WT Innovator: CGI makes deals, builds infrastructure to drive growth

Through a series of four acquisitions, CGI Group has bolstered its capabilities in several key areas including high-end IT consulting, cloud native solutions and digital transformation qualifications.

CGI picked up more 1,700 new employees through the acquisition of ECS Team, CTS, Collaborative Consulting and Summa.

The acquisitions added people, skills and geography and reinforced one of the company’s more innovative approaches to the federal market – the creation of onshore delivery centers.

The company’s actions and results led it to be named a Washington Technology Industry Innovator finalist.

Through these moves and others, CGI's federal subsidiary has become the largest strategic business unit for the Montreal-based company with $2.5 billion in annual revenue. CGI Federal is also now a standalone unit of CGI Group.

One of the company’s goals is to help customers move toward next-generation solutions. To this end, CGI has created several products. For example, it created CGI ProperPay as an audit management solution. It combines data modeling and audit management to predict hidden patterns and identify potential recoveries. Veterans Affairs is using the product to help them recover improper payments.

Other intellectual property developed by the company include CGI AgileQ Suite, a set of tools for application lifecycle management, AssureIQ, which links IT management to risk to the overall organization, and Unify360, which is a portfolio of consulting services and solutions around hybrid IT management.

CGI also has been busy on the hiring front with senior leaders being added from EPA, VA, Health and Human Services and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. A common thread of these hires is the deep domain expertise they bring.

For example, the company hired Dr. John Loonsk as its chief medical information officer. He was the director of interoperability and standards in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and led the effort to create the architecture of the Nationwide Health Information Network or NHIN.

The company has also created internal processes such as its Innovation, Creativity & Experimentation program, known as ICE. The program is a funding and government process for drawing and developing ideas from across the company.

Partnerships are another critical component for CGI’s innovative effort. The company has over 40 alliance partners. It also has what it calls enterprise partnerships with Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Hitachi Data Systems, Cisco, Dell and Open Text. Together they are developing new offerings that combine CGI’s customer expertise with their technologies offerings.