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Bold Decisions, Determination, and Consistent Implementation of Strategy are Key to Comarch’s Success in France

The Comarch branch has been growing in France continuously since 2006, where we have consistently built a thriving organization working with many well-known and valued clients from around the world. What exactly did our journey look like? Reason on to find out.

There is an interesting story behind the establishment of the Comarch office in France. At the beginning of the 21st century, virtual operator services were developing rapidly in Europe. Often, large retail chains set up their own mobile networks while using the infrastructure of traditional operators such as Vodafone, T-Mobile or Orange.

In 2006, Auchan Telecom launched a tender to set up a mobile phone service. The Comarch Group, despite having no experience in this segment, made a successful bid. As it turned out, we created a very good, innovative product that resonated with the industry. At the time, we met very short deadlines while delivering a top-quality product. In the following months, we continued our pursuit and expanded our activities in the local market. It is worth mentioning here that the commercial negotiations were conducted at that time by Dr Anna Pruska, the then President of Comarch AG and now President of the Management Board of Comarch SA. It was Ms Anna Pruska who signed the first contract, which became the foundation for the further development of Comarch in France, and who also interviewed me and decided on my employment.

The second important fact that cannot be overlooked is that 10 years ago the French market was outside the top 10 countries for Comarch. The systematic development of the business and of local operations transformed this to second place. In 2023, France became the company’s second largest export market, second only to Germany. It is noteworthy that France is the only country to have achieved this result mainly organically.

Locations

Comarch in France has four teams, in Lille, Grenoble, Cergy, and Lyon. This amounts to a total of approximately 150 people. Several dozen people also work on our projects from Poland.

Lille has been the headquarters of Comarch’s French branch from the start for a very practical reason. Auchan’s head office is also located in Lille. We wanted to be close to our main customer to manage the flow of information more easily. In addition, Lille is a city around which many retail companies for which we supply a large proportion of our products are based.

Comarch's HQ in France - Lezennes. (next to Lille).

We opened our second office in Grenoble. It is a city with some of the best technical universities in the country. This is the IT hub of the region. Here we employ more production-related people – programmers, DevOps engineers, and project managers. Grenoble also attracts with its quality of life. The city lies at the foot of the Alps. The office has a beautiful mountain panorama. It is very hot there in summer, and in winter you can hit the ski slopes after work.

We opened another of our offices in Lyon. It is the second largest economic and business center in France, and one of the country’s fastest growing cities. The Lyon team is more focused on business development. We mainly have business analysts and consultants there.

Comarch’s newest branch in France is located in Cergy, near Paris. In 2020, we bought an e-health company that was based right in the suburbs of the French capital.

Projects

Comarch’s origins in France are inextricably linked to the telecommunications sector. Our first implemented project, but also several others, concerned telecommunication services. After several years of activity, we gradually expanded our offer. We decided to provide ERP services, in particular for retail companies.

After 2010 the boom in e-commerce services came, and we noticed that our competitors had outdated solutions, poorly adapting to new realities. Due to the huge resources spent on research and development in previous years, Comarch’s proprietary software was more competitive. We began to win tenders precisely because of the modernity, innovation, and ease of adaptation of our products to the needs of our clients.

We have also been developing products to support remote medical care since 2020. The company we bought at the time had HIS (health information system) products in its portfolio. It also offered its products to home healthcare providers. We decided to deepen and develop the systems it offered, particularly those in the field of telemedicine.

Today, our portfolio largely consists of services for the retail industry (ERP, e-invoicing and loyalty systems) and systems supporting remote medical care. We support business processes at some of the world’s largest corporations of French origin, including Auchan, Leroy Merlin, Dior, Intersport, Paris Airport, BIC, and many others. Nowadays, we no longer win with price, as we are often more expensive than our Western European competitors. We win with the quality, expertise, and sophistication of our software, and our services in France are already used by more than 120 clients.

What makes us proud is that we are a company based on knowledge that materialises in our products, and this knowledge is unique. Owing to Polish engineering thought, we drive business and solve critical problems for the world’s largest companies, leaders in many industries.

Photo with the Polish ambassador in Paris (His Excellency Jan Emeryk Rościszewski).

We provide our customers with critical systems without which they could not function, such as loyalty systems, systems for managing promotional offers in stores, ERP software, e-invoicing or document exchange. At the same time, we believe, as confirmed by the Covid-19 pandemic, that remote medical care will grow in popularity in the near future.

