Exclusive interview with Adrian Nicolae (ALTEN Romania): "I see a market for engineering and IT services in full maturity"

Among so many negative trends, did the pandemic have a beneficial effect? What are the changes brought about by this period on the IT engineering and consulting market?

ALTEN Romania, like many other companies in the field of IT engineering and consulting, faced various challenges during the pandemic period. But what were the solutions targeted by the ALTEN team in order to adapt to the new normal?

Changes & challenges

“In the first days of March, at the beginning of the pandemic in our country, we focused our efforts and energy on rethinking the way we could organize our activity in order to keep our employees safe, without, however, affecting the actual work and the results that our clients expected from us ", presents Adrian Nicolae, the executive director of the company, exclusively for Forbes Romania.

As a result, ALTEN has outlined its activity around the telework regime, transferring 90% of its employees to work from home. "That's why in the beginning we worked constantly to make sure that our IT systems and internal procedures were adapted to the new normal and that we could maintain work efficiency, while respecting all customer data security requirements" he adds. On the company's priority list, customer needs were placed first, and ALTEN tried to rewrite its business strategy "creating and delivering solutions for customers that allow them to digitize the basic aspects of their business." In fact, one of the trends that the CEO noticed in customer behavior was the re-evaluation of priorities and reorientation towards different projects, in line with the new challenges.

Also, the development of R&D projects was among the most popular practices during this period, although the industry was hit by the lockdown: “An excellent example in this regard is that of R&D projects in the automotive industry, an industry that has been visibly affected. during this period, which continued uninterrupted. We must keep in mind that today we are working on projects that we will see on the streets in 3-5 years. We expect that, in this industry, the investments will return to the level reached last year, somewhere at the end of 2021 ”.

What other changes have occurred in customer behavior?

"Clients today expect complex solutions, which transfer entirely to us the responsibility of deliverables", explains Adrian Nicolae. More precisely, the client's attention now falls on the results, and not on the resource: “The client expects us to deliver a complete project, to be responsible for its management, quality, organization, resources, necessary tools, etc. This benefits us from all points of view, allowing us, among other things, to be much more flexible in building an interesting career plan for our specialists ", clarifies the executive director.

Objectives & predictions

However, the pandemic has had a beneficial effect on the IT engineering industry and the idea of ​​digital transformation: "greater openness of customers to digital tools", clarifies Adrian Nicolae. Although the situation remains uncertain, looking to the future, the executive director of ALTEN is on the list of optimistic voices: “Certainly, the evolution of our sector, but not only, will depend on the evolution of COVID-19 case dynamics and this direction. But if we look back on the last few months and remain cautious, I think next year will be a good one for the entire IT&C industry. ”

ALTEN Romania recorded a 5% increase in turnover in the first nine months of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. The company also continued to expand its business portfolio, adding 11 new customers, for which it offers technical consultancy and engineering services. By winning these partners, ALTEN Romania's portfolio has reached approximately 100 companies operating in industries such as: production, telecommunications, banking, automotive, insurance, pharmaceutical, retail and aeronautics.
“Now, more than half a year after the establishment of the state of emergency, I see a fully mature engineering and IT services market and a stronger positioning of ALTEN as a long-distance partner for customers. The evolution of the number of projects shows a return of our market and activity ", concludes Adrian Nicolae for Forbes Romania.

Article published by Forbes Romania.