Step up to Computacenter for:

• Fantastic career opportunities

• Personal empowerment
• Unrivalled experience, across multiple technologies and customers
• A chance to truly transform our customers’ businesses
• A great range of benefits

A guide to recruitment at
Europe’s leading IT services
& solutions provider
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Welcome to Computacenter
Now you’re well on the recruitment path for a potential role with Computacenter, we thought we should
give you a brief summary of our organisation and tell you a little about what we offer our employees,
what we expect from them, and about the interview process. If you require any more information, please
take a look at the careers section of our website (www.computacenter.com) or get in touch with our
recruitment team (contact details page 13).

Contents

Welcome to Computacenter
2 Brief description about what to expect from this document

About us
3 Who we are, key facts and a brief history about Computacenter

What we do
4 The services and solutions that we offer our customers

Our company
5 Our mission statement

Global reach
6 Computacenter’s global reach for where we operate and key offices across Europe

Our DNA
7 What makes us who we are today

Charity work
8 How Computacenter help local charities

About you
9 What you can expect as a candidate

Your Career
10 What kind of candidates we are looking for and hints and tips for interviews

Contact us
13 Relevant contacts within the recruitment team that can help you
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About us

Who we are
Computacenter is Europe’s leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services. We can advise
customers on their IT strategy, implement the most appropriate technology from a wide range of leading
vendors and manage their technology infrastructures on their behalf. At every stage we make our
customers’ businesses sharper by removing cost, complexity and barriers to change across their IT
infrastructures.

Our corporate and government clients are served by offices across the UK, Germany, France, the Benelux
countries, Spain and South Africa. We also serve our customers’ global requirements through our extensive
partner network.

Key facts about Computacenter

• Computacenter is Europe’s leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services and solutions
• Our focus is on corporate and government organisations, typically from 500 to 10,000 employees, and
large enterprises of 10,000 or more employees
• Over 10,000 staff are employed across the Group. 2009 adjusted profit before tax was £54.2 million.
Revenues were £2.50 billion
• Over 70% of Computacenter’s Group revenue comes from services, software, and sales of enterprise
products such as servers and connectivity/networking technology

A brief history
1981: Established by Peter Ogden & Philip Hulme
1994: Largest UK-owned IT company
1998: Successful flotation on LSE
2006: Our global service desk facilities are extended with new capabilities in Barcelona and, through the
acquisition of Digica, in Cape Town, South Africa
2007: New 5 year outsourcing contract won with BT, covering 54 countries and worth approx £200m.
Acquisition of Digica and Allnet
2008: Despite economic slowdown, wins including Marks & Spencer and BMW Group help grow our
contract base 7.5%
2009: Operating expenses reduced by over £30 million. Successful exit of trade distribution business
which freed c. £20 million of working capital. Two acquisitions made during the year; Thesaurus
Computer Services in UK and becom in Germany. Group-wide ERP project remains on track
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What we do

Computacenter advises on IT strategy, implements appropriate technologies and manages infrastructures for its
customers. Our services fall, broadly, into the following three categories:

Managed and support services

We can take contractual responsibility for the management of our
customers’ IT infrastructures, to reduce their costs and improve service
levels. We also provide support services such as installation and
maintenance of desktops, datacentres and networks, user help-desk
support and disaster recovery.

Consulting and integration

We provide professional services, including integration and project
management expertise, and expert advice across a range of platforms
and technologies. We cover all key areas of the IT infrastructure, from
desktop to datacentre.

Supply chain services

We source, configure and deploy hardware and software from a wide
portfolio of leading vendors. We also provide procurement consulting,
software licence management, technology disposal and asset
management services.
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Our company
Mission statement

Deliver Services and solutions

Customers get much more than consultancy – we From desktop to datacentre, everything we do is a
deliver tangible results. We can both recommend solution or a service through which we continually
a particular technology strategy and deploy it. add value.

“Deliver IT services & solutions that

enable our customers to achieve their goals”

Enable Our customers Goals

We simplify the supply,
optimisation and management
of our customers’ infrastructures
– working with IT and purchasing
functions, not around them.
Retaining and growing our
customer relationships is
critical to the long-term future
of Computacenter and our staff.
Our scale, processes and
capability mean we can
maximise the business benefits
and minimise the procurement and
ownership costs to our customers.

