ANNUAL REPORT ELCA GROUP 2014
AN INTERVIEW WITH ELCA CHAIRMAN, DANIEL GOROSTIDI MR GOROSTIDI, IN A NUTSHELL, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE ELCA S ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2014? It was the year in which ELCA reached a new level. We surpassed the important revenue mark of 100 million Swiss francs, and we are successfully managing more than 100 projects per year. To say we ve had a record year is an understatement we re experiencing the 5th record year in a row! ELCA has been growing above the market average for several years now. I m very proud that the company is in such good shape thanks to our excellent team. APART FROM THE FIGURES, WHAT ELSE WAS DIFFERENT IN 2014 COMPARED WITH PREVIOUS YEARS? Our new level of confidence! Let me explain: the company figures illustrate the continuous development in ELCA s business, which above all, has been achieved in a sustainable way and at a healthy pace. I have always believed that ELCA, with our team, our culture based on Swiss values, and high demand in the market for the quality we are able to deliver, is an organisation with exceptional potential. In the last two years we have optimised many internal processes and we have effected some rapid changes, for example in implementing a well-oiled project methodology and a reference IT architecture. And in 2014, I experienced many moments where I could literally feel this confidence within my team and with our clients. The confidence became tangible, even externally, and this is probably the most important prerequisite for ELCA s future success. IN WHICH PROJECTS DID THIS CONFIDENCE MAKE THE DIFFE- RENCE? In 2014 it was a crucial factor, both for maintaining our relationships with existing clients and for winning new ones. For example, we won the mandates for three large software development projects for the Canton of Zurich. Together with our partner Microsoft, we are going to build a software solution supporting CRM and process optimisation for one of Switzerland s biggest health insurance companies. Our banking business continues to grow too, with many new clients and a great event management solution we developed for one of the big Swiss banks. And two cities, Reims and Madrid, chose our ticketing solution SecuTix 360 to manage their local cultural tourism including ticket sales for their theatres and museums. The Swiss-based ELCA Group had its best year ever in 2014, with record revenue figures that exceeded 100 million Swiss francs for the first time in the company s history, representing growth of 5% compared with 2013. The ELCA team has also grown and now comprises around 700 people in four countries. For Daniel Gorostidi, 2014 was a very special year from a personal perspective: it was his last year as owner and CEO of the ELCA Group. After 23 years, he has decided to hand over ELCA to new owners. He will continue to guide and advise the Group in his new role as Chairman of ELCA s Board of Directors. WHAT ABOUT OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2014? There were a lot in fact. Very important to mention is our ability to successfully manage large and complex projects. We have a thorough and above all field-tested project methodology in place and we auto-
mated the processes to optimise them further. With our on-going investments in Continuous Delivery and methods like DevOps we are able to deliver and integrate software updates for our clients on a daily basis, which is very fast. Furthermore, we made our specification process more agile, so that it is more efficient and effective in the development phase. Other milestones were the successful renewal of the ISO certification and the recognition of ELCA as one of the top 30 most attractive employers in Switzerland. WHAT ROLE DOES ELCA VIETNAM PLAY IN THE SWISS BUSINESS? Our branch in Vietnam is the extended workbench for Switzerland, which enables us to scale up our engineering capacities in terms of volume and time. I call it a software factory approach that allows us to offer projects at a competitive price and on a fixed price basis. We built our own offshore development in Vietnam in the late 1990s, and now we have a very mature model in place. ELCA Vietnam is prospering thanks to the high growth rates in our home market: in 2014 we hired the 150th team member, and we plan to extend the team further and also to involve them more in specification and testing. WHAT WILL KEEP ELCA BUSY IN 2015? We will adapt and sharpen our Go-To-Market strategy. On the one hand, given our excellent project methodology, we plan to focus on large and complex projects. On the other hand, we will also take a more tailored approach to marketing our services by leveraging our increasing industry-specific expertise. Furthermore, we aim to put more effort into promoting our own solutions to the market. In addition to ipension, ELCARD and edossier we have also developed new offerings such as the ELCA Big Data Lab. In our Lab, companies find the human and technological skills as well as the necessary processes to examine and test Big Data scenarios and their business potential without making heavy investments. «And in 2014, I experienced many moments where I could literally feel this confidence within my team and with our clients. The confidence became tangible, even externally, and this is probably the most important prerequisite for ELCA s future success.» Daniel Gorostidi, Chairman of ELCA Daniel Gorostidi, Chairman (left) and Cédric Moret, CEO of ELCA WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE ELCA S MOST IMPORTANT STRENGTHS IN THE MARKET? Our most important assets are of course our team, our long-term client partnerships and our way of working. I would like to thank our clients for their trust and loyalty and also the ELCA team for their constant dedication to delivering great solutions for our clients. In 2014, almost all of our projects, even the biggest ones, were managed without any significant difficulties. This shows how skilled and committed our team is, and this is the reason for my personal confidence in ELCA. I strongly believe that our development process, our way of working and our project methodology bring tangible added value for our clients, and I am sure this will pay off in 2015 and beyond.
