Photo credit: john_a_ward on Flickr
Global IT services are part of a rapidly changing market. Indian IT consulting firms have traditionally operated in English-speaking markets, but the trend seems to be reversing as they set their sights on France. Pierre Audoin Consultants reports that in 2010 the sector grew by 2.2% in France, but by only 1.6% in Germany and 1.4% in the United Kingdom.
Since the US financial crisis hit, Indian companies have essentially been trying to realign their businesses by investing in new markets. France is the world’s fifth largest IT market, which quickly made it a preferred location. “Relatively speaking, France has not been hit that badly by the economic downturn, compared with the UK for example. It’s in times like these that companies look to acquire or consolidate a comparative advantage,” notes Narayana Murthy, Chairman of Infosys. In addition to a robust banking sector, the power of major energy groups and a strong public sector make France a naturally attractive market.
Familiar engineering cultures
To appeal to these clients, Bangalore IT consulting firms have figured out how to adapt to market expectations by developing customized solutions. “We have adapted our services in line with the French market by accounting for linguistic, cultural and business practice differences…” stated Christophe Martinoli, Director in France of Wipro, in the La Tribune (June 29, 2010).
For Suresh Vaswani, Joint CEO of IT Business at Wipro, adapting to French business culture wasn’t difficult because “France and India share a common spirit of innovation through technology and a common culture of engineering.” Wipro shares the same global vision, from its R&D center in Rennes, which opened in 2008, to its headquarters in Bangalore. More importantly, this shared vision is also complementary since France offers a pool of talent and innovation that India used to lack. France is the world’s second largest producer of graduates in science and technology, boasts internationally recognized schools – such as Supélec, Télécom ParisTech and Télécom SudParis – and has no fewer than 45,000 telecommunications researchers. Narayana Murthy is thrilled and readily admits that the French workforce is “probably one of the most productive that we have (…) Bringing French employees into the global fold enables us to learn and to revitalize our own thinking.”
Indian efficiency and French expertise are a feature of the market which is leading to a rise in the number of Indian investments in the sector (15% of all Indian investment sites in France between 2003 and 2009) and new jobs being created: in the last six months, Tata Consulting Services has tripled its workforce in sales and consulting. TCS now employs 150 people in France, compared with 200 at Infosys, 250 at Wipro and 50 at Mindtree.
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