Innovation and Speed of One Team Strengthens International Presence for Société Générale

Capgemini’s global delivery promotes a complete one team approach, seamlessly integrating the right level of resources with our resources, in the right country, at the right time an essential element in the continued international growth of Société Générale. Yvon Puyou, Head of Core Banking, Risk & Finance Global IT Projects, Société Générale

VIDEO: Watch the Société Générale talk about how they leveraged Capgemini’s Rightshore® global delivery platform solution.

The Situation

BHFM, the international retail banking division at Société Générale, needed to harmonise its IT systems as each of its 40 subsidiaries abroad had completely different systems in place. As its international expansion is a major growth driver requiring to speed-up the roll-out of the new IT system, Société Générale turned to Capgemini for help.

It was not only speed that was important, as Yvon Puyou, the manager responsible for the deployment of IT systems in all BHFM’s subsidiaries, explains: “There was another crucial reason why we looked for a partner to help us. The new IT system needed to run the core banking system for each branch and there is little expertise in this kind of software in France. So, if we were to succeed, we needed to find an international partner with proven expertise in managing a major global program such as this.”

The Solution

The first step was to create a dedicated service center and to put together a project team in Hyderabad, India which had a unique set of skills, encompassing banking sector knowledge, software package integration, project management expertise and international rollout experience. Next, the team set about designing all the necessary processes and procedures, making sure it could replicate these in all BHFM’s subsidiaries. Capgemini sends flying squads of global talent around the world to implement the new IT system in each of BHFM’s subsidiaries. These are supported by the team in Hyderabad.

A dedicated program co-ordinator located in Paris acts as the interface between the teams on the ground, the service center in India and Société Générale. The whole project is based on Capgemini’s global delivery model, Rightshore® an approach that creates an optimum solution through one team providing the best global talent in the right location at the right time.

Yvon Puyou: “The biggest issue we had in this program was to have the right level of resource in the right country at the right time. The second issue was speed of deployment. Capgemini has enabled us to successfully overcome both of these.”

The Result

An early success was the launch of the service center in Hyderabad, achieved in 2 months. The first phase of Project SPICE (Société Générale Project Implementation Center of Excellence) has just been completed, with the new IT system successfully introduced, on time and within budget, into Croatia, Ghana and China. The duration of these rollouts ranged between 12-18 months from concept to reality.

The roll-out to all 40 subsidiaries is on target to be completed over the next three years. Expected benefits are increased net bank income, the sharing of best practices and improvements in products, risks and service quality.

Mostly, offshoring is associated with cost savings. Although cost was an important issue for us, the reason Capgemini sourced people for us in India is because that’s where all the talent is located for this kind of project. We simply don’t have this level of expertise in Europe. Yvon Puyou, Head of Core Banking, Risk & Finance Global IT Projects, Société Générale