“My 11 years at Computacenter are testimonial to career development and

progression, starting as a Sun engineer and now holding a position of
great responsibility, managing the entire Consultancy team!

The breadth of experience and skills that exist in Computacenter make it

an organisation that no one can compete with. I am proud to be called a

”
Computacenter employee.

Zahid Din – Consultancy Practice Manager

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Global reach

Computacenter provides trans-national services across 120 countries through its own operations and its
partner network.

Hatfield Germany
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Our DNA
The values and principles that guide us in our day-to-day activities:

Our recruitment, development and

investment strategies are all aligned to
give clients the skills, processes and
facilities they need to meet their goals.
Together,
we realise
We’re pragmatic. When we the value in
recommend an approach, IT systems
it’s because we’ve used
it successfully elsewhere.
We’re
committed
to results

Focused
people and
investments We listen carefully, are clear on what
we can deliver, and expect clients to
hold us to our promises.
Real services
and solutions
experience Because our clients’ goals are our
goals too, we work with IS
departments, not around them.

“ I am extremely proud to represent

Computacenter and get a huge
sense of satisfaction from going that
extra mile for our customers to set us

”
aside from our competitors.

Sue Emery – Software Service Principal (NHS)

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Charity work
You’ll find our people are often every bit as motivated,
enthusiastic and collaborative in the charity fundraising
activities we support as they are at work. It helps that we
offer a working atmosphere that is as much fun as it is
productive.

Our employees’ enthusiasm goes far beyond providing the

best possible service to the customer. They consistently
demonstrate a wider sense of social responsibility
by raising tens of thousands of pounds each year for
Computacenter’s charity partners. Proceeds generated
by employees for our three charities are matched by the London to Paris bike ride
company, with over £187,000 raised this way in 2008.

Our partners, which are selected by employees, are Willow

Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support and The Children’s
Trust. Charity events such as dress down days, charity
races and sponsored staff expeditions, to name just a few,
are steered by a Charity Committee, comprising a cross
section of employees, from branch administrators to senior
management. In addition to the corporate programme, the
company supports and encourages many charity initiatives
proposed and run by employees.

Great Wall of China Walk

special days for seriously ill 16-40 year olds

Sponsored fire dogs

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About you
What does this mean for you, as a candidate? Well, it means you could be joining an organisation:
• With fantastic growth potential, courtesy of a unique services capability that is only just being fully applied
• That empowers successful individuals, giving them appropriate authority and the tools for self-development
• That has a strong understanding of how new technologies can benefit business and the capability to deliver
them
• With solid financial stability and low staff attrition
• That prides itself on transforming IT for its customers, not simply ‘keeping the lights on’

Rewards and Benefits

At Computacenter, we respect employees’ need to balance work commitments with personal and life
responsibilities. We also recognise that employees need flexibility to maintain high standards of performance.

We offer a competitive range of benefits designed to meet the needs of our employees and their families.

Core Benefits (paid for by Computacenter)

• Life Assurance • Loyalty awards
• Income Protection (IP) • A core entitlement of 20 days annual leave, which
• Permanent Accident Insurance Scheme increases by one day per year of employment up
• A non-contributory and contributory pension to a maximum of 25 days. Annual leave may also
scheme be increased as a voluntary benefit.

Voluntary Benefits (mybenefits)

We offer a range of voluntary, competitively-priced benefits that you can choose to join and pay for through
monthly payroll reduction. These include:

• Critical Illness and partner critical illness cover Other benefits include:
• Private Health Care – pre-existing conditions are • ‘MyPerks’ – Centrally negotiated discounts we
covered have with big name brands
• Dental Insurance • Sharesave Plus – buy into the success of
• Health screening Computacenter with this flexible saving scheme
• Holiday purchase and carry over • Discounted gym membership
• Childcare vouchers
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Health Cash Plan
• Annual private travel insurance
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Your career at Computacenter

At Computacenter, our continuing success is based on hiring and retaining high quality personnel. We
strive to make Computacenter an exciting place to work by fostering an environment that allows people
to grow and continue to advance their abilities.

