Launching of Nekoe: Innovation through Services

Yesterday evening I was at the inauguration of Nekoe. Nekoe has been established as a “center of excellence” in innovation for the service industries in Orleans. Pentalog had to be there for two reasons; first as a service company based in Orleans, and second, we were responsible for the development of the dynamic part of the website www.nekoe.fr, in partnership with Oxyneo who took charge of the graphics and SEO.I would like to take this opportunity to thank Wilfrid at Orleans, and Ionut at Brasov, who invested so much time and effort to complete this web site on schedule, despite the rather short time limit given.The current site, which is destined to be a community portal, is still in its early beginnings. By the end of the year the site should provide web networking tools, including management tools for project stakeholders in Nekoe.We’ll talk about this when the time comes.Why innovation in services, what does this mean? It’s easier if I give you an example. I want to get around town by bicycle. First solution, 1 buy a bike, Option 2, I rent a bike, (e.g. Vélo+ in Orleans) and thus I have innovation in a service industry.For industries such as Michelin, IBM, and Lexmark, they have converted part of their industries into service industries: rental and maintenance of Michelin tires for example. The President of IBM France explained to those attending the conference that the company nearly died in 1993. At that time the mastodon was operating at 80% production and 20% in services. It had to reinvent itself under this pressure and now the proportions are reversed and this has saved the company.This mutation is lagging in France, far behind other European countries, especially in the northern countries and the United States, where it is seen as a necessity. Today it is the service industries that are driving growth upward and are creating the jobs in France.The aim of Nekoe is therefore, to develop innovative service industries in the region, but for a clearer picture visit the web site www.nekoe.fr. In particular you can watch the video of Charles Eric Lemaignen, president of the Orleans Agglomeration who will explain this all very well in 6 minutes.For a company as innovative in the service industry as Pentalog, it is a chance to be close to such a dynamic and proactive pole. We will follow its development closely.