Tuan (branch office Director) and Tanguy (IT) with the help of Thinh (recently recruited). Also, I cannot forget to thank the girls (Tinh Hai, Kim-Anh, Nhung) who helped put the finishing touches on the offices.
In the coming days, Tuan will make a video presentation of his new branch office. Let me give you just a quick overview of the new premises.
January 08, it will be the turn for the Iasi branch to move, and Greg is almost ready to start the move into the new facilities. The success of this move is unavoidable!
It is clear where Pentalog has made the difference in comparison to the competition, it is by proposing, in addition to its software maintenance services (which everyone proposes), specialized offshore R & D. Our clients have entrusted us with at least 50% of their software development, in addition to their maintenance.
This has led frequently to several other business models and lots of creativity… Today, after having helped in the start-up of PeopleCentric, and including participating in the development of many other new products / concepts / solutions, we have noted that we have been missing something essential, a true innovation unit, which would help to improve and professionalize our services like what we have brought to PeopleCentric. Raluca has indeed benefited from the operational support of Eric and Monica, who also participated in the definition of the initial strategy. Similarly, I was able to help her find her a very talented person to become her French associate director.
In contrast, Pentalog has not yet been able to play the role of technological innovator that it could have expected to become. It has only been associated in the “realization”.
For this reason we are preparing to launch an incubator program that would create an innovation team that could actually be called Pentalog Labs (but we’re still open for a choice of names).
Concerning our incubator strategy: Yes, we are preparing to unveil a program included in the 30-2013 plan, which will include the acquisition of equity for Pentalog in start-up enterprises. Along with the first dossier of People Centric, we will address the needs of the software world and information technology. They will be in the world of social networking, recruitment, skill assessment and management, but also production management and software productivity.
I would like to appeal to all my Pentalog counterparts for ideas. We will qualify their ideas, evaluate them, and we will provide the means for development, management and marketing. In the future, we will help them find the appropriate financing for the development of their ideas and their businesses.
Similarly, we will call on people outside of the group, interested by an investment in their business through providing engineering capital. We envision three possible poles to host the Pentalog incubator: France (Orleans), Romania (Brasov and or Iasi) and Vietnam (Hanoi).
About Pentalog Labs: it will have at the starting point a group consisting of a financial advisor, a professional marketing, the Pentalog Chief Data Base Officer and Chief Software Architect Officer, the Network Guru Officer and one or two talented analysts. The headquarters will probably be in Romania, in Brasov or Iasi. I like the idea of Brasov, except for what continues to bother me is the damn problem of accessibility. But I love the environment and I hope this team can regularly enjoy the lovely countryside. Being chased by a bear regularly keeps you close to the realities of life Brasov is the logical place to create a Romanian Silicon Valley. It’s a shame there is still no airport to easily get to this magnificent city! This team will be there to offer the support to any truly innovative idea, whether from customers or from the group. It is under the direct responsibility of Aymeric, but it is possible that I will take an active role also in it.
… survived the frenzied, dantesque, terrifying traffic of Hanoi. The first confrontation is frightening; one is paralyzed when seeing this steady stream of motorcycles in front of you. Impenetrable, insurmountable, and certainly not linear and spread out: everyone changes lanes or direction about 200 times per kilometer and keeps preferably to the right, just before turning left and crossing the complete flow of traffic. Or vice versa.
Sometimes at night on a one way street 30 m wide, fully occupied, you will find a bike with no lights going down the street the wrong way, nothing out of the ordinary; he just saved himself 500 m doing so. Signal lights are unknown.
The favorite vehicle is the super bike of local production, perfectly suited to its environment. Two or three brands share the market, but THE MUST is actually the Honda Wave (97 cm3, 4 stroke, a great gearbox without a clutch).
Wave or not, all these bikes are perfectly quiet (too bad we don’t have the
same in France!), they do not give off any exhaust fumes and are built to last forever. It must be said that motorbike pooling is widely practiced here, up to two adults and three children on the same bike. One can just as easily carry a 123 cm television not attached to the carrier or 50 live ducks. Scooters are also making inroads, especially amongst the girls.
