Video interview at the Open World Forum 2014
Watch an interview with Stefane Fermigier, our founder, filmed at the Open World Forum 2014.
Watch the 8-minute video below to learn all about Abilian's offering dedicated to clusters and competitiveness clusters:
Transcription
*Guy Hervier: Good morning and welcome to Open World Forum 2014. This morning I have the pleasure of welcoming Stéfane Fermigier, who is chairman of Abilian. Stéfane Fermigier, good morning.
Stefane Fermigier: Good morning Guy.
*GH: We've been talking about Enterprise 2.0 for some time now, about social networks for businesses. So your company, Abilian, is a bit part of all that, can you tell us a bit more about it?
SF: In fact, our company is a player in the digital transformation, helping businesses and organisations to become more competitive. We have identified two technological areas that we feel are important for this competitiveness. Firstly, information management, which means that companies need to be able to manage both the data and the knowledge that goes into their business processes. Secondly, collaboration, the ability to exchange information, pool resources and identify resources within companies and organisations.
To begin with, we have chosen to work mainly with the market of players involved in supporting competitiveness and innovation, in particular, in France, clusters, and one of the forms of clustering known as pôles de compétitivité. So we're addressing a market of several hundred organisations, since there are clusters in every region of France, of varying sizes but all with common needs and processes that require the support of an IT tool. Let me give you a few examples.
*GH: So, just so I understand, does that mean that your product, or rather, your solution, is more suited to communities than to companies directly?
SF: We have a technology platform that we've been working on for 2 years, which is Open Source. On top of this platform, we produce industry-specific solutions for a number of industries. The first solution we have created corresponds precisely to this market of economic support and innovation support players.
*GH: OK, so that means that in a second or third phase there will be sector-specific solutions that can be plugged into this base?
SF: Absolutely. We are already developing solutions for universities and e-democracy, for example. All this will be available very soon, at the beginning of 2015.
*GH: Right. So this is a company that was set up just over two years ago. How far have you got with development, do you already have existing solutions that are starting to be marketed?
SF: Well, what we're announcing today, at the Open World Forum, is the actual marketing, on a subscription basis, since we're in an Open Source business model, of the solution dedicated to these players in the support of innovation and competitiveness, to clusters; and this solution addresses business needs that correspond to the two main activities of competitiveness clusters, which are, on the one hand, support for R&D projects and collaborative projects. Competitiveness clusters therefore need to help with the emergence, labelling and support of projects, and then to monitor their implementation and economic spin-offs, over a considerable period of time - we're talking practically 10 years, from start to finish - and these are contractual obligations vis-à-vis the funders of these projects; and so our solution enables our customers to address the entire life cycle of this business process, which is so important to them.
There is a second type of process, which is support for economic development, with, in general, for each cluster, different schemes but which have a certain number of points in common, and which aim to help SMEs, whether it's for their international development, or for advice on strategy, HR, etc. So we provide solutions that can be adapted to the needs of each cluster. So we provide solutions that have really been developed, and which can then, of course, be adapted to the process of each of our customers.
*GH: Very good. So, today, when you create a start-up in the digital sector, because that's the word we're used to, we always say that you have to think international from the outset. Do you already have ambitions to, obviously, market this product in France, but also internationally?
SF: People always say that, and it's good advice, but at the same time it's a risk, because international development, as I've experienced in my previous experiences, really requires millions in terms of investment. So our strategy is twofold. On the one hand, by creating a product, an Open Source platform, with, of course, a presentation in English and all communication in English, we hope to attract a truly international community. On the other hand, we've chosen a niche market, the cluster market in France, something that will enable us to develop initially without too much pressure in terms of competition, while still having the potential to scale up fairly quickly, particularly at European level, since there are hundreds of clusters in Europe too.
*GH: So you could sum it up as "caution and ambition at the same time".
SF: Exactly, you've summed up our strategy for 2015 perfectly.
*GH: Very good. Well, Stéfane Fermigier, thank you very much.
SF: Thank you Guy.
