International auditing firm KPMG has confirmed the appeal of the Lille region (in northern France) for non-French investors. According to the independent survey conducted by KPMG and published in November 2011, 85% of respondents, representing the 1,077 subsidiaries of foreign-owned groups established in Northern France, recommend the region. According to KPMG, the international auditing firm, the prime reason companies choose to establish a subsidiary in Northern France is the strategic location the region offers. The Lille region lies at the heart of Europe’s leading consumer catchment area. Two-thirds of the companies surveyed highlighted their aim to reach the markets of northern Europe (including France) as having driven their decision to invest in the region: an impressive 82% of companies see this locational advantage as crucial to their success in these markets. The high quality of the local labour force also satisfies the companies: 60% were satisfied with the region’s labour force — a proportion reaching 75% of respondents in the field of trade and logistics. Undoubtedly, this is another reason businesses choose to settle in region surrounding Lille. Regarding the quality of life, seven out of 10 business leaders say that they are satisfied with the region’s cultural dynamism and tourist potential, and close to two-thirds approve of the sports facilities available in the Lille region. The local geography and environment are also a cause for satisfaction among foreign-owned companies: 80% indicate that they are satisfied (or fairly satisfied) with the region in this respect. Northern France is a region whose attractiveness is not always fully appreciated by outsiders: prior to their arrival, 46% of decision-makers surveyed had a good image of the region, but a third (33%) admitted to having a negative perception. Once established, however, only 1% of these decision-makers have retained this negative view, while 68% of respondents indicate that they are satisfied (or very satisfied) with the Lille region. With hindsight, none of the companies surveyed see their location in the Lille region as a handicap. On the contrary, 60% describe the move as an asset to their businesses, especially those hailing from the Benelux countries, and 27% see the relocation as strategic in terms of the company’s development in northern Europe. Moreover, a majority of the companies surveyed have felt genuinely welcome in northern France: close to 60% of respondents consider the welcome given to expatriates to be satisfying or very satisfying. Despite being a border region and a hub for pan-European trade, the Lille region has a strong identity rooted in its history. Indeed, a third of respondents believe that the region stands apart from the rest of France, especially those from Germany and the Netherlands, who acknowledge a stronger cultural affinity with the region. Lastly, the Lille region is founded upon powerful ethical values that are important to businesses. Respondents were asked what "values" they associated with the region: "work", "fighting spirit", "energy" and "hospitality" were widely mentioned by those surveyed. This gives an overview of the positive image that the region enjoys with international investors. About Nord France Invest Nord France Invest is the publicly funded investment-promotion agency for Northern France (including the city of Lille and its surroundings). The agency helps businesses to develop and make the most out of their move to the region of Northern France. Drawing on expertise across a wide range of fields, Nord France Invest and its network partners offer personalised and fully confidential services to investors, free of charge, from the initial decision through to the launch and follow-up. In pursuing these aims, Nord France Invest draws on the skills of its own staff, combined with expert input from an extensive network of regional and international partners. For further information, please go to: www.investinnorthernfrance.com

