Sopra Steria

Sopra Steria Group SA

Type	Société Anonyme
Traded as	Euronext: FR0000050809
Industry	Information technology consulting and services
Founded	1968 (as Sopra)
Headquarters	Paris, France
Key people	Pierre Pasquier (Chairman) Vincent Paris (CEO) John Torrie (Deputy CEO)
Revenue	€3.6 billion (2015)
Number of employees	38,000
Website	soprasteria.com

Sopra Steria Group SA (commonly referred to as Sopra Steria) is a European information technology consultancy established in September 2014 upon the merger of Sopra Group SA and Groupe Steria SCA (commonly refererred to as Sopra and Steria, respectively). Technically, Sopra was the company to adopt the new name, retaining its legal personality.

The primary business areas of the company include consulting services, systems integration and solutions, integration of ERP solutions, implementation of application solutions, as well as subcontracting solutions for providing technical support to users and application maintenance and outsourcing services and operation of professional processes.

History

Timeline

• 1968 – Creation of Sopra (Programming and Analysis Company).
• 1969 – Creation of Steria. SODERI (Information Research and Development Company) holds 51%, the BNP Group holds 29.5% and the Indochina Group holds 19.5%. The company holds its headquarters in the BNP offices.
• 1971 – Sopra signs its first large global banking managed services agreement. This agreement leads to the first banking platform the following year.
• 1972 – Sopra launches its first Human Resources solution; Pacha.
• 1973 – Steria computerises Agence France-Presse by creating a text processing system that enables the transmission of information in real time.
• 1974 – Steria acquires Sitintel, a miniature information specialist.
• 1979 – Sopra proposes its first banking software solution.
• 1981 – Steria takes part in the development of Minitel, by designing the system's architecture, security software and certain applications.
• 1982 – Creation of Sopra's banking solution development business, alongside the launch of its first banking solution (for funds).
• 1986 – Sopra's first major national project with the French Ministry of the Interior.
• 1987 – Beginning of expertise on the transport and mobility market thanks to Steria's automation project for the RER A in Paris.
• 1990 – Sopra is listed on the Second Market of the Paris stock exchange, now the NYSE Euronext Paris.
• 1992 – Sopra announces its first banking regulatory reporting solution for BAFI.
• 1994 – Steria creates the management system for the French interbank payment system.
• 1996 – Sopra acquires SG2 Ingénierie (an IT company that assists financial and banking institutions), and ProBF (a designer of integrated banking solutions), as well as the Human Resources package, Pléiades.
• 1997 – Steria acquires the Indian company IIS Infotech based in New Delhi,India. In September of the same year, François Enaud is appointed Group CEO.
• 1999 – Sopra expands to the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Germany. The company then creates the EVOLAN suite (several modules, including fund management).
• 1999 – Steria is listed on the Second Market of the Paris stock exchange.
• 2000 – Steria acquires three French companies: Experian; France's IT management business; Tecsi, a company specialising in embedded software; and Equip, a specialist micro-IT equipment management company. Meanwhile, Sopra acquires Orga Consultants (a strategy, management and organisation consulting company).
• 2001 – Sopra sets up its subsidiary; Axway Software and acquires Viewlocity, Cyclone Commerce and Tumbleweed Communications in the USA, as well as the Italian company ITI and the British company CS Rand, which both offer systems consulting and integration services. Through Axway Software, the company decides to expand into theEnterprise Application Integration (EAI) market.
• 2001 – Steria acquires Bull's IT service operations in 9 European countries (UK, Germany, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland); and develops Belgian electronic identity cards.
• 2003 – Sopra Group acquires Inforsud Ingénierie.
• 2004 – Sopra Group acquires Valoris, a European Consulting and IT Services company.
• 2005 – Steria acquires the German company, Mummert Consulting. Sopra opens Near and Offshore service centres in Europe and India, acquires the company Newell & Budge in the UK and its Irish and Indian subsidiaries who use a comprehensive range of IT services, ranging from consulting to implementation, as well as PROFit, an independent company specialising in consulting and the integration of systems based in Spain and Portugal.
• 2007 – A busy year of changes. Steria acquires the company Xansa in the UK, thus enabling it to substantially develop its market shares in the UK public sector, as well as its offshore production capacity in India. In addition, the company's statutes evolve to enable a "participatory governance", involving all employee shareholders. Steria signs the 'Chorus' agreement with the French Ministry of Finance, to become part of the biggest SAP project in France. The company also opens two near-shore centres in Poland and Morocco.
• 2008 – Sopra acquires CIBF, an independent company that develops packages and software for portfolio, risk and interbank exchange management, as well as BAI, a fund solution developer.
• 2011 – Listing - spin-off of Axway Software/Sopra Group on theNYSE Euronext Paris. At the same time, the Group acquires 100% of Delta Informatique, an independent company responsible for designing a 'Global Banking' solution aimed at retail banking in France and countries around the world. Sopra also launches its first banking distribution solution, following its acquisition of Delta Informatique (bank solution developer)
• 2012 – Creation of Sopra Banking Software as a 100% subsidiary of Sopra, following the acquisition of Delta Informatique and Callataÿ & Wouters (specialists in creating packages designed for the banking sector for the formation of a common entity). Sopra also acquires the British subsidiaries of Business & Decision and Tieto.
• 2013 – Steria signs the SSCL contract in order to manage the back-office functions of several UK government ministries from a shared services platform. Meanwhile, Sopra Group acquires HR Access (a Human Resources solutions developer) and COR&FJA Banking Solutions GmbH (banking solutions developer), therefore strengthening its range of HR solutions.
• 2014 – Strategic partnership between La Banque Postale and Sopra Banking Software to roll out a new nationwide Core Banking platform.
• 2014 – The merger of Sopra and Steria is announced on 8 April 2014. Both companies seek to become the European leader in digital services.
• 2014 – Success of Sopra’s Friendly Public Exchange Offer for Steria on 5 August 2014 for all of Steria's shares. Sopra Group becomes Sopra Steria Group. The process will take the form of a public exchange offer launched by Sopra for its competitor Steria, at the rate of one Sopra share for four Steria shares.
• 2014 – The legal merger of Sopra and Steria takes place on 31 December 2014.
• 2015 – The merger of Steria Group and Sopra Group becomes effective on 31 December, leading to the birth of Sopra Steria Group, a European leader in digital transformation.