Studies, analysis and observation of trends show that the European population is ageing at a very dynamic rate. The number of elderly people requiring more medical care than before is increasing. At the same time, there is a shortage of young doctors. The number of doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, both in Poland and France, is steadily declining and forecasts show a further downward trend. In the future, we will need services that automate each doctor’s workflow and facilitate contact with patients, and we have such know-how, products, and a growing customer base.

Strong collaboration

As a company with Polish roots, we support initiatives to strengthen relations between Poland and France. The border region with Belgium, where we are based, is also interesting because of the Polish community living there. Many migrants from Poland arrived in France in the inter-war period. Descendants of many of them still live in the region, cherishing their Polish roots. There is a Polish school in Lille, and until 2013 there was also the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland. In 2022, we donated computers to students.

Handover of computers to the Polish school in Lille, in the presence of Mr Consul Andrzej Szydło.

Comarch in France also maintains very good relations with the Polish Embassy in Paris. We support the strengthening of economic relations between our countries. I myself am a board member of the Polish Chamber of Commerce in Paris. It is an organization whose aim is to support Polish investments in France and French investments in Poland. We also support Polish companies with our knowledge and experience so that they can build their presence in Western Europe even more efficiently. In 2019, we were awarded as the most important and strategic Polish investor in France by the Polish Embassy in Paris. The award was personally received by the late Professor Janusz Filipiak, President of Comarch, and his wife Elżbieta Filipiak.

The Polish Business Gala in France 2019 - In the category "Polish Laureate in France," the award was given to Comarch S.A. The award was accepted by the President, Mrs. Elżbieta Filipiak.

Investments

Our greatest asset and capital is definitely our people. Over so many years we have managed to build teams based on openness, respect, and kindness. We know that behind every success is the work of a team, which is why we support local communities and active leisure. Our specialists do not rest on their laurels – they regularly raise the bar and are keen to share their knowledge.

Key people behind Comarch’s success in France include Anthony Delvalle, Michel Setera, Andrzej Tenerowicz, Maxime Blavette, David Royer, Eric Leyval and David Gourdelier.

The Comarch France team, two weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic. The photo was taken in mid-February 2020, during the kick-off at OSC Lille.

On the other hand, with regard to investment in the context of business, Comarch was the largest Polish investor in France until 2020. We were dethroned by InPost, which outbid Comarch while making the largest Polish private investment in history – it bought out a local logistics company also based in Lille.

Nowadays, sponsorship agreements occupy their own proper place in marketing and are an indispensable tool because they offer specific benefits that neither advertising nor public relations alone can offer. In 2011, we became a sponsor of AS Nancy Lorraine, only to raise the bar a few years later and invest in future French Champion – OSC Lille. It is interesting to note that when we negotiated the sponsorship deal with OSC Lille, they finished the previous season in 17th place, avoiding relegation, whereas in the season in which we were the sponsor they finished second behind only the star-studded PSG (they won against them in a memorable 5-1 match).

Presentation by Professor Janusz Filipiak.

Other important Comarch investments in France include the construction of an R&D department (in Grenoble and Cergy), investments in product development for French customers and a new Comarch Data Centre located in the northern part of the country, in the city of Lille.

Our investment efforts are also recognised by President Emmanuel Macron and his administration. Professor Filipiak was invited many times to the annual “Choose France” summit. This is an event organised by the Élysée Palace for the 100 largest investors from around the world to exchange insights on the future of foreign investment on the Seine.

The current presidential administration has set as one of its goals the development of a modern industry based on the latest technologies. By investing in the development of digital services, we fit in with these plans, so we are appreciated as reliable partners. In 2018, we opened at our headquarters in Lille what was then the company’s largest data centre. This allowed us to expand our hosting offer for current and future Comarch customers in France. The value of the project at the time was EUR 10 million.

The Comarch branch in France is already a mature organization. We have a well-established position on the market and are recognized as a trustworthy partner. Step by step, the four teams, together with their Polish colleagues, are building up the presence of the Kraków-based company on the Seine. The number and variety of projects has enabled us to avoid the crisis; moreover, in recent years we have continued to dynamically increase our business, employment, and the range of services we offer. The Polish roots and technical thought, the French outlook on business and the enormous commitment of the local team have proved to be the key to stable growth in our case, but also to closer economic relations between the two countries. Finally, it should be mentioned that we build the French and Polish economy together, for which we are also appreciated.

If you would like to find out more about Comarch’s branch in France, check out our offers and try your hand at the recruitment process. Maybe you are the one we are looking for.

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