France Cables et Radio has taken a 30% stake in Infact Ltd, the London-based intelligent buildings and communications consultancy. France Cables’ existing UK business will be handled through Infact and managing director of the consultancy Paull Robathan believes that the association with a large company will help Infact win business. We found ourselves competing with the likes of PA, Logica and Hoskyns, but when we got down to the final bid and the client asked who exactly is Infact, it could be embarassing. Robathan is wary about growing too big though he believes that in consultancy, small is beautiful – if you get too big you start losing expertise as people have to be shared between departments. France Cables et Radio is a subsidiary of France Telecom and carries out communications installations. It recently formed a London-based joint venture satellite services company with Maxwell Communications Corp Plc. But Robathan insists that the company will remain independent we always recommend a selection of who we think the best people to be for the job, otherwise we wouldn’t stay in business. The independence issue is why Robathan says he is not concerned at Digital Equipment Corp’s recent entry in the intelligent buildings consultancy market. It’s great that they’ve come in because it helps to grow the market and in the end we will benefit from that growth because once people realise what the service is, independence is seen as essential.
