|
ExecutiveBiz: Tell us about what is new with the company and what has happened in the last 6-12 months?
Donna Morea:
As you know, CGI and AMS merged three years ago, bringing tremendous opportunities for our professionals and clients. While we quickly integrated operations, we took care to bring together CGI’s broad-based outsourcing capabilities with AMS’s systems integration and consulting relationships. We’ve taken an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach to winning business with this model and, within the past year, we see this approach paying off. Let me give you an example. AMS was known for providing numerous focused solutions in areas such as ERP, tax and revenue, credit solutions and billing. The typical client relationships were ones where we would implement our solution and turn it over. Because we did great work, every 5-10 years or so, they would call us back to help them modernize. Now, as CGI, we offer those solutions on a hosted basis, providing clients with a full lifecycle of services around those solutions. For instance, through the federal government’s center of excellence initiative, we provide application hosting and maintenance for financial management systems, offering agencies such as GSA broad-based, long-term, high-value services.
ExecutiveBiz: What are some of the hot trends that you are tracking this year?
Donna Morea:
There are two top trends that are consistent across CGI’s entire client suite—both in the U.S. and globally. One is that clients are moving from very large-scale, mega outsourcing deals to smaller, targeted—and sometimes programmatically focused—deals. This trend is moving clients from having one provider to having a set of best-of-breed providers. The second trend, one that is true for both government and private industry, is seeing clients change their viewpoint of using IT services to save money to, once again, viewing IT as a key enabler to transforming their businesses.
ExecutiveBiz: You mentioned before that CGI is looking for major acquisitions. What makes an ideal acquisition and what are you looking for in an acquisition?
Donna Morea:
Certainly, in principle, we look for a company that brings us additional complementary capabilities, clients and contracts. These companies must be within our core industries because we want to stay focused on what we do best. That is what makes it work on paper. What makes it work in reality is a common approach to the market and to our three stakeholders—employees, clients and shareholders. Essentially this comes down to sharing a common culture. What we learned through the CGI and AMS merger is that a common culture and set of values enables the merger to work.
ExecutiveBiz: How do you describe the culture at CGI?
Donna Morea:
Our number one attribute is a complete focus on our clients—if you do great work for your clients, the other elements fall into place. To have satisfied clients, you must have satisfied employees, creating a culture in which talented people can grow and be challenged. This is why a very close and related attribute is being an employee-focused company. At CGI, I think we take the employer of choice objective a step further. We call our employees members because every CGI member is considered an owner of the business—they are treated as the crown jewels within the organization. Our members are collaborative, team focused and entrepreneurial, which empowers them to do what’s best for clients and to evolve the company itself.
ExecutiveBiz: Please discuss what is going on with your work with the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Donna Morea:
About 18 months ago, we opened a center of excellence in southwest Virginia. Let me pause and give you a bit of context. At CGI, we offer clients the ability to buy services where and how they want. Our global network offers onsite, onshore, nearshore and offshore options. As part of this, we had a belief that rural America was an untapped resource in terms of global delivery potential. Our theory is that rural communities attract and retain talented employees who don’t necessarily want to move to the big city to have an interesting and challenging IT career. So we opened a center of excellence in the town of Lebanon, which we believed would be an attractive alternative for states and the federal government in obtaining lower-cost yet high-end software development and testing. What’s been pleasantly surprising is that we have as much interest from commercial clients as we do from government. So it’s been a great story. We have 150 people in the center right now, and are on track to meet and exceed our original goal of 300.
ExecutiveBiz: How has the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech affected your stakeholders?
Donna Morea:
Thank you for asking about Virginia Tech. One of the reasons we picked the southwest Virginia location, by the way, is because of our relationship with Virginia Tech and the talent that comes out of that school. Within the D.C. area, many of our employees are Tech alumni and everyone knows someone in the Tech community; but in southwest Virginia, in particular, a high percentage of our employees are Tech graduates. So you can imagine how devastated and shaken our community has been. Words can’t describe how horrible a tragedy this was and how profound the impact has been on the people in the Commonwealth and certainly within CGI. What is incredible is how so many of the school’s young people have figured out how to begin to move on, learn from the experience and reinforce their commitment to Tech. We also are committed to doing everything we can to help the Hokie community, from offering our services to establishing a scholarship fund.
ExecutiveBiz: You mentioned a trend with former AMS people coming back to CGI. Tell us about the trend and why you think it is happening?
Donna Morea:
We are growing in the U.S. and, in particular, we are growing in northern and southwest Virginia. Of our new recruits, I would say 15-20 percent are returning to CGI after being at AMS—some have been gone for many years and some for a short time. I think people are rejoining the family because of two important factors. First, under CGI, we have a broadened mission and exciting new future. On the other side, it’s a return to basic values, the ones that made AMS such a leader in this community and esteemed place to work. As CGI, we have a focus on creating a great environment for employees, a place where talented people feel challenged and appreciated and can win and grow. It is a place where everything revolves around doing great things in teams for the good of our clients.
ExecutiveBiz: You are involved a lot with the kidney ball this year. Please discuss.
Donna Morea:
I am the chair of the 2007 Kidney Ball. This is a great cause that has been adopted by the technology community. Jim Duffey (EDS) serves as my vice chair and Anne Altman (IBM) and Greg Baroni (Unisys) served as prior chairs. Washington DC has the highest incidence of kidney disease in the county and this ball raises considerable money for research and treatment. Everyone should also know that The Kidney Ball is going to be THE BEST event of the season on the charity circuit. We are going to have Patty LaBelle entertain us and it’s going to be a fabulous and fun event!
ExecutiveBiz: Please tell us about your Italian oil business.
Donna Morea:
My husband and I have an Internet-based business in which we sell Italian olive oil over the Internet. The URL is www.olio2go.com. It is a labor of love. We have the opportunity to go to Italy and meet and recruit our suppliers, who generally have family-based businesses and care about their products, but are too small to have major distribution channels into the United States. They don’t produce enough for Whole Foods or William and Sonoma, for instance, but provide a discriminating amount of customers with a pleasurable experience. It’s great to do business with those people and we have a lot of fun doing it. We also learn a lot that we apply to our day jobs because we are both in IT.
ExecutiveBiz: What is your favorite business book?
Donna Morea:
My favorite new business book is called “Surrounded by Geniuses” by Alan Gregerman. It is based on two premises - that there is genius hidden in all of us and that we are surrounded by a world of genius ideas that we can borrow from and implement in our companies to win and grow.
ExecutiveBiz: How do you keep abreast of latest trends?
Donna Morea:
I read a lot – 3 newspapers a day, and lots of magazines. But when it comes to new technology, I get my best info from my 19 year old son.
ExecutiveBiz: What is your favorite restaurant?
Donna Morea:
2Amys in Washington DC. They serve the best pizza outside of Italy! It’s the real deal.
For more information about
U.S. Operations & India of CGI, visit
www.cgi.com.
Interview with Donna Morea conducted by JD Kathuria.
Enjoy this interview?
Digg It!
Check out more Executive Spotlights ...
|