  After publishing Microsoft Outlook plug-ins for several years, AddOnMail of France has announced the arrival of the latest version of its leading product, PSTStation Corporate for Outlook — the PSTStation Corporate 3.5 . Jean-Christophe Cisse, CEO of AddOnMail, explains, "PSTStation Corporate 3.5 is a genuine breakthrough in migrating PST files for [Microsoft] Exchange 2010. With our product, a company with tens of thousands of users is finally able to plan a genuine migration for its PST files." "With PSTStation Corporate, a company will cut the duration of its PST file migration project by at least 50%. It will also save over 50% of the cost, since no development is required and everything is processed automatically," adds Jean-Christophe Cisse. This increase in efficiency is possible thanks to the software package’s unique open PST file management and incremental message-processing technology. The migration can therefore be run 24/7, even while users are reading or writing their messages. PSTStation Corporate 3.5 features a powerful connector to import PST files into Exchange 2010 users’ mailboxes. The software also includes a function for the detection and identification of PST files within the corporate network; the technology to select source messages to be archived; and, additionally, a powerful multithread connector to inject messages into Exchange 2010. Furthermore, AddOnMail’s new software solution features many post-archiving functions, such as the automatic PST file removal from user profiles, message deletion from the PST source once archived, and the possibility of marking PST files as read-only. PSTStation Corporate has already won the trust of many companies in France and in the United States, including in sectors such as banking and manufacturing.  About AddOnMail   AddOnMail is an IT specialist company, providing more than 20,000 users worldwide with powerful tools and specialised services. Honoured as the best innovative product at the Microsoft Tech-ED trade show in Copenhagen (Denmark) in 2004, AddOnMail is based in Paris (France) and recently opened a branch in Canada. AddOnMail publishes archiving and electronic-message-management solutions, especially those stored on user workstations. The company helps businesses locate messages within their corporate network. AddOnMail also helps IT managers secure the data thanks to its archiving and backup functions, as well as functions making it possible to move data to other, more secure (or cheaper) storage space. For further information, please go to: www.addonmail.com   For further information, please contact : Quote ref. : FTPB3672 Ms Katherine WOODS - Press Officer UBIFRANCE Press Office in London Tel: +44 (0) 207 024 3640 katherine.woods@ubifrance.fr   View other press releases at : http://www.ubifrance.com/uk/  

WALLIX, a leading European IT-security company, has finalised an increase in share capital of €2 million to be carried out with Thierry Dassault Holding (TDH), the personal holding group of Thierry Dassault, and Auriga Partners, an independent venture-capital firm. As part of the deal, Thierry Dassault will acquire a stake in software developer WALLIX, which is to become a public-limited company. WALLIX has completed discussions with the Auriga Partners investment fund, therefore preparing itself to embark on an ambitious international-development plan together with Thierry Dassault, a specialist in economic intelligence and the President of Keynectis, a European leader in technologies and advisory services. WALLIX, which operates in the UK out of its offices in Reading (in southern England), designs and develops software applied to IT security. "Through the years, the security of information exchanges on IT networks has become a fundamental challenge for businesses. My acquisition of a stake in WALLIX contributes to the strengthening of French companies’ investment strategies for such fundamental IT-related subjects. I hope that WALLIX may be able to take its place rapidly among the leading European players as is the case today for Keynectis, which I have supported since its creation in 2004," says Thierry Dassault. "WALLIX is positioned in a rapidly growing market with a strong added value, and we are very happy to finance and support the large-scale international developments which lie ahead," underlines François Lainée, Associate at Auriga Partners. Since the launch of its WALLIX AdminBastion (WAB), the IT-security solution developed by the company in 2008, WALLIX has positioned itself clearly in the IAM (Identity and Access Management) market. WALLIX’s solutions strengthen the security of access to IT systems, user-account management, and the traceability of computer activity. Indeed, WALLIX is one of very few companies in the world to have developed a technology of ’session recording’, which allows the recording of individual network-connection sessions and reproduces them in video-logs. Having analysed the growing success of the WALLIX’s IT-security products on the market, and in order to accompany European product deployment, WALLIX has decided to reinforce its own capital with new financial partners. In order to do this, the company has