French outsourcer Atos Origin has announced Q1 revenues this morning of €1.42bn, up 5.3%. The company's contract wins were up 11% year on year.

Ovum analyst Phil Codling said: 'These numbers help to confirm Atos Origin's return to stable growth, as also evidenced by results in the second half of 2007. The company's “303” transformation programme continues to pay dividends in a number of ways, most noticeably in the sales performance.'

Order growth is particularly encouraging, added Codling. 'The company's investment in its sales capability (for example through the much-attended “Atos University”) is beginning to pay off. We feel Atos Origin's growing focus in the market is helping too. Not only is it targeting its efforts and investment in selected vertical markets, it's also carving out a good position in the growing mid-sized deal market (i.e. the bit that lies below the mega-deals).

'Indeed, when we recently analysed contract wins in EMEA over the last 18 months (using Datamonitor's contracts database), Atos had won more in the $50-350m bracket than anyone bar IBM. That's a positive sales performance, not least because this segment of the market is highly competitive, since it attracts not just the global mega-deal players but also plenty of “local heroes” and of course Indian challengers.'

That said, some of the results were patchy. Dutch revenues fell by one percent; France grew 6.8%, while the UK was up 5.5%.

As previously reported on sourcingfocus.com, investors Centaurus and Pardus are both still aiming to take a controlling stake in the French company.