Revenue Development 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 Total Revenue (CHF million) 101.846 97.019 87.925 83.152 76.750 Growth year on year (%) 5.0 10.3 5.8 8.3 8.0 From prof. services (CHF million) 96.136 88.684 79.838 76.790 70.994 From sales of hardware and software (CHF million) 5.710 8.335 8.087 6.362 5.756 Headcount Development 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 Headcount ELCA Group 667 612 572 560 524 Growth year on year (%) 9.0 7.0 2.1 6.9 12.0 Revenue by sector (average of the last 3 years) Revenue by region (average of the last 3 years) 30 % Others 23 % Government 3% International 11 % Transport 44 % Swiss French Area 6 % Industry 18 % Finance 12 % Insurance 53 % Swiss German Area Revenue by size of customer (average of the last 3 years) 33 % Largest five customers 67% Other ELCA customers
ELCA in 2014 - Highlights January ELCA doubles the size of its CRM team to address the increasing demand from customers and now has 30 CRM specialists. Our 132 colleagues at ELCA Vietnam celebrate Chinese New Year. February With the addition of a new colleague in Geneva from Slovenia, ELCA now counts 30 nationalities among its staff. Our methodology AgileIT - which is now an ELCA standard - is being used in big projects such as those for the Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich, SIX-Interbank Clearing and for the Sumex-Suite. ELCA presents its new website, developed by its competence center for front-end design and user experience. March ELCA successfully renews its GOLD partnership with Microsoft (CRM - Portal & Collaboration) and Oracle (DB - BI - Big Data -Web centre). April Successful ELCA banking roundtable on SharePoint intranets with more than 20 Swiss banks. Full revamp of www.elca.ch in collaboration with the new front end ELCA team. May FEDRO - The new nationwide traffic management system fosters freely-flowing and secure traffic. For the eighth time in a row ELCA has successfully met the certification criteria for Quality Management (ISO 9001) and for the second time for Environmental Management (ISO 14001). SBB mandates ELCA to investigate the specific added value of Big Data approaches in various fields of application. June Students rank ELCA 26th among the top 100 most attractive Swiss employers. SBB/CFF entrusts ELCA with a Big Data project to improve passenger service by optimising business processes and fostering innovation. Due to its growing popularity, the seventh edition of the ELCA Forum was held in both Geneva and Zurich in the early autumn and was also held in Bern for the first time.
ELCA in 2014 - Highlights July Founding of the new ipension user group the pensions of more than 260,000 insured people are managed with ipension developed by ELCA. Paléo Festival Nyon - online ticketing sales reach new records with ticketing solution SecuTix 360. August In future, the 3,500 annual applicants to study at the University of St Gallen (HSG) will submit their applications by means of a modern, user-friendly solution from ELCA. Suva honours the "DRG Expert" module from the Sumex Suite - a software solution developed by ELCA - for its excellence. ELCA Informatique SA Lausanne 021 613 21 11 Genève 022 307 15 11 ELCA Informatik AG Zürich 044 456 32 11 Bern 031 556 63 11 www.elca.ch September ELCA adopts a new organisational structure to strengthen its industry focus. The current five business lines will be extended to six, with an additional focus on retail. Strategic partnerships are essential to bring added value. ELCA signs several new agreements with solution partners such as SAS, ESRI, Docx, officeatwork, MUM, Exalead Dassault and SailPoint. October The Canton of Zurich awards ELCA two big IT projects worth more than 5 million Swiss francs: a new tax register for legal entities and the first electronic land registry to replace a paper-based process. November Vivates goes live in Baden and Aarau hospitals. Aargau is the fourth canton to use the electronic patient record system developed by SwissPost in collaboration with ELCA. First ELCA Student Day in Zurich. More than 30 students and graduates learn about ELCA as an employer. December SecuTix issues 30 million tickets in 2014 (0.95 tickets/ second ) and counts 65 clients in Switzerland, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Monaco. Swiss Alpine Club: in 2014, more than 60,000 overnight stays in Swiss mountain huts were booked by the online reservation system from ELCA. ELCA's IT Business Consulting counts 30 consultants and benefits from a new business analysis methodology based on BABOK standard & AgileIT. LEADING IT SERVICES PROVIDER ELCA, an independent Swiss IT consulting and services company, is a market leader in the areas of software development, system integration and business consulting. ELCA employs about 700 people. The company is headquartered in Lausanne and maintains branches in Zurich, Geneva, Berne, Paris, Madrid and Ho Chi Minh City (offshore development). Q1/2015