entrusted a mandate to LD&A, the corporate-finance specialist, with a view to working together in raising capital through potential investors. "This capital raising is going to strengthen significantly our pool of investors and our asset base, which constitutes a strong signal, for our key clients, in terms of the lasting nature [of the business]," declares Amaury Rosset, Financial Director and Partner of WALLIX. The capital raised will essentially be dedicated to the development of alliances with new strategic partners, as well as to the international expansion of the company, with the recruitment of value-added resellers (VARs) within the EU (including Britain) and in Switzerland. "Our development plan was able to appeal to leading investors and to the IT-security market at the same time. In a more robust setting, from now on, we envisage strengthening our presence in England, in Germany, in the Benelux countries as well as in the southern European countries that surround the Mediterranean, and in the Persian Gulf. Our objective is the accompaniment of the introduction of corporate governance and respect for regulatory and legal requirements, of dematerialization, and of ensuring the security of public (or private) Cloud Computing," explains Jean-Noël de Galzain, CEO of WALLIX. "Given the growing impact of cyber criminality, and how far we have fallen behind in Europe [in this respect], we are even more motivated to provide our clients with means of IT controls and to build up an innovative and sustainable European proposition," adds the CEO of WALLIX. In the final stage of the capital increase,WALLIX will be transformed into a public-limited company (or PLC) with a Board of Directors and a Management Board. The Board of Directors is set to consist of Amaury Rosset, Associate Finance Director; Jean-Yves Portalier, Director General and deputy to Jean-Noël de Galzain; and Jean-Noël de Galzain himself, who will become Chairman of the Board. The company will set up a Supervisory Council composed of five members, namely Stéphane Taunay, Chairman of the Board of Sopromec (an investment company); Pierre-Yves Dargaud, Chairman of the Board of Access2Net (a venture-capital group); François Lainée, Associate at Auriga Partners; Didier Lesteven, entrepreneur; and, finally, Thierry Dassault. Didier Lesteven will be Chairman of the Supervisory Council of WALLIX. In the past three years, WALLIX’s range of solutions has established itself as a product leader for the external provision of secure IT access, for the traceability of users’ actions, and for user-account management. Today, the WAB solutions developed by WALLIX are deployed in more than 100 large businesses and in industries as diverse as banking, manufacturing and the media, as well as in the public sector. WALLIX’s products are distributed in the form of software and hardware solutions through a network of integrators and certified VARs present in Belgium, England, France, Luxembourg, Russia and Switzerland. About WALLIX WALLIX is a developer and distributor of computer-security software specialising in traceability and risk management linked to the outsourcing of IT. WALLIX, which is based in Paris (France) and in Reading (England), also has a subsidiary in New York (USA). The company distributes its software products through a network of VARs that operate across Europe and North Africa. WALLIX’s solutions are aimed at IT directors and those responsible for IT security, who must improve the IT risk management of businesses in order to be compliant with regulations. The company’s products are used in the financial-services industry, in manufacturing, in health and medical services, and in the public sector. WALLIX’s Wallix Admin Bastion has been adopted by many large and medium-size companies. The company also produces WALLIX LogBox (WLB ), a solution that logs system-connection information. WALLIX is a prize-winner of the Oseo Innovation awards, of the PM’UP programme, and a partner of the System@tic Paris Region high-technology cluster of excellence. WALLIX has also recently been awarded the title Champion of the Cluster . For further information on the System@tic Paris Region high-technology cluster, please go to: www.systematic-paris-region.org/en For further information on WALLIX, please go to: www.wallix.com   For further information, please contact : Quote ref. : FTPB3668 Ms Katherine WOODS - Press Officer UBIFRANCE Press Office in London Tel: +44 (0) 207 024 3640 katherine.woods@ubifrance.fr   View other press releases at : http://www.ubifrance.com/uk/  