If there were only 2 wheels vehicles, everything could be understood. But there are also the cars, more and more of them. And not just small ones, particularly in the better neighborhoods! In principle, the Hanoi driver does not tolerate anyone in front of him, motorcycle or car. So he honks almost continuously to clear the passage. Totally spent after 10,000 kilometers, the horn must be changed every oil change, along with the oil filter.
But you will mostly likely say to me, that such a way to drive is incompatible with what we know of the Vietnamese State, we would assume that they would make everyone go in the right direction and quietly! That is without knowing this proud people who advance whatever happens, all in the same direction, but each in his own way!
Days pass. You take a taxi four times a day, and then you walk; you begin to dare to cross the stream of traffic, putting at risk your life. Perhaps you make a trip on the back seat of a motorcycle, putting in danger again… And then things become more and more understandable, the monster becomes less threatening, all these motorcyclists are applying the same rule, a totally opportunistic way of driving, each person takes immediate possession of whatever space is being liberated in front of him, left or right. This asynchronous behavior that optimizes time and road space is possible. And no sign of aggression in all of this, just an obsession to win some time, so important to these people who never stop…
And I’m starting to dream. A dream of a less civilized western world, with fewer rules,
fewer prohibitions and obligations. Fewer radars. A world where we could drive more spontaneously, take more advantage of the moment, more in tune with the traffic and the weather. But I know that those looking after us are watching, and will give nothing.
Well my boy, maybe I’ll immigrate to Vietnam after all? But as long as they do not make me eat dog or cobra on the floor! Definitely not that!
During my trip to Hanoi, to set up with Iulia a development team for the ISD, I took the opportunity to visit a new “open” Datacenter. As I explained in a previous post, our network strategy is to deploy a regional strategic point in an open Datacenter to have greater flexibility.
Indeed, we have to consider that a growing branch will expand every 12 to 16 months. This expansion implies moving. If we were obliged to move systematically the international links, it would increase significantly the budget of the expansion. The strategy is to “freeze” the international linkages that allow us to control our quality service throughout. Then, the links between the data center and regional branches are more accessible and less expensive to move.
In preparation for a potential opening of a second branch in Vietnam (Da Nang, Hue or Ho Chi Minh City) I went to visit this Datacenter on the outskirts of Hanoi and close to our branch office. I have already had the opportunity to visit several data centers in France and Romania. But I confess that I was impressed by the level of this one:
- External and internal access control 24H/day
- Video surveillance circuit of 70 cameras
- Double power supply but only one national provider
- Double generator set with 72 hours of autonomy
- Double UPS circuit with 20 min of autonomy
- Operator hosting room (currently 6)
- Bay hosting space of 500 m²
- Additional services: data recovery room, rollout room…
I was very impressed by the services made redundant, as well as the environmental quality and technical skills of the interlocutors. There are not many hosting possibilities available at this level in Hanoi, certainly a bit more in Ho Chi Minh City.
The strength of this type of this hosting service is the presence of many operators who will be able to ensure the necessary interconnections. For that provider it is still low. Most rely mostly on the capacity of NTT (the historical Japanese operator) who have invested also in the Datacenter sector.
Our project is progressing. It will be achieved when we have completed our search for international operators and we have sufficient bandwidth for our services. We also need to negotiate the best rates possible and therefore we are playing the game of competition between the different operators.
Prices are changing rapidly. We are presently negotiating with our two current operators to double our bandwidth for the same rate.
Pentalog is the only company to offer a catalog of its ongoing services in euros and dollars, updated 2 times per year.
Find nearly 130 services, available locally or offshore: developing information systems, business intelligence services, embedded systems, infrastructure, networking, telecom, outsourcing, hosting, BPO – business process outsourcing, …
Download it, save it and distribute it around you!
As Tuan mentioned in his last post, we had a very busy week in Hanoi. We participated in several events which were divided between Frederic, Tuan, Guy and I.
I will dwell mainly on the Vietnam Comm Exhibition and the Vietnam Electronics 2009, the largest Vietnamese ICT exhibition and our first participation in an Asian trade show. I assure you it was an interesting experience, first of all from a point of view of the animation and atmosphere.
