This Monday, October 18, 2021, 8 French players set themselves up as an alternative to Microsoft O365. This announcement follows a directive from the DNNUM announcing that O365 was not compatible with the cloud center policy of the French government. I share with you their press release.
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Translation (by DeepL):
Paris October 18th, 2021
Following the announcements of the President of the Republic on the “delay” of the sovereign cloud, 8 key players in the industry, representing more than 3 million users, announce that they now have a solid and operational alternative to the Microsoft 365 suite, which was recently declared “non-compliant” by the Interministerial Director of Digital Affairs
Atolia, Jalios, Jamespot, Netframe, Talkspirit, Twake, Whaller and WIMI have announced that they are now in a position to offer a credible alternative to the software suite offered by Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365).
These French digital companies, all of which already work for public sector organizations (government agencies, local authorities), are marketing alternatives to all the services provided by Microsoft: messaging, word processing, chat, video conferencing, document storage, etc.
For Alain Garnier, President of Jamespot and spokesman for the collective: “The doctrine “Cloud at the center” can be implemented very quickly, with a very simple way: buy French solutions, rather than American. These solutions exist and are operational today. We’ve been hearing speeches about the importance of creating a sovereign cloud for almost a year now. Now it’s time to take action.
According to these players, the software suites provided by the French champions of the digital workplace have three key advantages:
According to these players, the software suites provided by the French champions of the “digital workplace” have three decisive advantages:
First, they guarantee that the data is 100% sovereign data. Not only do they comply with the RGPD, but even better, they are not subject to any extraterritorial law, including the famous Cloud Act. Indeed, these solutions are all hosted by European players and do not use American or Chinese clouds. These solutions are also all eligible to be integrated into SecNumCloud certified infrastructures, thus complying with the most stringent requirements of the State in terms of security.
Secondly, these are 100% French companies whose managers are present locally and can work together with their customers and public players to collaborate over the long term. These companies create jobs mainly in France and Europe and generate financial flows that actively contribute to the French economy.
Finally, they offer solutions that are 100% compliant with the new government doctrine of “Cloud at the center”. These companies have also chosen, for the oldest, to favor a development model that favors their capital independence and are therefore trusted partners for the State in the development of its own Sovereignty.
The public authorities therefore have the opportunity to measure and develop the strength of these players, which have more than 3 million users on their platforms every day.
In its capacity as a strategic government and with the help of the DGE and the BPI (Plan d’Investissement d’Avenir, JEI, Research Tax Credit, etc.), the French government has participated in the technological development of most of these 8 Digital Workplace solutions. With this decision by the DINUM, there is a unique momentum where the Buyer State could follow in the footsteps of the Investor State.
The Digital Workplace market in France is estimated at 2 billion by 2023 according to a study by Markess. (source: ITRNews)
Les agents de l’État peuvent donc dès à présent choisir ces acteurs dynamiques pour réussir leur transformation digitale dans des courts délais, conformément au défi imposé par la doctrine du Cloud au centre.
Les dirigeants de ces 8 champions français de la Digital Workplace ont pleinement conscience de l’Enjeu et sont ainsi prêts à développer de nouvelles coopérations technologiques et stratégiques visant à accélérer l’adoption de leurs technologies. C’est enfin un atout de pouvoir compter sur des acteurs de proximité.
Cette annonce fait suite à une série d’initiatives similaires portées par les acteurs français du numérique : PlayFrance.Digital et IT50plus qui demandent de garantir 50% des achats publics à des entreprises françaises ou européennes, Solainn qui propose une marketplace des solutions numériques de France et EFEL Power qui s’engage pour la réussite internationale des éditeurs de logiciels français.
