Atos U.S. CEO On The Record

France-based Atos is a $15 billion IT services firm, solution provider and manufacturer that is looking to become more visible in North American, already owning tight technology and channel relationships with the likes of Dell Technologies and Cisco.

"We have just opened a new office in Dallas – a brand new [U.S.] headquarters," said Patrick Adiba, senior executive vice president and CEO of North America Operations, in an interview with CRN at Atos' Global Analyst Conference in Boston. "Beyond that, we're investing a lot more in people, in training. … We have a plan of re-skilling about 25,000 people per year."

Atos has a global workforce of 100,000 and has made several aggressive moves over the past few years to diversify, such as the purchase of Xerox's IT outsourcing business for $1.05 billion in 2014, tripling the size of Atos' operations in the U.S. at the time. The company also acquired unified communications vendor Unify in 2016, which now boasts more than 2,000 channel partners. Atos also builds its own hardware including its Bullion line of high-performance servers. Adiba spoke to CRN about Atos' merger and acquisition plans, investments in North America and how the company turned away from labor arbitrage.