It’s important to work with partners who share our values.

Pascale Caminade

Secretary-General & Director of Procurements, Areva TA, France

Sogeti is one of the main subcontractors of Areva TA in activities concerning engineering, mechanic, design and the development of complex projects. Our speciality is the design and development of long-term projects in nuclear installations and industry. These projects are very complex from the point of view of global performance and require a high level of reliability.

We have been working with Sogeti for several years, especially in the South of France. The relationship started with RETEC, a company bought by Sogeti two years ago. Initially, it was an ordinary subcontracting relationship, but gradually that moved to a different level when we transferred our contracts to Sogeti High Tech. In talking to their account management team, we became aware of the breadth of Sogeti’s value –  back office and other divisions of the group, their main goals and achievements – and we discovered that Areva TA and Sogeti High Tech had similar characteristics such as added value for the customer, solid skills in high tech and a very strong customer commitment.

Areva TA’s not here for a short-term contract or six-month co-operation to score a quick win, but wants a long-term relationship, based on trust and commitment.

Just like Sogeti. I realized that we could build up a partnership.

I discussed it with a couple of managers within our group, who were looking for partnerships to help develop their business. We made a study of the areas in which Sogeti could be a partner and explored where we could find complementarities between Sogeti and Areva TA. That led to the basis of a plan we are now developing with Sogeti.

Our similar characteristics apart, we found that we complement each other in the field of aeronautics. Sogeti has a long experience and solid skills in that area. And we want to expand our business in this area.

Areva TA is not a specialist in aeronautics, so we need a partner who is extremely solid in this field and who can provide corresponding skills. In this respect, Sogeti High Tech has competences that we don’t have in carbon and in cockpit-design, for instance.

We can learn from their experience and they can bring in another view of the project in terms of the integration of projects and tools, etc.

Another important area for co-operation is the area of nuclear technology; Areva TA is highly skilled in that. We expect that Sogeti, on the basis of their experience and skills, will be a good partner here and they can learn from us as well. So there’s an excellent opportunity to exchange experiences and develop business together, building a strategy from the beginning.

The third point is extremely important. We like to work towards ambitious and continuous improvement goals. Especially with our subcontractors, we want to have honest, clear and respectful relations on a long-term basis. Not only for working together, but also to improve on a range of broader issues. For instance in the domain of current maintenance of our sites, we have developed action for improving our environmental and security performances. That’s exciting, much more than just a basic contract.

With Sogeti, we aim to improve our relationship in subcontracting. We provide a vision of our goals, which helps to define the level of performance that we expect from suppliers. We want to provide our customers and prospects offerings that have a very high level of quality, safety and environmental protection. 

At Areva Group, we have a charter of values, for our stakeholders: staff, customers, suppliers and subcontractors. These values are based on respect for our customers and their values. We want to be able to be true to that. These values have to be shared and lived up to, so that we can offer services, expertise and systems of the highest standard. That means listening to a customer’s needs and problems – be it budget problems, or safety commitments, or the availability of plants and installations. We also have to protect their data and their know-how, particularly as the commercial environment becomes more competitive, more aggressive and more international. That demands trust and discretion. That’s why

it’s important to work with contractors who share our values and who are willing to progress.

With Sogeti, we feel we can build a partnership based on business goals and continuous improvement.

We want to develop our business in aeronautics where Sogeti has experience and we are also convinced that Sogeti can accompany us in developments in nuclear and high tech installation projects. In addition, we want to leverage this partnership in new projects, where we can build from scratch using ‘best practice’. We are now finalizing a draft for this new partnership agreement, together with an action plan to improve the subcontracting procedures.

The new partnership starts with two projects, one in the nuclear field and one in aeronautics. From our side, managers in charge of complex systems, purchasing, quality and continuous improvement, are involved in the set-up. The next step is to determine key actions to be implemented, in order to make progress in a very pragmatic, down-to-earth and structured way. From action plan to implementation, every step will be monitored carefully.

We have high expectations.

The decision-making process and development for projects such as a nuclear installation, take years. To succeed in such long-term projects, you need to make the objectives clear, a strong commitment and the ambition to keep improving within the limitations of reality.

The experience Areva TA and Sogeti bring, together with the quality, innovation, attention to global performance, capacity to solve problems and the standards of excellence of both parties, will provide the partnership with a cutting, competitive edge when it comes to winning new business and to making our clients successful.