If you are selected for a position with our company, we will provide you with the support, training and experience
to further your career. We encourage employees to take ownership of their career paths with the support and
guidance from their managers. We strive to ensure that our employees have access to the best technologies and
tools available.

We promote equal opportunities. This is one of the centrepieces of our employment policy.

What kind of people are we looking for?

In a word: ‘achievers’. We want self-motivated individuals who are excited by the prospect of working for a
successful, UK owned IT services provider with over 10,000 staff across Europe. If you think you can contribute
to our success and can demonstrate that you are…

Focused
F Recognise and acknowledge customers’ priorities and action accordingly

ocusedAccountable
A Take responsibility for your actions and always deliver on your promises
ccountable
m
Clear c
redible
C Be open, straightforward in your discussions and feedback

nterprising
E
Enterprising
Proactively think about what else we can do for the customer

...then you should fit in very well.

“Computacenter identified my talent and assisted

in nurturing that talent by laying the foundation for
growth and development. Being on a structured
grad scheme has provided the tools to develop
new skills by learning through experience based
development opportunities. I see a bright future

”
ahead and I am excited about my career path.

Adanna Welch – Sales Associate

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Your career at Computacenter

Preparing for interview
Our recruitment process isn’t just about finding out whether we think you would be good at the job or if you would
fit in. It is also about making sure that you feel Computacenter is the right company for you.

To help us, we use several different types of assessment in our recruitment process. We will ask you to take part
in one or more of the following:
• Competency based interview (see page 10)
• Telephone interview
• Aptitude testing
• Telephone role play
• Presentations

Doing it this way has advantages, both for us and for you:
• Research shows that the multi-assessment approach is a good way of discovering whether it is the right job for
you (it’s over four times more accurate than a standard interview)
• It gives you a better chance to demonstrate your full range of skills and abilities
• It is easier for us to make the final decision as we will have a wide range of relevant and reliable information
• We can demonstrate that our recruitment procedure doesn’t discriminate and you can see that we have taken
a fair approach

Competency based interview

Competency based interview questions are used in an effort to make the interview process as standard and as
fair as possible. The theory behind competency based interviewing is that past behaviour is the best indicator
of future behaviour. When we ask you competency based questions, we want you to talk about how you have
actually tackled real problems in the past, using a personal example. From this, we are trying to gauge how
effectively you would tackle future problems, if we were to offer you a job.

“We have a fantastic bunch of people, a clear strategy and a

comprehensive vision of Computacenter as a leader in our chosen
markets, with services and solutions that prospects and customers

”
are increasingly interested in.

Simon Walsh – Managing Director

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Your career at Computacenter

Here at Computacenter our ‘competencies’ are known as BEHAVIOURS. These underpin the core FACE
attitudes of being Focused, Accountable, Clear and Enterprising and are broken down as follows:

B Being Commercial

E Energised Commitment & Drive

H Habitual Development of Self & Others

A Accountable Decision-making

V Value-add Customer Excellence

I Innovation & Change

O Open Communication & Impact

U Understanding the Market

R Relationships for Collaboration (incorporating One Team)

S Strategic Alignment

Answering Competency Based Questions

The most effective way of answering these questions is to use the ‘STAR’ technique when providing your
example:

Situation – briefly describe the background/context to the example you are using
Task – specifically describe your responsibility within the example
Action – describe what you did, and the actions you took to demonstrate the behaviour
Result – describe the outcome/result of your actions, and what you learned from the experience
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Contact us
Other opportunities
Good luck with the selection process. And remember, if you should be unsuccessful in your application, it’s
worth keeping in touch. At Computacenter we are always looking to recruit the highest calibre of staff.

Vacancies often include:

• Service Delivery Managers
• IT Technicians and Engineers
• Project Managers
• Technical Consultants
• Account Managers
• Sales Specialists
• Administrative or marketing roles and many more

Computacenter employs over 4,000 people in the UK, in a variety of positions, so whatever your specialism,
there’s a good chance we’ll have something to suit you.

For any further information on recruitment please contact:

Recruitment Team
Email: recruitment@computacenter.com
or the general recruitment telephone number: +44 (0) 1707 631977

Computacenter is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes diversity