Information processing systems: information at stake

Jean Paul Lepeytre, managing director of the Thalès Services division, recalls that in 2004 the Thalès group reorganised its activities into six divisions defined on the basis of their markets. "By sharing a common technological base of the control of information," he says, "the six divisions aim at increasing the group's proximity to its opinion leaders while at the same time facilitating the implementation of lateral technologies intended for civil and military clients." The divisions are: the aeronautics division with equipment for civil and military planes (Airbus 380 and Boeing 787); the air systems division (air traffic management, army missile systems); the land and joint systems division (new information and networking technologies for land forces); the naval division (main contractor for ships, systems for surface buildings, underwater systems and naval services); the security division (development of the group's advanced technologies and skills for civil, governmental and private clients); and the services division (provision of services, notably in IT and simulation for military and aeronautics clients, with a more extensive offer for major public or private institutional clients). "These six divisions also benefit from a broad international presence, described as multi-domestic, whose purpose is to provide feedback on the quality of relations forged with local clients in each country where we are set up," adds Lepeytre. "With 60% of our business in defence and 40% in civilian sectors, we define ourselves as a provider of high-tech systems capable of operating in networks, where technology plays an essential role."

The Thalès group banks on the services division
With 1.5 billion euros of turnover and over 10,000 staff working in France and a dozen European and South American countries, the services division has expertise covering four major areas: simulation and training (pilot training); consulting and engineering (upstream organisational and management consulting); management and maintenance of property assets, and facilities management and IT services (management of both infrastructures and applications)."Its comprehensive offering, covering a broad spectrum of functions for third parties, has made Thalès a recognised player in the services business, giving it a major advantage, not only with its original clients (civil administrations and armies, which represent over two thirds of the Thalès group's activities) but also with banks and major accounts," says Lepeytre. "Our goal," he adds, "is to make the services division an important sector of the group by providing our clients with complete solution systems products, right up to outsourcing. We also intend to take complete charge of certain functions of the companies or civil administrations that are our clients, naturally vouching for the quality of the results provided. All our clients (major accounts and SMEs generating several million euros of turnover) share the same critical needs, even if they are by nature different. This is notably the case for Toyota Europe and Airbus, which Thalès Services provides with product life-cycle technical data management in the different production plants, or the Accor hotel group (4,000 hotels worldwide), whose international network system we handle."