A recent census conducted by Viavoice found that 64% of the French consumers consider communication devices, such as internet, smartphones or social networks, as a better way to purchase. 94% the French consumers agree that internet, smartphones and social networks will play a huge role in the coming years. This survey was conducted for a French professional show, Equipmag, which is a leading trade show for point-of-sale, retail, distribution and ecommerce. The next edition will take place from the 11th to the 13th September 2012 in Paris Expo (Porte de Versailles). This fair has an international scope; the number of foreign exhibitors doubled between 2008 and 2011 and is a great opportunity for doing business and making contacts. The 2012 edition will focus on equipment (“making the store enchanting”), materials (“making the customer independent”) and innovation (“Recognizing the customer & increasing his loyalty and security”) with 450 exhibitors gathered around customers need in solutions, equipment, management, trends, design, technology, etc. 80% of visitors were satisfied with their visit in 2010, 29% were decision-makers (CEOs, Managing Directors, Store Directors). This is a great opportunity to discover innovative products and solutions from France!  

Nimble Apps Limited, a French fast-growing publisher of online sales analysis and forecasting solution SalesClic, will create 10 new jobs over the next three years in their new European headquarter in the Digital Hub in Dublin. The company also recently started staffing a US and UK focused sales and marketing team. IDA Ireland, which is responsible for attracting foreign investments to Ireland, worked closely with the Paris-based company on this case.   Nimble Apps Ltd. is a SaaS company (Software as a Service) whose primary product, SalesClic, bridges the gap between traditional CRM software and all-purpose business intelligence software. SalesClic brings analytical and forecasting techniques inspired by decision and financial theories to the B2B sales process, in clear user-friendly web interfaces. SalesClic integrates with Salesforce and Google Apps. Speaking at the announcement, Thomas Oriol, Director of Nimble Apps, said: “(…) Ireland offers us all of the necessary components to assist us to internationalise our business, such as access to markets, a skilled workforce and a pro-business environment.”   Lien: http://www.salesclic.com/   Source: IDA Ireland  

SNCF, the French railway company (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français) has demonstrated a great interest in online secure payments solutions. The website Voyages-SNCF.com offers to its clients the possibility to purchase its products online. SNCF is the first online travel agency of the country. However, the group identified that the customers’ main concerns are data protection and fear for unsecured payments. For that reason, the company decided a year ago to generalise the use of a 3D Secure solution, designed with Banque de France (literally Bank of France). The technology consists in sending to the customers a unique code via SMS, valid for one use only. Yves Tyrode, the CEO of SNCF, recently declared that the group is currently trying to eradicate the cyber-fraud and that it is a permanent fight. A dedicated team of SNCF works on that issue. The company represents 8% of the French e-commerce, and Mr Tyrode announced this week that the buying renunciation rate droped by 2% in one year, from 17% to 19%. Following the implementation of the new technology people were predicted a drop of sales of 20% but Mr Tyrode was happy to announce that the results are positives.

The French company Sogeti announced last week an expansion of its operations in Ireland. Indeed, Sogeti, owned by Capgemini will create 65 new jobs in Dublin and Galway. Sogeti is implemented in Ireland since 1979 and this investment will allow the creation of high skilled and graduate positions in the IT sector. The recruitment is already in progress. This expansion can be explained by the dynamism of the IT sector in Ireland and Sogeti became, throughout the years, a key part of the IT infrastructure of Irish based multinationals by helping them to deliver their international business. Jean-François Courtines, Chief Sales Officer and Head of Alliances of the Sogeti Group also highlighted that the talented workforce available in Ireland greatly influenced this decision. The company was named the world’s number one testing services provider (Ovum Research) in 2011 and experienced a significant growth across its services lines recently. The Irish market is described as “strategic market for the group” (Jeff Schmalbach, CEO, Sogeti Ireland). Sogeti is a leading provider of professional technology services, specializing in Application Development and Management, End to End Quality Assurance, and ERP Solutions (120,000 consultants worldwide).

In order to enhance the worldwide visibility of the French know-how, Ubifrance, redesigned its portal for French exporters and is now called The French Suppliers Portal ( www.ubifrance.com ). This website is a tool that is aimed at French exporters but is also dedicated to Irish companies willing to create added-value by choosing to source in France. Visitors can make a multilingual research by name, products, services, sub-categories, geographic areas and also look for an event, market information and news. Ubifrance has offices in 57 countries around the world and each of those offices publishes in blogs that have also being improved especially for overseas counterparts. In order to replace firmafrance.com, Ubifrance’s worldwide blog has now a research tool only dedicated to our Irish partners with a comprehensive directory of the French offer. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any help regarding this tool!  

From the 18th to the 21st of March, Paris will host the Franchise Expo Paris which is a trade event existing for more than 30 years now. Throughout the years the meeting has become one of the most comprehensive trade meetings existing among the franchise sector and gained international fame. More than 450 International and French brands will be represented at the fair which makes it a favoured platform for the main actors of the sector to meet, develop their networks and to identify business opportunities. 2 500 international visitors are expected from 83 countries and with international brands representing 17% of exhibitors, last year a total of 32 000 visitors attended the event. More specifically, the event will consist in a series of 100 conferences, a focus on the international franchise, 5 pavilions for either experts, entrepreneurs, financing, medias, international franchisers and finally the 19th will be devoted to the several Chambres de Commerce et d’Industrie (French Chambers of Commerce).

The French government took a new step toward the Open Data last December. An interministerial commission created by François Fillon, the current Prime Minister, succeeded the online release of 350 000 public databases freely accessible. Those databases can be viewed on the website data.gouv.fr and concern several areas of the State as the national budget, the geographical spread, the environment (quality of the air), the recovery plan of 2009, road safety, justice, taxes, health insurance, cultural heritage and so on. François Fillon appointed Séverin Naudet who is a former manager of Virgin Music and Dailymotion to run the commission Etalab. Beyond this transparency, the openness of public data must enhance the development of online services and innovative applications created on the basis of this new tool. Séverin Naudet underlined the benefits resulting from the databases once gathered together and aggregated. As a result, the real value of this initiative depends on the technological advances of web companies and Etalab also supports innovation and the development of the internet economy. The commercials’ applications should foster online services and enabling the creation of hundreds of thousands new services. This support is dedicated to SMEs, using data.gouv.fr to make profits, through a programme called “dataconnexions” that was released in February.