It’s very clear that the Energy & Utilities sector is hot, hot, hot just now. Barely had HP inked a $400m deal with Centrica (see HP powers $400m cloud deal with Centrica), than Capgemini signed a £100m IT support services deal with EDF Energy, the UK arm of France-based EDF Group. EDF has been a long standing customer of Capgemini in France, most recently (July 2009) taking on application management associated with EDF’s nuclear power generation facilities. Capgemini derives almost 11% of its worldwide €8.7b revenues from the Energy, Utilities & Chemicals sector, though it was this segment that took the biggest hit in 2010, with revenues down by over 16%.
In contrast, ‘our very own’ Logica depends on the E&U sector for 17% of its worldwide £3.7b revenues (-3%) and 15% of its £709m UK revenues (+4%). I have been consistently impressed with Logica’s propositions in this sector (e.g. see Logica explains Smart Metering for Dummies) and the calibre of its people. The battles lines are being drawn around smart metering and other ‘green’ energy initiatives, with huge potential rewards for those that win the big roll-outs.