The day before the opening, I participated with Tuan in a group meeting with the VNPT (Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group), organized by Ubifrance. It was an opportunity to present Pentalog, our dynamic growth, and especially our presence in Vietnam. Our Vietnamese counterparts showed a strong interest and possibly this will be an opening towards future partnerships. At the end, the traditional exchange of gifts, a local custom can not be overlooked.
Not to deny our French roots, the Pentalog stand found its place in the French Pavilion, hosted for the first time by Ubifrance.
The presence at the Pentalog stand was assured by Tuan, our Branch Director in Hanoi, Frederic, Kim-Anh, Mai and I. The visit of French officials and Mr. Ambassador Herve Bolot (former Ambassador of France in Romania), gave me opportunity to exchange a few phrases in Romanian.
Even if we had a very good location, we had to deal with a few organizational problems, mainly due to the incredible noise made by the Telecom operators. Being accustomed to a more sober and reserved style, the games, contests and entertainment, with its background noise certainly not taking into account the other exhibitors, surprised us in a negative manner.
In terms of meetings, we meet very few qualified visitors. The most interesting discussions we had were with the contacts we already knew before the show. Most appointments made at the stand did not come through. But I will not forget the interesting meetings organized by Ubifrance with Canal Overseas and Calyon.
On the other hand, meetings with other exhibitors opened a few doors for business opportunities. I am reminded here of Orange (a very interesting presentation on their tele-conference solution), Sagem Com HTTV, Infoterra Hit Value, SAP, and the last but not the least interesting, Noema.
I must not forget to say a few words about the evening Gala. It was a moment that reminded me of memories “deja vue” of a past regime.
In conclusion, we were able to make our presence felt and our involvement in French events (I speak here of Ubifrance) and prove that French investments and French interests in this area are very strong and supported by all the officials.
Next year the exhibition will be held in the city of HCM. And who knows, maybe our presence will mark the opening of another Branch office.
After the visit of the French Prime Minister in which Fred was a part of the official delegation, we had yet another busy week participating in the Vietnam Comm 2009 exhibition; meeting of businesses and graduates organized by the French Embassy, the inauguration of the IMAGINE-IT Center at the Polytechnic school of Hanoi and recruitment simulation interviews held at the PFIEV. Pentalog participates with enthusiasm at every opportunity in these French speaking programs which are increasing in Vietnam.
Thursday night we hosted a dinner to celebrate, “unofficially” the first year of Pentalog in Vietnam (I think it will be about December 31 that we will really celebrate, when moving into our new offices). Pentalog Vietnam today has: 40 employees, 4 active project platforms, the delivered quality level is now approaching the level of our Romanian / Moldovan colleagues, especially from a development perspective this is very promising for 2010 and not only for offshore (Fred will explain this in more detail).
What is extraordinary is to see how Pentalog is being recognized in Vietnam, and after only such a short period of time. Using tools such as the website, blog, social networks, and mailing list, in which we are extremely active and transparent in our communication vis-a-vis our customers, our partners, our employees, our future partners and our friends. People “external” to our company are informed almost at the same time as we are about the company’s activities. We maintain very few “secrets” for ourselves, everyone through our communications can already know 60% -70% of what is happening. I think, personally, it is difficult to find any other company that shares the same level of published information. I had confidence in our business model even before I met with Fred, and applied for a position in this Pentalog adventure which I learned about through this blog.
At the Vietnam Comm exhibition, without being put in touch with anyone, a man came up to me asking “You are Tuấn of Pentalog? I know who you are because I read your blog. There is no need to say more about how much pleasure this gave all of us at this time. This man is finally a Viet Kieu from France who has worked in Romania and trained some of our employees before they joined Pentalog to participate in our most important embedded development platform in the Telecom field. He is in Vietnam working on projects which can eventually lead us to work together one day.
Pentalog will register a growth of 25% minimum in Q4
As expected the fourth quarter of 2009 stalled in terms of pace but accelerated in October, with a number of new signatures which had an immediate impact in terms of sales. The previous estimated growth for the fourth quarter was moving in the range of 10 to 15 points.