CARTES & IDentification 2011, which took place in Paris from 15 to 17 November 2011, attracted close to 20,000 visitors, confirming its international influence and positioning itself as a key global event for digital security and smart technologies. With a rising number of visitors — 19,510 visitors, against 18,770 in 2010 — the trade show once again met the sector’s high expectations. Building on this success, the CARTES team has already announced the dates of the next trade show: 6 to 8 November 2012 in Paris (France). Combining innovation and dynamism, CARTES & IDentification 2011, which was held in Paris in mid-November, was a reflection of a dynamic market - from the conferences to the SESAMES Awards , and given the high number of visitors. The trade show confirmed its international status, with 430 exhibitors from 45 countries and 19,510 visitors, 69% of whom were from outside France, representing 143 countries in total. The 21 conferences, held over the three days that the trade show lasted, welcomed 1,225 participants, 87% of whom were from outside France. Key industry issues were discussed at length, in particular during the conferences dedicated to mobile payments and mobile financial services (including near-field communication, or NFC, and contactless services); to the future of payments and payment technology, more generally; to security in a Cloud ecosystem; to multi-application cards; to point-of-sale and point-of-interaction technologies and developments; and, finally, to e-government. These conferences were all a success. As in previous years, the high point of the trade show was the inaugural conference - the World Card Summit . During the conference, key leaders from the industry analysed major market trends and presented their strategic visions in front of 500 people. For the first time in Europe, Scott Mulloy, the Chief Technology Officer of ISIS (a joint mobile-payment venture between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless) presented his mobile-payment vision. EUROSMART, the international trade association that represents the smart-card industry, also presented a preview of the 2011 figures and forecasts for the global market. EUROSMART indicated that it expected 13% growth across the sector in 2012, and a total of 7 billion units produced for secure smart devices. Applications in mobile payments and NFC were the key themes of this year’s CARTES & IDentification. Visitors were informed of the deployment of contactless technology and the arrival of NFC terminals for mobile payment thanks to many demonstrations, including that of the NFC car by Oberthur Technologies, a world leader in security based on smart-card technology and associated services. Global semiconductor company NXP also presented its e-bike. The pavilion dedicated to mobile-payment companies hosted 12 solutions providers for mobile payments, transactions management, Trusted Service Management (TSM), smartphones, tablets and other smart mobile objects. Similarly, CARTES & IDentification 2011 presented many projects in government security and in e-health. The identification and authentication technologies presented by the exhibitors have been applied to many documents, including biometric passports, electronic ID, electronic driver’s licences and health-registration cards. E-health was in the spotlight this year due to the trade show’s Smart Health Exhibition. The exhibition presented innovations in electronic health records, health cards, and applications for telemedicine that improve the quality of care services and patients’ comfort, but which also help in the fight against fraud and inflation in health costs. The winners of the 2011 SESAMES Awards were revealed in front of a privileged audience of 300 guests during a ceremony organised at the Automobile Club de France, in central Paris. Among the winners was Dynamics Inc: its Chips And Choice TM solution won the award for best hardware. The award for best software was given to NXP for its Open-source NFC Host Software stack for Android . GEMALTO won the prize for the best IT-security application, thanks to Just4YourEyes . INSIDE Secure’s VHBR application won the award for best transportation solution. The prize for best banking/retail/loyalty application was awarded to SIMartis Telecom, for its Bubble solution. HID Global’s Next Generation Secure Identity Ecosystem was unveiled as the best secure internet/authentication application. PN65 Secure NFC Module by NXP was given the award for best mobility application. The SESAME award for identification went to Smart Packaging Solutions, for its Embedded Contactless Module . The