Sopra

Logo of Sopra. The motto of the company was Talented together

Sopra was seated in Annecy, France, had a revenue of €1.349 billion (2013) and 16,290 (Dec. 2013) employees. Founded in January 1968 by Pierre Pasquier, François Odin and Léo Gantelet,^[1][2] Sopra is one of Europe's longest established IT service companies. From the outset, Sopra positioned itself in all IT service sectors and soon became a key player in the French market. On March 2014, Sopra Group became Sopra. In April 2014, Sopra announced a merger with Steria in an attempt to create the European leader in computer services.^[3] Sopra is a consulting, IT services and software development company. Its subsidiary Sopra Banking Software develops and distributes software for the financial services market. Sopra employs more than 16,000 people and generated a turnover of 1.349 billion euro in 2013.

Three complementary business lines:^[4]

• Consulting (Sopra Consulting) Management and Technology
• Systems and solutions integration
• Software publishing in the following field :
  • Human resources (HR Access and Pléiades offering)
  • Real estate management (Ulis, Ikos and Altaïx offerings)

Sopra is focused on the following business sectors :

• Financial services
• Services, transportation and utilities
• Public sector
• Industry
• Telecom and media
• Retail

Acquisitions

Sopra's main acquisitions are :

• In 1996, acquisition of SG2 Ingénierie (650 people).
• In 2000, acquisition of Orga Consultants, Strategy and management consulting company (200 people)^[5]
• In 2001, acquisition of the Italian company ITI and British CS Rand, both acting in the system integration and consulting fields^[6]
• December 2003, Sopra acquires Inforsud Ingénierie from the Crédit Agricole Group(530 people).
• In July 2004, acquisition of Valoris, Consulting and IT Services European company(500 people)^[7]
• In July 2005, acquisition of Newell & Budge (UK) and its subsidiaries in Ireland and India, IT services (600 people)^[8]
• In November 2005, Sopra acquires 100% of the share capital of PROFit SA, system integration and consulting company based in Spain and Portugal (700 people)
• In July 2008, acquisition of CIBF, independent company specialised in portfolio and risks management software development for the banking sector, based in Nantes (60 people)^[9]
• October 2011, acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Delta Informatique, independent company offering financial software solutions^[5] · .^[10]
• In February 2012, Sopra acquires the Belgian company Callataÿ & Wouters, specialised in banking software.^[11][12]
• March 2012, acquisition of British subsidiaries of Business & Decision and Tieto^[13]
• In July 2012, Sopra creates Sopra Banking Software consequently to the acquisitions of Callataÿ & Wouters and Delta Informatique^[14]
• In April 2013, Sopra announces the acquisition of HR Access, software solutions for the human resources management industry (900 people)^[15]
• In February 2014, Sopra announces the acquisition of the German company COR&FJA Banking Solutions ^[16]
• April 2014, merger with Steria

