Business Model

Created in 1993, Pentalog has developed an original concept called "right cost". For the last 10 years, the company has had a nearshore offer that relies on its four offices in Romania (360 employees) and its subsidiary in the Republic of Moldova (90 employees).

We have deliberately not followed the example set by most great offshore companies which created remote sites that employ engineers who are undoubtedly qualified, but whose culture is very different from that of Western Europe and who do not always speak English in a way that is understood by our French, German or Spanish customers, far from it. There are numerous customers who have found it hard to cope with the permanent lack of understanding with the team their project was entrusted to, as the service provider only ensured a commercial monitoring in France.

Pentalog has chosen a radically different path: it has a transnational organization, it always has cutting edge means of communication and most of its commercial activity is carried out through the web. Almost all of our employees (95%) speak both French and English, as well as the local language(s) (Romanian, Russian). German is making progress. Each office has both a French and an English teacher, who are usually company employees. The proposition made to a customer may be written in Bucharest and validated in Orléans for a project that will be developed in Chisinau (Republic of Moldova) ... or in Hanoi. Each employee works as if his/her colleague were in the office next door.

The right cost does not systematically search for the lowest price at any given time, but integrates French support and monitoring which will provide more transparency and will secure the relationship between the project manager and the client.

This right cost is obtained through close contact between the technical and commercial team, the French teams, the customer and the team that provides the service. The project manager works within his/her team and maintains direct relations with the customer, in most cases in the language of the latter. He/she applies the quality system procedures (ISO 9001/2008) and provides the reports mentioned in the Project Quality Plan. If the office which develops the project does not have a certain technical resource that exists elsewhere, a mini-team led by a team leader is set up in another office. The team leader reports to the project manager.

In fact, as soon as local economic conditions allow it, Pentalog sets up teams that are adapted to the demand of the country. Thus, the Bucharest office, for instance, is completely dedicated to the Romanian market.

At present, Pentalog is completing its production capacities with an offshore office in Vietnam (55 employees), which will enable us to offer customers low-cost solutions in the "dollar area", with a reasonable time difference that allows for a communication time of several hours per day with Western Europe. The location was chosen following a competition with China, India and Morocco. Vietnam is probably the most competitive country in the world as regards the quality/price ratio. This office brings Pentalog its first "extreme low cost" capacity.