Creating Profit Through Alliances - business models for collaboration E-book | Page 76

Finally, the actual alignment of interfaces and tasks
should be considered. The most important
compatibilities can often be identified, such as
hardware requirements for a software system, or the
maximum weight of a component for an aircraft. But
who is responsible for making sure two software
systems can be operated on a single hardware
system simultaneously, or for the weight distribution
of an aircraft and the implications for its construction?
One party shall have to act as system integrator or
quality safeguard. This, too, justifies a price premium.

However, each contract provision that assigns part of
the risk elsewhere requires a corresponding reduction
of this premium.
Parties engaging in collaborative offering will need to
confer closely concerning the total sum of risk
premiums and margins. The simple fact of
collaborating must not cause the partnership to price
itself out of the market. On the other hand, having a
deficit on the joint budget is as good as a guarantee
that tensions will arise in the companies' relationship.

Capgemini
With over 100,000 employees, Capgemini is one of
the largest providers of consulting, technology,
outsourcing, and local professional services. With the
mission statement “Driving Concrete Business
Results”, the company helps customers transform
their organisation and improve performance. The
main activity is the implementation of hardware and
software solutions.
Capgemini is one of Oracle's most important
implementation partners. Balt Leenman, one of
Capgemini's alliance managers, has long been
involved in this relationship. Back in 2004 he was
selling Peoplesoft solutions, before it was taken over
by Oracle. He saw the potential of this takeover,
wrote an article about it and was invited by Oracle to
visit San Francisco. Since then he has been involved
in managing this alliance.
“Within Capgemini, the alliance with Oracle is seen as
a role model. Oracle was recently declared „Overall
partner of the year‟ for the second time, beating
system integrators like Accenture, Deloitte, IBM,
Logica and Ordina”, Balt Leenman explains. “But we
do not want to focus solely on one or two vendors.
We want to be an independent system integrator that
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can offer a client impartial advice. In outsourcing we
tend to work more with IBM, in enterprise resource
planning systems with Oracle and SAP, and in
hardware with IBM and HP. Although, since the
takeover of Sun, Oracle is a good option as well.”
The alliance owes its success to the complementary
cultures of the companies. “Oracle is very sales
driven, while Capgemini understands the a
customer‟s business challenge. The Oracle sales
organisation focuses on quarterly results, Capgemini
is more long-term oriented.
For a large client such as KPN, Oracle deploys several
salespeople, each pursuing his or her own targets.
We wanted to implement Oracle middleware and had
organised workshops with the client for that purpose,
but that was frowned upon by the Oracle ERP
salesman because it could influence his sales cycle.
There lies a role for Capgemini and our alliance
management.”
In his opinion, a collaboration becomes effective if
both partners work from a joint value proposition that
serves the customer. “We can enhance our success by
fully understanding Oracle‟s solution and its roadmap.