In the last two weeks of October, Pentalog has registered € 4M in orders, composed of approximately one quarter of new biz and 75% extensions or renewals. In France, the new signatures were with Anevia in the sector of video on demand and Look Voyages in the tourism industry. A test is also underway with a very prestigious Swiss company.
In Romania, the orders of People Centric (a close partner with the Pentalog Group, based in Bucharest) has increased, while the company Arcforce, in the interim, chose Pentalog to host its infrastructure.
With regard to renewals and extensions, they concern Altadis Imperial Tobacco in France, which should become our second largest group customer this year, LHS Ericsson in Germany has renewed its confidence and extended its collaboration, requiring the participation of nearly 20 new Pentalog employees. Our client NordNet (Orange group), signed in the early 3Q 2009 confirming and also extending its orders. No new defections or reduced budgets have been recorded during this quarter. The final figure, and with the accumulated growth of 2009, is expected to be around 50%, the final figures will be available in late January 2010.
The foundation is now set for the beginning of 2010 and it is in net progression. After long consideration that the growth of Q1 and Q2 of 2010 would be spread out, it is now more likely that it will end with a positive change, well into the double figures. The Vietnam site, with over 40 employees, now represents 4% of the group’s production, or 16.6% of Pentalog’s growth in the Q4.
I just returned from a 2 weeks trip to our Hanoi office with Iulia, the head of the software team of our IS department, where we established a new development team for the Pentalog information system. Frederic has already discussed this project in past blogs, I would like to give you a few extra details.
We have reached the third stage in the cycle of our information system. For each of these steps we PRIORITIZE the means & resources as follows:
1. Implementation: Infrastructure, Applications, and Service
2. Development: Applications, Infrastructure, and Service
3. Maturity: Services, Applications, and Infrastructure
This translates in fact into the following:
• The establishment of a more detailed data collection service that the ISD will put at the disposial of its users.
• Better communication services through newsletters.
• Paying more attention to our users by adding new communication channels including satisfaction surveys (4 per year).
• The establishment of skilled professional committees dedicated to monitoring internal projects and a strategic steering committee.
• The deployment of a permanent team for software department.
We arrived at this information system, first with temporary resources (bench time, incubator…). Only maintenance and the software helpdesk were given permanent resources. With our continued growth and the opportunities it has brought, it was time to improve and professionalize the software department. Since this summer and with the confirmation of Iulia to this position we launched this project to establish a development team in our Hanoi branch.
In 2010 the team with will have gone through 3 stages of development. We finished the first stage with the deployment of a team composed of:
- Cuang, the team leader
- Hieu, the .Net developer
- Nhu, the tester
- Quang, the PHP developer
- Yoann, the BPM developer
Eventually the team will need to increase to 10 or more people in order to meet our growing needs for our internal / external communication tools, tools related to management (production, finance) and our production (improvement of the eco-system of the development environment). The help-desk software, business intelligence cell and management will remain in Europe.
The direct consequence of this change is the working language will pass from French to English. So gradually the content of our documents, in the wikis and other tools will gradually switch to English. However, Yoann will represent the French speaking people in this team.
As with all outsourcing projects, we dedicated these past 2 weeks in Hanoi training the team in our practices, needs and their evaluation. After a few days back home, I must confess that I am not disappointed with the way it was conducted nor the level of the people we recruited. Through Cuong, Hieu Nhu Quang and Yoann, we have a solid foundation which will enable us maintain the right balance between the ISD and the company’s objectives.
It is with all the experience that we have gained in past projects for our clients that we can now deploy this project. The pitfalls are well known:
• Communication: it exists through technical discussions, weekly follow-up meetings and a monthly steering committee.
• Proximity Management: Cuong, the team leader is responsible for meeting the demands and the quality deliveries and improving team performance.
• Human relations: we repeat this constantly to our customers, that these relationships are essential in order to maintain the team cohesion in the project despite the distance. Three or four times a year, Iulia and / or I will make on-site visits for an update of ongoing projects and new projects. It will also be necessary to maintain better visibility in the future.
• Mastering start-ups: everything that can be deployed at the beginning of the project will help development further down the road. So we deployed from the beginning, our development processes and maintenance (those applicable to the customers and certified ISO 9001-2008).
