You can not do everything alone.

Joaquim Montal

CIO Cofidis, Spain

Cofidis is a financial institution whose mission is to provide personal credit. IT systems are the key to our business. Without IT, nothing can be done. Today, in IT you need to have partnerships, help from different providers that can unlock the added value in each of your IT systems.

We have been working together with Sogeti in a partnership for over three years. Starting with two people, we’ve now grown to 25 people working directly and indirectly with us. We have outsourced to them some IT areas like production, helpdesk and application management.

We are also involved in an interesting evolutionary process to build our financial platform for the future. This new platform will allow us to have more functionality, to tackle more problems, to be faster in the market, to create competitive advantage - which is really necessary because of the strong competition. The new system is being built from scratch by Cofidis Spain and it has to be ready by 2010. Sogeti is helping us in the timing, the implementing and rolling out of this new platform.

The challenge is really tough. In the past, a lot of companies have tried to build all sorts of programs, often without success or without coming to a solution, costing a lot of time and money. Now, we have to build the new platform and, at the same time, maintain the present platform to keep the company growing and achieve our strategic goals.

Overall, we are very happy with the way we are progressing. The objectives are clear, we have internal and external resources with the appropriate knowledge, and our support is very good.

Over the last three, four years, Cofidis Spain has grown by a factor of four, in terms of people and revenue. During that period, we have built a relationship with Sogeti, originally based on simply time and materials, to now really working together and seeing that you can trust each other.

In this relationship,

Cofidis provides the main direction because we know the business we are in and Sogeti helps us with their knowledge of new technologies. To be successful in a big IT evolution process like this, you need a partner who walks side by side with you - not behind you, or in front of you. You have to arrive together, not just your own people, but the providers as well.

When we started, of course, we were very small. For some providers, we were too small. But not for Sogeti. They put forward a proposal that was very good for us. They saw the potential in Cofidis, offered us value for money and a clear way of operating. Now we are growing fast, in a fiercely competitive market. We are side by side with Sogeti, in a win-win situation. They see that we are specialists and we are doing very well. And we never need to stop to think ’why don’t they do this?’ or ‘why haven’t they done that?’. They just deliver. And more than that.   

Sogeti has experience in the financial services sector - banks, insurance companies, businesses that are in some ways similar to us. Sogeti understands our business, our needs and the way we work. That also gives them a broader perspective on the future.

Important for us too is the fact that Sogeti has its roots in France, as Cofidis is a French company, operating in ten European countries. That helps us. To have a provider such as Sogeti that is well established in France means that they really understand Cofidis. They are close to their customers. And with Cofidis’ ambitious program to expand our service centres abroad, Sogeti is well positioned to accompany us. We need power and help from them.    

Sogeti of course don’t have just one skill. They have experience and expertise in a broad range of different technologies. That’s very helpful; there is always an answer or a solution. That results in trust and confidence.

In Spain we say: there are many people selling a bicycle, but Sogeti really delivers, reacting immediately. They have a really good understanding of our capacity and all our ambitions.