award for best e-transactions application went to Verifone, for its PAYware Mobile Enterprise , and Oberthur Technologies won the award for the best manufacturing & tests application thanks to its ID One Digital watermark . About CARTES & IDentification CARTES & IDentification is the foremost business event that brings together the entire digital-security, smart-technologies, payment, contactless and mobility sectors. The trade show, organised by Comexposium, the international event-management group, provides a unique setting to discuss and discover the industry’s latest trends and new products. CARTES & IDentification 2011 had almost 20,000 visitors (69% of whom were from outside France, with a total of 143 different countries represented) and welcomed 430 exhibitors, who came from 45 countries. The trade show’s conferences welcomed 1,225 participants from across the globe. The 27 th CARTES & IDentification trade show will be held from 6 to 8 November 2012 at the Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition centre, north of the French capital. The guest-of-honour nation, in 2012, will be India. Photos of the 2011 CARTES & IDentification trade show can be obtained on request from LEWIS PR ( cartes@lewispr.com ). The trade show’s blog can be found at: www.blogcartes.com For more information, please go to the trade show’s website: www.cartes.com   For further information, please contact : Quote ref. : FTPB3570 Ms Katherine WOODS - Press Officer UBIFRANCE Press Office in London Tel: +44 (0) 207 024 3640 katherine.woods@ubifrance.fr   View other press releases at : http://www.ubifrance.com/uk/  

    De 9e editie van de nieuwsbrief "CANAL PAYS-BAS : le Pont vers l’export" is nu beschikbaar! Om de twee maanden publiceert de Franse Handelsdelegatie-UBIFRANCE in Amsterdam een nieuwsbrief. De 9e editie bevat informatie over verschillende branches in Nederland, een kalender met projecten van de Franse Handelsdelegatie etc. Indien u een exemplaar van deze nieuwsbrief wilt ontvangen, kunt u een email sturen naar: amsterdam@ubifrance.fr        

Generix Group’s on-demand exchange platform has processed 60 million messages from 20,000 suppliers across 14 countries for Carrefour Group over the past year. This is thanks to Carrefour Group’s decision to outsource its international electronic data interchange (EDI) and business-to-business (B2B) workflow management on Generix Group’s shared data-exchange platform, known as EdiConnect . As part of its development plan, in mid-2009, Carrefour Group decided to overhaul its international EDI/B2B exchanges and the management of data flows between its brands and its suppliers. One year after Carrefour Group commissioned Generix Group’s shared platform EdiConnect, Hervé Thoumyre, CIO of Carrefour Group, which is the world’s second largest retailer, and Jean-Charles Deconninck, CEO of Generix Group, provide an assessment of EdiConnect. Hervé Thoumyre, CIO of Carrefour Group, explains, "The EdiConnect platform aligns tools operating across 14 countries in which we work throughout Asia, South America and Europe, while meeting local needs. Volumes are very high: 20,000 suppliers and 400 trading partners are currently connected to EdiConnect. With an annual traffic of 60 million exchanged messages, the quality of our international data-flow management is an important factor in our performance." To better implement its business model, Carrefour Group decided to outsource its data-exchange management. The EdiConnect service, offered and operated by Generix Group, is provided via a single shared collaborative platform across all countries. "The platform provides a 24/7 service that meets the requirements of time-critical exchange-flow processing. It is also adapted to local needs, while guaranteeing harmonisation across all countries involved. For example, the preparation orders must be strictly completed within very tight time constraints to trigger logistics-orders processing around the world. The service is evaluated with very strict performance indicators [service-level agreement], and concurrently provides reliability and security guarantees. SaaS [i.e. Software as a Service] relieves our teams of daily operational tasks, allowing them to focus on their jobs. The final return on investment aggregates all those factors," concludes Hervé Thoumyre of Carrefour Group. When commenting on the migration of Carrefour Group’s EDI/B2B infrastructure, Hervé Thoumyre explains, "This [migration] expands the service availability, reduces the number of incidents, improves the speed of international EDI flow