Groupe Bull SA, Steria SA and Sligos SA have established B2S, a service company specialising in software maintenance. Jacques Pantin, managing director of Steria Consulting, claims that between 60% and 80% of software development resources are consumed by maintenence of existing applications, and that developers can spend up to 50% of their time decrypting applications that are no longer maintainable. Christian Requillart, Bull’s director of information engineering services, will head the new organisation, while Francois Hauser of Sligos will be director general and Steria’s Daniel Lesguillier will be associate director general. BS2 will work on a 24-month period, rather than reporting its operating results every 12 months, saying that it expects clients to sign contracts only after an initial evaluation of the job and what it entails.
