Barcelona-based software and services company Centrisa SA has recently made a bid to strengthen its activities in the north of Spain by buying another services company, Bilbao-based Infosys SA, which also has an office in Pamplona. Infosys has an annual turnover of around $1.5m and employs 40 staff. Centrisa was founded in 1969 by the Catalana de Gas and Hidroelectrica de Cataluna companies to provide computing services for both these utilities. It is now 100% owned and financed by the Iberdrola and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Group. It has some 350 employees in offices in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville and turnover of $22.7m is forecast for 1994. Infosys will operate independently of Centrisa, but it is thought that after an initial period of transition the offerings of both companies will be amalgamated. Infosys will enable Centrisa to gain a firmer foothold in the public administration and services sectors, and more local support can now be given to the increasing number of Centrisa customers in the north of Spain. Just before the news of the acquisition of Infosys was announced, Computerworld Espana spoke to the two general managers of Centrisa, who head the company’s two main business units: Jaume Dedeu is responsible for systems integration, while Albert Giralt presides over facilities management. Centrisa had previously been involved in telecommunications too, but activities in this field have been passed on to Landata SA, another company under the parent group. Centrisa’s 1993 turnover was down 4% on the previous year, but both managers were confident that 1994 would prove to be profitable and more sustained growth would be seen from 1995.

Strong internal investments

Dedeu explained that of the two units, systems integration provided a greater volume of business and the company directed its attention towards large companies and institutions: public administration and services, the health sector, industry and finance, while banking and insurance were two sectors that continued to make strong internal investments in information technology, Dedeu said. Centrisa is traditionally involved with large IBM Corp systems and large databases like DB2 or Software AG’s Adabas and Natural, and it was now increasing its commitment to client-server architecture and downsizing. Dedeu said that the ‘Mon’ system developed to support the organisation of the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games was so technologically advanced that to use it in the Atlanta Paralympics of 1996, a move currently under negotiation, would require very little modification. As for the competition, the company faces in systems integration, this had traditionally come from international consultants, but Dedeu said there was now a growing number of hardware manufacturers who were after a piece of the services cake in order to offset the fall in their hardware profits. For his part, facilities management boss Albert Giralt said there was more and more interest in facilities management, and here Centrisa was principally involved in network management and systems engineering. The company was also looking at making possible inroads into South America, particularly Argentina, but this was not a top priority at the moment. Centrisa has a team working exclusively in research and development in which an annual investment of $757,500 is made. Some of this money comes through the European Community’s Eureka and Esprit projects, while the Spanish Technological and Industrial Development Centre also contributes. Current projects that Centrista is undertaking are in the fields of software engineering, unstructured data processing, particularly image and sound, and business management products.