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6
Business
Procurement and suppliers
65
Worldline
2016 Registration Document
Procurement and suppliers
6.8
Atos, enabling it to benefit from scale effects (i.e., volume
Atos level, while remaining focused on the specific requirements
purchasing) through framework agreements negotiated at the
procurement teams jointly conduct periodic analyses and
of the Group and its client projects. The Group’s and Atos’
implement programs aimed at reducing supply costs through
reassessments of procurement costs by category and
specifications and demand volume management.
negotiations with suppliers, standardization of contracts and
The Group’s procurement division analyses markets and then
suppliers of the externally-sourced goods and services that it
selects and manages the Group’s relationships with the
conducts its procurement activities in coordination with those of
needs for its business and internal requirements. The Group
The primary categories of products and services that the Group
requires bandwidth intensive telecommunications services, its
Other important categories of products and services that the
main providers of which are Orange, Belgacom and Verizon.
their component parts, printing and postal operator services
Group sources from third parties include POS terminals and
manufacture of the Group’s connected vehicles products and
and, currently to a much lesser extent, hardware used for the
other M2M and “connected” solutions.
Group’s procurement costs, comprise the types of items that are
sources externally, and which account for the majority of the
particularly IT hardware and software, subcontracted services
typically sourced by companies in the IT services sector,
telecommunications services. The Group principally uses these
such as software development and maintenance and
project development needs. The Group’s main suppliers of IT
products and services in connection with its data centers and
Group’s business involves extensive data processing which itself
hardware and software are HP, IBM, Dell, Oracle and SAP. The
including Toshiba, Flex, and Connectronics, located principally in
assembly to multiple contract manufacturing companies,
that it does not design itself from Ingenico, Verifone and Pax.
Asia and Eastern Europe. The Group procures the few terminals
services, particularly in its e-Government business (and more
The Group is also a substantial consumer of printing and postal
solutions) and bank processing activities in Belgium. It has
specifically its automated traffic and parking enforcement
Poste, Docapost, Bpost and Pitney Bowes in this respect.
subcontracting relationships or contracted partnerships with La
The Group designs most of its payment terminals and related
products in-house and outsources their manufacture and
The Group’s procurement strategy is to rationalize the volumes
the total cost of ownership. So as to reduce the risks of supply
necessary for its operations and optimize purchase prices and
Group aims to identify critical points in the supply chain and
shortages and over-dependency on any single supplier, the
suppliers. The Group’s approach to sourcing products and
develop plans to guarantee multiple component and service
and use of the products and services it requires.
services from third parties depends in large part on the nature
Notwithstanding its multi-source policy, there is one important
necessary, Faraday/UMC has the ability to manufacture the chip
within three months.
at multiple factories, initiate production and deliver the chips
supplier: the innovative Samoa II application-specific integrated
component used by the Group in its business that has a single
payment terminals range. This chip is sourced from
circuit (ASIC) chip used in all current models of the Group’s
specifications in the context of a long-standing relationship and
Faraday/UMC, which manufactures it to the Group’s
continued production and supply of this critical chip, the Group
pursuant to a long-term pricing agreement. To safeguard the
sufficient to cover several months’ supply needs. Additionally, if
ensures that Faraday/UMC at all times maintains a stock of chips