and, therefore, better serves our customers around the world." As an expert in SaaS-based critical workflow management, Generix Group already serves 2,100 companies such as Cora, Ferrero, FNAC, Galeries Lafayette, Henkel, Kuehne + Nagel, and PepsiCo France. Its collaborative-supply-chain solutions manage complex workflows and, as a result, meet the standards imposed by retailers dealing with multiple vendors and managing a multitude of products. Jean-Charles Deconninck, CEO of Generix Group, points out that, "Our customers seek to reduce inventory levels and accelerate their product rotation. Every day, we deal with issues relating to orders, inventory, deliveries and billing — areas that are much more effective with task automation. Daily, our collaborative platforms handle over a million messages associated with critical workflow, often within tight deadlines. In the retail sector, the international services platform managed for Carrefour Group is characterised by its high volume, the criticality of managed workflows, and the extremely tight processing times." Moreover, the principle of a SaaS contract rests on the availability of an application service catalogue that details changes. This is provided by Generix Group, as the EdiConnect platform is enhanced with new services over time, such as the recently added connectors to support new banking protocols. "SaaS creates a new era in which customers become ’services consumers’, and their loyalty depends on the quality of our services, the effectiveness of our organisation, and our ability to deliver on our commitments. Being a SaaS provider requires strong organisational changes in order to continuously meet customers’ demands," stresses Jean-Charles Deconninck. "Customer Care is the cornerstone of this scheme to continuously manage the relationship with our clients." In 2010/2011, the on-demand flow-management applications accounted for over €10 million of Generix Group’s turnover, i.e. nearly 25% of their software-publishing business. The increase in sales in this area — up by 33%, year on year, in 2010/2011 — strongly reflects the growing demand for SaaS. "In a few years, EDI has become a tool that is both commonplace and essential in optimising critical workflow. Most of the new B2B projects include technologies such as Cloud [computing] and, today, customers prefer SaaS to EDI/B2B solutions. Like communication tools such as CRM [i.e. Customer Relationship Management], the EDI market has largely switched to using the SaaS mode, which offers greater flexibility and agility. The collaborative supply chain is part of this mainstream movement," concludes Jean-Charles Deconninck. According to Gartner’s Revenues by Country & Segment 2010 of the AIM market, the London Stock Exchange’s international market for smaller/growing companies, Generix Group is France’s leader in EDI/B2B data-exchange solutions, with more than 35% of market share. Generix Group’s on-demand exchange platform has processed 60 million messages from 20,000 suppliers across 14 countries for Carrefour Group over the past year. This is thanks to Carrefour Group’s decision to outsource its international electronic data interchange (EDI) and business-to-business (B2B) workflow management on Generix Group’s shared data-exchange platform, known as EdiConnect . As part of its development plan, in mid-2009, Carrefour Group decided to overhaul its international EDI/B2B exchanges and the management of data flows between its brands and its suppliers. One year after Carrefour Group commissioned Generix Group’s shared platform EdiConnect, Hervé Thoumyre, CIO of Carrefour Group, which is the world’s second largest retailer, and Jean-Charles Deconninck, CEO of Generix Group, provide an assessment of EdiConnect. Hervé Thoumyre, CIO of Carrefour Group, explains, "The EdiConnect platform aligns tools operating across 14 countries in which we work throughout Asia, South America and Europe, while meeting local needs. Volumes are very high: 20,000 suppliers and 400 trading partners are currently connected to EdiConnect. With an annual traffic of 60 million exchanged messages, the quality of our international data-flow management is an important factor in our performance." To better implement its business model, Carrefour Group decided to outsource its data-exchange management. The EdiConnect service, offered and operated by Generix Group, is provided via a single shared collaborative platform across all countries. "The platform provides a 24/7 service that meets the requirements of time-critical exchange-flow processing. It is also adapted to local needs, while