In a recent interview with Journal Du Net, Capgemini CEO Paul Hermelin said he expects the French company will soon join the top 10 of North American service providers.

Hermelin said Capgemini is now ranked 17th in the United States. He did not provide a source but the ranking is in line with his statement two years ago in which he said the company was ranked 19th in the U.S.

It’s questionable if Hermelin’s expectations are realistic.  In late 2009 he said Capgemini would make the top five in the United States by the end of 2010. He said that the company would focus on five areas: smart metering; software testing; application development; business information management, and data management.

In February, he commented on the company’s performance in 2010, which was generally weak. He said the company will grow nine to ten percent in 2011.

For 2011 and beyond, Hermelin said Capgemini’s focus in the U.S. is not in any of the areas he mentioned in 2009. Instead, he sees focusing on ERP integration, vertical markets, acquisitions and mobility with SAP. He says the company needs to focus on specific sectors of the U.S. market to achieve some success. In particular, he noted the retail, energy and utility markets.

Capgemini is making strides in the U.S. market. In May,  Capgemini and AWS made a joint announcement for support to enterprises that want to run SAP applications on the AWS infrastructure.

That’s a positive sign for Capgemini, which will have to focus on working with companies such as SAP and AWS if it really does plan to join companies such as Accenture, IBM Services and others in the top 10 list of  U.S. service providers.