• Precise Methodology: our recent successes in the deployment of the agile method encouraged us to implement this methodology for this team. This will allow us to have a faster understanding of their needs.
• Monitoring individual performance: we are building a basic work unit for our technological environment. Producers and managers thus will have a benchmark to measure performance and the progress of everyone.
The recruitment for the second phase has already begun and it will be completed at the end of December. After the integration of these newcomers, we will begin the third phase after the Tet festival (feast & traditional family event, which is much awaited). Obviously, these recruitments have been orchestrated by People-Centric from their Hanoi branch. The process also worked there, and the results are there to prove it.
We could not complete this project without sharing a friendly dinner together. So we went to the “Highway 4 (exotic specialty restaurant) instead of the snake restaurant (Iulia promised to go there next time). We really had a good time around dishes of grasshoppers, shrimp and other delicious exotic dishes.
This team, under the responsibility of Iulia already knows that its production will help support the company in regards to meeting its objectives. The challenge is enormous but accessible!
The Hanoi team has been on the Ubifrance booth (nb. 1A41) of the Vietnam Comm trade show for a couple of days, lasting until 21 November. It is the biggest ICT fair in Vietnam, with 180 exhibitors from 17 countries.
Tuan, Monica, we are looking forward to reading more details and seeing pictures!
Hanoi, Thursday afternoon of last week, I joined the official delegation of Francois Fillon. To start of with, we naturally went by the embassy where the “delegate” badge had its effect. Later that day we went to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning. This gave me the opportunity to point out the incredible leverage that the software industry in Vietnam represents, through appropriate investments (quite modest), when we think that very soon this country will have more than 100 000 engineers in the information technology sector and probably around 500 000 in 20 years. Taking into consideration the true depth of the Franco-Vietnamese relations, this could result in a fabulous working relationship, given the shortage of sustainable engineers in France.
Thursday evening, with a small delegation of only a dozen business owners, I accompanied Mr. Fillon, Mesdames Pecresse and Idrac, Mr. Bussereau to a dinner given by the Prime Minister of Vietnam. I was invited, along with Marwann Lahoud, Director of strategy and marketing and number 2 of EADS, Philippe Favre, Vice President and Director of the International Network of Alstom, Michel Cornil, Chairman of Systra, Bernard Di Tullio, CEO of Technip, and many others of the same category… Impressive!
Friday, we took part in a Franco-Vietnamese forum of entrepreneurs. I would like to make one small observation. The interactivity during this forum was actually quite low and this is regrettable!
I will say little about Friday afternoon and evening, which was spent in relative confusion, and ended in Hue, the ancient and magnificent imperial capital of Vietnam. All that I retain from this evening was that I spent it in the Airbus of the ministerial delegation, along with… a lot of champagne. I talked with Mangeard Philip, Vice President of Ubifrance, a patented serial entrepreneur (Modalohr, Unik Media Sesit, Expert au Carre…)! We did not leave the company of each other until Saturday evening. I would absolutely like to do this again! But let’s forget about this Saturday afternoon, that posterity will probably remember less than we do…
Saturday, a fantastic visit to Hue in the company of a small delegation with François Fillon, Anne Marie Idrac and other entrepreneurs. I had the opportunity to meet an incredible, dynamic entrepreneur, Alain Glon, 68 years old, and 80 factories, 4000 employees in the agro-food industry in France. An exceptional meeting and one that I would like to renew.
Finally, I had a short conversation on the bridge of a boat, with the Prime Minister, over looking the River of Perfumes and we talked about the role that France could play in training and schooling in Vietnam. Thank you, to all those who gave me this opportunity… but I have my small idea!!
) will make the difference in comparison with West European and Californian competitors and will also help reduce costs, which will undoubtedly increase agility during the design phases. I am particularly optimistic about the feasibility of this choice when each day I notice the amazing dynamism of Social Networking in these countries. 
Brasov is the logical place to create a Romanian Silicon Valley. It’s a shame there is still no airport to easily get to this magnificent city! This team will be there to offer the support to any truly innovative idea, whether from customers or from the group. It is under the direct responsibility of Aymeric, but it is possible that I will take an active role also in it. 