guaranteeing harmonisation across all countries involved. For example, the preparation orders must be strictly completed within very tight time constraints to trigger logistics-orders processing around the world. The service is evaluated with very strict performance indicators [service-level agreement], and concurrently provides reliability and security guarantees. SaaS [i.e. Software as a Service] relieves our teams of daily operational tasks, allowing them to focus on their jobs. The final return on investment aggregates all those factors," concludes Hervé Thoumyre of Carrefour Group. When commenting on the migration of Carrefour Group’s EDI/B2B infrastructure, Hervé Thoumyre explains, "This [migration] expands the service availability, reduces the number of incidents, improves the speed of international EDI flow and, therefore, better serves our customers around the world." As an expert in SaaS-based critical workflow management, Generix Group already serves 2,100 companies such as Cora, Ferrero, FNAC, Galeries Lafayette, Henkel, Kuehne + Nagel, and PepsiCo France. Its collaborative-supply-chain solutions manage complex workflows and, as a result, meet the standards imposed by retailers dealing with multiple vendors and managing a multitude of products. Jean-Charles Deconninck, CEO of Generix Group, points out that, "Our customers seek to reduce inventory levels and accelerate their product rotation. Every day, we deal with issues relating to orders, inventory, deliveries and billing — areas that are much more effective with task automation. Daily, our collaborative platforms handle over a million messages associated with critical workflow, often within tight deadlines. In the retail sector, the international services platform managed for Carrefour Group is characterised by its high volume, the criticality of managed workflows, and the extremely tight processing times." Moreover, the principle of a SaaS contract rests on the availability of an application service catalogue that details changes. This is provided by Generix Group, as the EdiConnect platform is enhanced with new services over time, such as the recently added connectors to support new banking protocols. "SaaS creates a new era in which customers become ’services consumers’, and their loyalty depends on the quality of our services, the effectiveness of our organisation, and our ability to deliver on our commitments. Being a SaaS provider requires strong organisational changes in order to continuously meet customers’ demands," stresses Jean-Charles Deconninck. "Customer Care is the cornerstone of this scheme to continuously manage the relationship with our clients." In 2010/2011, the on-demand flow-management applications accounted for over €10 million of Generix Group’s turnover, i.e. nearly 25% of their software-publishing business. The increase in sales in this area — up by 33%, year on year, in 2010/2011 — strongly reflects the growing demand for SaaS. "In a few years, EDI has become a tool that is both commonplace and essential in optimising critical workflow. Most of the new B2B projects include technologies such as Cloud [computing] and, today, customers prefer SaaS to EDI/B2B solutions. Like communication tools such as CRM [i.e. Customer Relationship Management], the EDI market has largely switched to using the SaaS mode, which offers greater flexibility and agility. The collaborative supply chain is part of this mainstream movement," concludes Jean-Charles Deconninck. According to Gartner’s Revenues by Country & Segment 2010 of the AIM market, the London Stock Exchange’s international market for smaller/growing companies, Generix Group is France’s leader in EDI/B2B data-exchange solutions, with more than 35% of market share. About Generix Group Generix Group, a leading SaaS producer, offers collaborative solutions for commercial use by consumer-goods manufacturers, specialist retailers and e-commerce companies, as well as businesses operating in the field of transport and logistics. The group offers a wide range of infrastructure solutions designed to increase collaboration within (and between) companies, automatizing both A2A [i.e. Application to Application] and B2B exchanges (such as e-billing and B2B gateway portals). With a turnover of €67 million, Generix Group is Europe’s leader in collaborative solutions for commerce and the supply chain. To date, 1,500 distributors, global manufacturers and logistics companies have chosen Generix Group’s collaborative business solutions, and they include Carrefour, Cdiscount, DHL Exel Supply Chain, Gefco, Kuehne + Nagel, Leroy Merlin, Louis Vuitton Sodiaal, Metro, Nestlé, Sara Lee, and Unilever. For further information, please go to: www.generixgroup.com or www.gci.generixgroup.com/en     For further information, please contact : Quote ref. : FTPB3662 Ms Katherine WOODS - Press Officer UBIFRANCE Press Office in London Tel: +44 (0) 207 024 3640 katherine.woods@ubifrance.fr   View other press releases at : http://www.ubifrance.com/uk/  

