Logica, Capgemini update

(By Anthony Miller – Thursday 30th April 2009 5:30pm). There were differences in nuance between the two company concalls (see Logica, Capgemini signal gloomy first-half) but the other strong common thread was the laying off of contractors, in effect moving the bench offshore. However, the net growth in offshore headcount in both firms was pretty muted (c. 150) though of course the number of gross offshore recruits would have been higher to replace staff lost through attrition. Though I would have liked to see a faster transition, Andy Green made the valid point that you can’t cut contractors off just like that for fear of damaging customer relationships, plus of course there’s the additional overhead of training up the replacement full-timers stepping into the contractors’ shoes. But this really just begs the question as to why Logica (in particular) didn’t accelerate offshore transition much earlier, notably B.G. (Before Green)?