Axway Software subsidiary

In 2001, Sopra creates its subsidiary Axway to access the EAI market (Enterprise Application Integration) :

• In 2001, creation^[17] of Axway Software (400 people, 50 million euros revenue);
• In 2002, Axway acquires the integration business of the American company Viewlocity Inc.^[18][19] first in Europe, then in Asia and in the US;
• Early 2006, acquisition of Cyclone Commerce, Inc., an enterprise software US company;^[20][21]
• Early 2007, acquisition in Germany of the enterprise software business of Atos Origin;^[22]
• In September 2008, acquisition of Tumbleweed Communications Corp.

Axway Software splits from Sopra in June 2011 consequently to its stock market launch.^[23]

Steria

Logo of Steria

Groupe Steria SCA was founded in 1969, was based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, had a revenue of €1.75 billion in 2013 and had more than 20 000 employees. was a multinational information technology services company headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. It delivers IT enabled business services, focusing on key vertical market sectors: public services, finance, telecommunications, utilities and transport. The company provides consulting services for its clients' core business processes, and also develops and operates their information systems.

Steria has 20,000 employees across 16 countries. In 2013, Steria revenue amounted to €1.75 billion.^[24] Steria is listed on the Euronext Paris market and over 20% of its capital is owned by its employees.

Following the merger of Steria and Sopra, Groupe Steria SCA and its subsidiaries are now part of the Sopra Steria Group, a European leader of digital transformation established in September 2014.

Steria was created by Jean Carteron in 1969. Francois Enaud took over as Group chairman and CEO in 1998^[25] and Steria listed itself in the Paris Stock Exchange the next year. In 2000, Steria acquired three service and telecom companies in France to become one of top five French service providers. In 2001, Steria started the Fondation Steria,^[26] a community support group. In July 2007, Steria acquired the United Kingdom-based IT outsourcing and technology company Xansa for £472 million in cash.^[27][28] At the time of the acquisition Xansa had a total of around 8,000 staff, of whom around 5,000 were based in India.^[28] According to the terms of an agreement signed with AURELIUS on 20 October 2012, Steria completed the sale of its Spanish subsidiary on 28 November 2012.

Steria has sites in the following locations: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Luxembourg, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden and United Kingdom.^[29]

The Steria Corporate Center for Real-Time and Embedded Software expertise, located in Aix-en-Provence, France, focuses on aeronautics (Eurocopter, Dassault), defence (DCNS, DGA) and transportaIt uses products including QC (TEST DIRECTOR), SCADE and VAPS.

Services offered by Steria included: Applications management, Infrastructure management, IT service management, Business process outsourcing, Testing and quality, Cloud - Workplace on command, infrastructure on command and Security - Right Security

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) is a joint venture between Steria and the United Kingdom's Department of Health. It provides services in finance and accounting; payroll and human relations; family health services; and commercial procurement.

NHS SBS employs over 1,400 people, recovers more than £12 billion of debt, pays 200,000 NHS employees and processes £36 billion of payments per annum for its NHS clients. It works with over 40% of NHS organisations to deliver operational efficiencies, cost savings and improved service quality, and is on target to deliver £250 million of cost savings to NHS trusts and organisations.^[30]

Businesses

The primary business areas of Sopra Steria are: consulting services: strategic consulting, implementing of restructuring projects and development towards new technologies, etc.; systems integration and solutions: design and implementation of Internet technology solutions (portals, merchant sites, Intranet and Extranet networks, etc.), integration of ERP solutions, implementation of application solutions (customer relationship management, HR management, etc.). The group also offers subcontracting solutions for providing technical support to users and application maintenance; outsourcing services and operation of professional processes: supervision, administration and operation of IT infrastructures, operation of finance, administration, human resources functions, etc.

References

External links

• Official website
  • Presentation of the merger