The reason The costs incurred by offshore

Capgemini in India, today is 4,000 employees in Bombay, Bangalore and Calcutta (19,000 in France). But by 2007, this number will be enlarged 6,000 collaborators, to reach the 10,000! The company is present also in Poland, China, Australia and the Mexico, but it is mainly to the India that his gaze is turned. Alone, this country allowed 80 of the offshore group with, essentially, activities of production and management of applications. Last year, the workforce grew is 80 and the Outlook for 2006 is also overdone. "We are currently recruiting approximately 250 people per month, noted Alain Donzeaud, General Secretary of the group.". It is important to be present in India because it is here that a new computer model is emerging. "Strategic, even.

Despite this exponential growth, the objective of Capgemini is not to offshore at any price. Because all the activities do not lend, but also because we must assess the real value of produce thousands of kilometres from Paris.

Many costs

If the average salary of an Indian computer scientist is five times lower that that of a French, at the end of string, the economy carried out is more than 10 to 30 maximum. The reason The costs incurred by offshore. A project led by two teams of country, language and culture different requires more exchanges, generates communication and additional travel expenses. He asks more coordination effort and, therefore, numbers. "We have two French engineers on-site full time, which should facilitate communication and the interface between the French and Indian teams", confirms Gilles Taldu, Director of the Group's production. As a patron of Indian Affairs, he went every month on the spot. In addition, a service centre to be effective, requires investing and continuously improve the process. It also has a cost.

Rather than offshore, Capgemini therefore advocates the "rightshore", i.e. "just outsourcing." A concept which has also appeared at IBM under the name of "bestshore", model "global service delivery" or in Unilog Logica CMG. The principle For each project, it is assessing the best sharing: for example, 40 in India, 20, or 30 in a nearest country (the Spain, the Poland or the Portugal) and the rest in France. The objective is to give the client the best price/proximity balance, taking into account the technical skills, (cultural or other) difficulties and risks. "Here in five or ten years, the SSII realize their software as automakers produce their cars." "By cutting projects in batches and by distributing them to the four corners of the world," observed Richard Peynot, senior analyst at Forrester Research.

A turnover divided by two

This does not require learning to work with cultural and social in each country. In India, this implies an appropriate management and targeted actions. Capgemini implemented in French for the Indians and courses of training seminars aimed at educating international project leaders to cultural differences. Each collaboration translates into exchanges of staff, ranging from one to three months. "Indian integrate teams Western at the start of the projects so that there is a transfer of knowledge and the need for the client are well taken into account," said Jean-Michel Estrade, HRD of Capgemini France. It is a success factor.

Another item to manage: the turnover, true black point in India. The difficulty is not to find good engineers but keep. Could not compete in terms of notoriety with large Indian firms such as Tata and Wipro Technologies, which spontaneously look Indian engineers, Capgemini plays the loyalty card. "We have the training a key element of our human resources in India policy, explains Alain Donzeaud." We wish that our staff are technically, they evolve in the hierarchy. "In short, they are treated in the same way as other employees of the group. Supporting evidence: the pattern of the United States is an Indian and previously headed the Indian subsidiary.

One of the main Indian daily, the 'Hindustan Times', awarded in December 2004 to Capgemini award of the best high-tech company in the management of human resources. But above all, in a year and a half, turnover was divided by two, from 35 to 18.