What It Does: CGI's suite of services includes business consulting, systems integration, management of IT resources, infrastructure services, and application services.
Mission: CGI's mission statement is to provide its services and offers value through exceptional quality, competence, and objectivity. CGI intends to deliver the best solutions to ensure clients' satisfaction.
Size and Presence: CGI employs over 6,000 employees across 20 offices in the UK.
Best Known For: CGI is best known as a company whose services cuts across several industries. Its clientele also consists of some of the top companies in these industries. CGI was named by Forbes in its 2022 edition of the World's Best Employers. Also, in the 2022 edition of Great Place To Work, CGI was named one of the Best Workplaces In Tech (super large organisations).
The Good Bits: CGI has a great welfare program for its employees. The company is widely regarded as an employer or choice. The company offers several learning and development opportunities. The work culture is great. The work-life balance is good.
The Not-So-Good Bits: The pay can be better.
In 1976, Serge Godin co-established CGI Incorporated with André Imbeau as an information technology consulting firm in Quebec, Canada. The firm's first operational base was Godin's basement, and business was conducted over a single phone. As the firm started experiencing growth, the company moved its base to Montreal. By the end of its first calendar year, the firm scored a gross revenue of $138,000. The firm's name, "CGI" is short for Conseillers en gestion et informatique, which is French for consultants in management and information technology. However, the official anglicised meaning is Consultants to Government and Industry. With time, the company just stuck to CGI.
In the 70s, CGI kept growing and added consulting and systems integration to expand its portfolio. As this decade drew to a conclusion, the market for systems integration gradually shifted to outsourcing. CGI followed suit. In the 80s, CGI had its initial public offering. In the late 80s, CGI expanded internationally and purchased companies within the country and abroad. After a series of big acquisitions in the formative years of the 21st century, CGI was ranked 8th on the list of the biggest independent IT services providers in the world. In 2006, Serge Godin stepped down from the office of the CEO. In 2019, CGI agreed to an outsourcing deal with YIT that will last till 2023.
CGI has one of the healthiest corporate cultures you can find out there. The company highly respects its staff and gives them operational independence due to their expertise. The company's management staff views the employees as company owners and gives them the liberty to make decisions in the best interests of their clients. Six values are the pillars of the company's culture. They include Partnership & Quality, Objectivity & Integrity, Intrapreneurship & Sharing, Financial Strength, Respect, and Corporate Social Responsibility. CGI also champions diversity and inclusion, so everyone has a sense of belonging regardless of their ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexuality.
CGI offers highly segmented career development opportunities to its fresh graduates, apprentices, and interns. It provides degree apprenticeships for school leavers who want to earn a university qualification without student loans and work via paid employment. The higher apprenticeships are for school leavers who are not targeting a university degree. CGI's industrial placement is a 1-year programme for interns. It immersed them into life at the firm through real work experience and real projects. The graduate career programs target new graduates and aim to equip them with the relevant skills and expertise needed to thrive and climb the corporate ladder.
CGI pays its new graduates an average of £30,000 yearly.
CGI provides support to local community groups and sports clubs in the UK. The company is also dedicated to inspiring the next generation of the STEM workforce.
There's no widely published controversy.