Seven of Europe’s largest software houses have formed their own advisory group to make sure their voice is heard by decision-makers at the European Commission and to ensure that future Community-funded research projects are closer to what the market wants. The seven, which are currently putting together a position paper, are calling themselves the SIX, Services in Informatics eXpert, Group and comprise Cap Gemini Sogeti SA, Sema Group Plc, Logica Plc, Debis Systemhaus GmbH, Volmac Software Groep NV, Finsiel SpA and Eritel SA of Spain. Early newspaper reports that the grouping was a direct criticism of the effectiveness of the European Computer Services Association have been rejected by SIX group chairman Philippe Dreyfus of Cap Gemini – himself a board member of the Association. ECSA represents around 2,000 companies in Europe and has a completely different role. It is irrelevant to say it doesn’t represent us. In fact the seven companies, which for Community-related projects have had a loose association of interests for over two years, are, by formalising their relationship, more interested in counter-balancing the claims on Community budgets made by the so-called Group of Twelve European manufacturing giants – among them Groupe Bull SA, Thomson-CSF SA, GEC Plc, ICL Plc, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA, Stet SpA and Philips Electronics NV. In the past, governments have complained that Esprit, Race and Eureka projects were too intellectual, too academic and too far from what the market needs. Dreyfus believes that Commission strategy for research was being set by what the large hardware manufacturers wanted, which has resulted in a large number of long-term projects in areas like microelectronics and parallelism – whereas, according to Dreyfus, software development is becoming more necessary to the industry as a whole. He argues that Community projects should reflect this more closely and among the software projects he would initiate, cites the creation of faster, more complex pan-European communication networks as one major priority. The SIX group says it has already received favourable reactions from DGXIII, the Commission Directorate General responsible for information technology and the Esprit budget, and is preparing its proposals for the next round of Esprit funding, which is soon to be decided on. A DGXIII spokesman was unaware that the seven companies had established a formal group but commented any form of collaboration in the industry is generally welcomed by the Commission.
