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Sopra Steria

Sopra Steria: The Major French Software Consulting Service Company.

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Sopra Steria Group is a France-based software consulting service company, with its service offices established in different parts of the world. With 50 plus years of experience, Sopra Steria has been offering its in-depth knowledge to companies that require software solutions for their growth. The company follows the motto of “Delivering Transformation Together” and has been making means of IT to offer its customers the best possible services. It is known for its IT consulting and management service along with its banking and HR software solutions.

A Brief Introduction

Sopra Steria is a management consulting and software solution firm that deals in three major categories; Sopra Steria Consulting, Sopra Banking Software, and Sopra HR software. The company has clients all over the world and has established dedicated offices in different parts of the globe to assist its international clients better. As of 2020, the recorded company revenue was €4.262 billion. The total number of employees working globally for the company is 46,000. The company’s headquarter is located in Paris, France.

The Foundational Story of Sopra Steria

Sopra Steria is a resultant of the merger of two big IT companies, Sopra and Steria. The merger took place in 2014, before that, Sopra was an independent IT service company founded in 1968. On the other hand, Steria also came into being in 1969, a year after Sopra.

After its inception in 1972, Sopra came with its first banking platform. Eventually, the platform became very popular and helped Sopra make its name in the IT service industry. In 1986, the company won a contract from the French Ministry of the Interior for another major IT project. In 1990, the company was listed on the Paris stock exchange. In the next ten years, Sopra started to expand to other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Italy, and Spain. During the same time, Sopra introduced its new and powerful management software known as EVOLAN suite.

Sopra Steria
Image Source: consultancy.uk

Starting from 2000, the company went on to acquire some of the consulting firms based in different countries to expand its operations. These firms include names like Orga Consultants, Inforsud Ingénierie, Viewlocity, Cyclone Commerce, and Tumbleweed Communications, etc. In 2005, Sopra established its various centers in Europe and India. In the year 2014, Sopra partnered with La Banque Postale to build a new revamped banking software.

The Back History of Steria

Steria as mentioned before was founded a year after Sopra. The company introduced its first software a text processing system in 1973, to enable Agence France-Presse to computerize its all operations. By the year 1981, the company had launched some other software as well including Minitel. With Steria’s automation project, the company entered into the transport and mobility industry in 1987.

In 1994, Steria created a banking system for the French banks to carry out interbank payments. The company entered the Indian market after it acquired the IIS Infotech based in Delhi in 1997. In 1999, Steria went public on the Paris stock exchange. The year 2000 onwards were great for the company as it acquired a few major consulting businesses in France, including Experian, Tecsi, Equip. Its international acquisitions of that time include Mummert Consulting, Newell & Budge, Xansa, and PROFit. Steria, in 2007, won the biggest national project from the French Ministry of Finance.

The Merger

On 8 April 2014, Sopra and Steria announced that they have come together to form the Sopra Steria Group. The two announced that both have joined their hands as they intend to become the European leader in digital services. The merger was completed on 31 December 2014. The deal was the exchange of one Sopra share for four Steria shares, and the group ultimately was called the Sopra Steria Group.

The CEO: Vincent Paris

Vincent Paris is serving as the CEO of Sopra Steria Group. He has a long history with the Sopra Group, as he joined the Sopra Group in 1987, soon after he graduated from the prestigious École Polytechnique. Since then, Paris has served the company in several different leadership positions. Before becoming the CEO of Sopra Steria Group, he handled the important posts of Director of French operations and Deputy CEO of Sopra. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the company for the past ten years.

TCS

TCS: The Indian IT Service Company, One of the Best in the World.

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The beginning of computers and information technology was a time when everybody wanted to get an advantage from it. TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) is one of those companies, which began its journey at the time when the computer had just started to become famous, and after more than 50 years of its inception, TCS has grown as much as the IT industry. From India, it has reached more than 140 countries, where it is helping other companies with their IT problems. TCS is known for its software development work for the banking sector and the development of electronic depositories.

TCS, The Company

TCS  is a multinational IT company, with its headquarter situated in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company is the subsidiary of the famous Tata Group of India. It provides IT services and consulting to its wide range of customers worldwide. TCS, with its innovative ways of working, has become the second-largest Indian company by market capitalization and is always counted among the topmost IT service companies. The Company runs its operations in over 50 countries through its 280 offices as well as has 147 delivery centers in 21 countries. The company has got its name listed in the Forbes and Fortune lists in different categories multiple times.

TCS
Image Source: allvectorlogo.com

Products and Services

The Company provides its services in 67 different categories in IT itself. The company is into software and application development, consulting, business process outsourcing, payment processing, technology education services, asset leverage solutions, cloud infrastructure, enterprise solutions, etc. The company also includes its in-house developed software products named TCS BaNCS and TCS MasterCraft.

The Foundational Story

On 1st April 1968, the already established Tata Sons started TCS as Tata Computer Systems to enter the computer industry and become a part of the IT revolution. At the very beginning, TCS was providing punched card services to Tata’s other subsidiary company TISCO. By 1975, the company started to serve foreign companies, and it developed its first electronic depository and trading system, SECOM, for a Swiss company.

System X from TCS automated the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for a Canadian company. In 1980, TCS founded Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC) in Pune, an institution dedicated to the software research and development process. The company also worked on a high complexity project, an end-to-end advanced system to manage customer relationships, for Western Trust and Savings Limited (WTSL). This project provided enough experience to the company for handling much tougher projects. The next year, TCS established India’s first client-dedicated offshore development center.

TCS in 1982 came with its flagship product, the Advanced Data Dictionary (ADDICT), a repository for storing project information to make the users understand the design of an entire project and its processes. In 1984, TCS launched the Falcon (Fast Access Local Computer Network).

In 1987, the company established the IBM mainframe Center of Excellence in Madras and also introduced a software engineering tool named Casepac for IBM Mainframes. CAD also came into existence during the same time, which led TCS to step into the engineering software services.

In 1988, TCS launched multiple software products, including Masterkey suite, PRISM, and Integrated Standard Banking System. TCS bagged a project worth $10 million from the Swiss Security Clearing Corporation (SEGA) to build a real-time domestic and cross-border securities clearing and settlement system.

In the 90s, TCS started to build programs that would ease out the working of various institutions. The company came out with E.X., ‘world’s friendliest business accounting software, a trading platform for the National Stock Exchange and Network Custody System (NCS). Later NCS became one of the most popular TCS products. The company is credited for the fastest implementation of a depository system in the world. The system was the first electronic depository in India and was developed only in five months. TCS is the pioneer of the concept of the software factory. It was the first company to provide the solution for Y2K conversion in the late 90s. 

In 2004, TCS started to trade as a public company. By 2008, the company had become the first Indian IT company to enter the bioinformatics market and was reaching revenues worth US$500 annually. In 2013, TCS partnered with the Indian Post and handled a project worth ₹1100 crore for the latter. As of 2020, TCS has become the world’s most valuable IT company. Currently, over 469,261 employees are working for TCS across the world.

The CEO: Rajesh Gopinathan

Rajesh Gopinathan is serving as the Chief Executive Officer of TCS since February 2017. He completed his graduation in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli, and a post-graduate diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad. Gopinathan started his career with Tata Strategic Management Group in 1996, and in 2001, he got transferred to the TCS’s e-business unit in the USA, where he worked till 2013. In 2013, he became the Chief Financial Officer of TCS.