E-commerce, Magento, Drupal, PHP, Dotnet: After signing 5 major contracts in 2012, our revenue is set to exceed 1.5 billion euro on the platforms we develop or co-develop together with our clients.

With more than 100 engineers mobilized by Pentalog for the best players on the e-commerce and web markets in France and Germany, plus the best software and the best platforms, no effort has been spared for two years. It is our vision to create THE growth solution preferred by the European growth players. We are on the verge of winning this bet in a sector foolishly neglected by IT giants.It is no little thing to be there, when the number of developers in PHP and related technologies in France covers only 40% of the market demand. About a year ago, in a conversation with Marc Simoncini, a well-known web tycoon in France (Ifrance, Meetic, Sensee, Winamax etc.), at he time of the launch of the Internet trade school, we could conclude that when it comes to development, the French web falls a year behind. This is no idle hypothesis when we know how many ideas still evolve in the brains of web entrepreneurs every year. Thus, we would have needed, in spite of the crisis, almost twice the number of engineers we had in 2010 to carry out all the projects devised in 2010 and 2011 (see this article for more information on the lack of resources for web technologies in French only). Some will say that the situation is not better in England nor Germany. There is no doubt about it. As for the entrepreneurs, a vast amount of goodness will do this type of negative comparison… All the more so, as this rarity leads to an increase of 30% in the salary of a junior PHP developer compared to his JAVA counterpart, at a time when e-commerce players have seen their profit margin shrinking away.To this end, PeP (Pentalog Evolution Program), has set an interesting challenge to train dozens of people in PHP and its related technologies (Ruby on Rails, Magento, Drupal, Python etc.) in Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Vietnam. While the Pentalog’s Delivery Centers have been looking for the best specialists in these technologies in the three countries previously mentioned.Once the results obtained thanks to approximately a hundred engineers and after having convinced several nuggets of the French web (five of which are the most important out of twenty companies who draw the most web audience in France) to use our resources as new engines for their purchasing power in engineering, smaller players will also join us. Among them, there are Easyflyer of course, Sensee (which will soon be one of the twenty, I am sure) and Mylittelefashiongallery.com. Furthermore, we have projects in Germany, where we carry out development work on the Online Payment Gateway of the world leader in software. Outside of France again, an important European digital agency has entrusted us with the implementation of offshore teams for its projects. We have recently announced the new contract we signed with one of the world leaders in painting and decorating for an s-commerce platform in Israel.Pentalog Institute, our consultancy department, has recently launched its due diligence technology services in the field of e-commerce for important players on the distribution and e-commerce market. Similarly, a listed distribution company has just announced an acquisition that was audited by Pentalog Institute on its technological platform!Are these the bases for a real market share logic in this sector? It is hard to say. Nevertheless, the strategic axis initiated at the beginning of 2010 proves to be surprisingly efficient for Pentalog. Our offer came right on time for many players in search of robust industrialization, in a triple context of sector maturity, explosion of acquisition costs for the clients and financial crisis.All in all, in 2012, the Pentalog Group has 15 active references in the fields of e-commerce and web services, which will generate revenue amounting to 13% of total sales. This figure does not include any non-sales web activity.For a good understanding of this strategy’s relevance, I would add that our activities in the e-commerce field amount to 45% of our growth in 2011. This figure will remain significant in 2012.Articles on the same topic: ecommerce offshore.Articles written by the same author: Frédéric Lasnier.