Oktober 2011 - De Franse online markt is de afgelopen jaren zeer snel gegroeid. In 2010 vertegenwoordigde de e-commerce alleen al € 31 miljard van de € 36,2 miljard die verdiend werd met verkoop op afstand. In het eerste half jaar van 2011 was de omzet van alle gecombineerde e-commerce websites € 17,5 miljard, een jaarlijkse stijging van 20% ten opzichte van 2010. Frankrijk heeft op dit moment 90.000 verkoopwebsites, inclusief 20.000 nieuwe sites die binnen één jaar zijn opgezet. In het eerste kwartaal van 2011 vertoont de iCE 40 index van leidinggevende e-commerce sites een jaarlijkse groei van 11%. Momenteel biedt de e?commerce sector in Frankrijk momenteel zowel direct als indirect aan 60.000 mensen werk. Frankrijk is een topmarkt voor buitenlandse bedrijven. Een mooi voorbeeld is het logistieke centrum voor opslag en distributie dat in 2010 in Montélimar (regio Rhône-Alpes) werd gebouwd door het Amerikaanse bedrijf Amazon, waarbij ca. 500 banen werden gecreëerd. Dit is de tweede Amazon-vestiging die in Frankrijk werd gebouwd na de Saran-vestiging net buiten Orléans (regio Centraal Frankrijk, 200 banen). De sector is verdeeld in twee categorieën met enerzijds typische e-commerce sites, zoals eBay (9,1 miljoen afzonderlijke bezoekers per maand in het eerste kwartaal van 2011), PriceMinister (7,8 miljoen bezoekers), dat onlangs uitgekocht werd door het Japanse bedrijf Rakuten, en Living Social France , een site voor dagelijkse consumentendeals die het Franse bedrijf Dealissime in 2011 heeft overgenomen. Daarnaast zijn er sites die gespecialiseerd zijn in postorderverkoop zoals Amazon (9,1 miljoen), La Redoute (6,5 miljoen), 3 Suisses (5,3 miljoen), la Fnac (6,9 miljoen), Voyages-Sncf (6,9 miljoen) en Carrefour (6,4 miljoen) (bron: Mediamétrie/Netratings).  Naar verwachting zal de e-commerce in 2012 een verkoopcijfer van € 45 miljard vertegenwoordigen, een economisch aandeel dat te vergelijken is met telecommunicatie en ruimtevaart, aldus FEVAD, Franse federatie voor e-commerce en verkoop op afstand ( Fédération du e-commerce et de la vente à distance ) die bedrijven in de sector vertegenwoordigt. In de toekomst zal de detailhandelsverkoop van niet tastbare producten zoals downloadbare audiovisuele inhoud en papierloze online services omvatten, vooral in het bank- en verzekeringswezen.  De belangrijkste strategie van het innovatiecluster Detailhandel en Marketing ( Industries du commerce ) in de regio Nord-Pas-de-Calais is het verkopen van innovatie, inclusief elektronica. Recent goedgekeurde projecten zoals de Smart Store (een 3D virtueel shoppingcenter app voor smartphones) of het C3DS project (ontworpen ter verbetering van de sensoriële perceptie van textiel zodat consumenten virtueel producten kunnen proberen die in 3D worden weergegeven), zijn lopende voorbeelden van de nieuwste concepten waaraan dit cluster werkt. Andere innovatieclusters zoals Cap Digital Paris Region of TES (E-Secure Transactions) in Caen dragen bij aan de uitbreiding van innovatie in de e-commerce sector.  De volgende fase bestaat uit het aanbieden van virtuele winkelcentra met honderden producenten die vergelijkbaar is met een trend die in de Verenigde Staten al voet aan de grond heeft gekregen. Het Franse juridische en regelgevende kader biedt een ruime consumentenbescherming (bijv. spampreventie) en streng privacybeleid. De Franse overheid heeft een charter op het gebied van anti-cybervervalsing geïnitieerd dat in 2009 werd ondertekend door merkvertegenwoordigers en een groot aantal e-commerce platforms. Ook de beveiliging van online betalingen is aanzienlijk aangescherpt. The Invest in France Agency (IFA) is het nationale agentschap dat verantwoordelijk is voor de promotie, de prospectie en het faciliteren van internationale investeringen in Frankrijk. Het is de organisatie bij uitstek voor de economische aantrekkelijkheid en het imago van Frankrijk. Het agentschap beschikt over een internationaal netwerk. In Frankrijk werkt de IFA nauw samen met regionale agentschappen voor economische ontwikkeling om investeerders een service op maat te bieden. Kijk voor informatie op de website www.investinfrance.org ; Contactpersoon voor de media: flefevre@afii.fr