Back from the French Tech Tour, the CEO speaks up

Olivier Bourrouilh: “A Venture Capitalist told me ‘If your product does what you say it does, your competitors will shake in their boots…’ and I can tell you, it does that, and even more”. Hello Olivier, thank you for taking a few moments to answer our questions after this thrilling week. As the platform’s creator, you presented ROK Solution on the American market. Tell us a bit about the Silicon Valley. Olivier Bourrouilh: It was pretty cool. Traffic jams look like what we see in Paris during a weekend of May. Weather is not too hot, yet sunny, all the major companies are there… settled into small towns (Cisco town, Ebay town…). It’s huge, but there’s still room for more. In our previous posts, we had presented the schedule for this week, organized by Ubifrance. Let’s go back to the first chapter of this adventure: preparation, which took place over 4 days. It had been a long time since I’d felt so “powerless”: presenting a solution like ROK, with all the possibilities it offers, in less than 5 minutes… I didn’t think I could get ready in time for the conference. They say it’s normal. In the US, children learn to “pitch” things out when they’re 5… Would you have felt any better? Well, three days later, here I was, pitching in front of 300 American IT industry leaders (you know those who’ve known how to do this since they’ve been 5…) at Gen Internet 2. In 4 minutes, they had understood what ROK was about. Many thanks to our sensational coach Erica Lee, we did it! All this preparation was necessary to present the product under the best conditions to all the greatest IT companies in the Silicon Valley. How did that go? Who did you get to meet? What was their reaction to the product? With my B to B product, I landed a lot less meetings than some of my “conference-mates”, who had presented more demonstrative, broader, consumer-oriented solutions. It’s not easy to talk about organization, optimization, risks and processes after a Velsalis pitch (they were excellent). They have most of their presentations done by models. This much is a good start to get you going. That being said, I was able to get three main messages across to the audience during my presentation: Our product and our vision is exactly what companies are waiting for, even though some doubt it can work. A Venture Capitalist told me “if your product says what you say it does, competitors will shake in their boots…”. I was also approached by one of the global leaders in this type of solutions, whom I saw more as a competitor than potential partner before. I know company leaders are on the move, but they’re not quite there yet. Everyone loved our tech (I’m talking about the architecture, code and HMI): people know we have really good engineers in France, and particularly at ROK Solution: thanks to the team! The US are a real opportunity. The scale of potential deals and partnerships was incomparable to what we have in Europe. I had great talks with companies like Nokia, Microsoft, LG, British Telecom, Cisco, Inter-American Development Bank, AT&T and SAP, for example. Follow-ups will tell whether this can lead to actual contracts. What surprised me most is the actual genuine curiosity and interest these huge Silicon Valley companies showed. The professional network culture is not just about giving friendly pushes or pats on the back. It’s a real business MO, with its own codes and rules, with ROI as the main objective. Other than excellent business perspective, can you tell us what you remember from the French Tech Tour, at a more personal level? Learning how to nail pre-selling in 4 minutes… it’s huge. I almost made a deal yesterday, at the restaurant, without slides or anything to actually show. We’re not wired like the Americans, and we have a lot to learn from them. From a tech point of view, the French are a force to be reckoned with. When we catch up to the Americans in terms of marketing and business approach, we can send the US a takeover bid. Any advice for companies wishing to attend this summit next year? It’s all very relative and it depends on everyone’s “alphabetization level” so to speak. As far as I’m concerned, I know the financial and legal specificities of this country very well. What interested me most was their business approach. For others, it was investors, or the way they work intellectually… My advice would be to “get ready” before going, even though you might think you’re a hot shot back home. To conclude, I have read that many French Tech Tour attendees think that, in order to make it on the American market, you have to be physically implanted in the Silicon Valley, and outsource or create subsidiaries in other countries. Do you agree? It is required. The presence of a local (or industrial) investor in your capital is a competitive advantage you’d do well to consider (granted, we’re not in China yet, with their partnership exigencies, but it’s comparable)… It’s not crazy to dream of the US Government giving us a call, Cameron-style! Thank you Olivier for taking the time to answer our questions. This seminar was a truly great opportunity, and only time will tell, but it seems safe to assume that great things will happen in the future for ROK! Thank you for reading and tune in soon for more!

ROK Solution gains new investors, finishing their fourth fundraiser with 800 000€

Having acquired new supporters in their fourth fundraising campaign, ROK Solution seeks to accelerate growth and increase their competitive advantage, by investing more into R&D, deploying a commercial strategy that matches clients’ needs, and developing a technical and commercial partnership program. After increasing staff capacity and hiring 50% more employees, ROK Solution shows once again their determination to conquer markets. Collaborative intelligence aims to allow company collaborators to gather and share their knowledge to carry out projects and optimize their daily workflows. Such a solution requires combining, structuring, organizing and sharing heterogeneous information and expertise. ROK’s platform was created to do exactly this, without having to use a wide array of tools. Designed for company operatives and decision-makers, ROK’s platform puts users back at the center of their approach and allows to capitalize on non-physical company assets, granting more performance and flexibility. ROK is the first all-in-one solution on the market to integrate BPA, BPM, CRM, BAM tools and more, on a unified 2.0 communication platform. The platform’s organic and systematic approach, with patented algorithms, allows users to navigate various departments and hubs in their company. This tool allows them to collaborate easily and transparently with anyone in their work environment. ROK helps generate synergies required to carry out company projects. ROK Solution has also developed the ROK Store. This store gives access to many task references which can be quickly integrated into company workflows. It is now possible for everyone to easily implement projects, by accessing proven, easily-usable references requiring little to no adaptation. This prowess is particularly significant with more complex business uses, such as auditing and consulting. ROK 3.0 and the ROK Store are the cornerstone of an operational service, dedicated to optimizing the performance of companies and collaborators. Olivier Bourrouilh, ROK Solution CEO and founder is delighted to welcome new shareholders, eager to put their trust in ROK Solution’s future. ROK Solution will strive to keep a leading position on this thriving market.

Competitiveness “for Dummies”, a message from the CEO

Going back to Olivier Bourrouilh, ROK Solution CEO’s column on French newspaper lecercle.lesechos.fr In a global market economy, being competitive is no longer an option, it’s about survival. “I strongly reject shortcuts and simplifications of a somewhat political and controversial nature, which tend to undermine the issue, limiting it to a question of costs, financial, legal or custom-related protection. I reject this because survival is at stake; the situation is more than urgent and actions need to be taken. I reject this because there are tools and technology available that would quickly allow us to gain a competitive edge. But in order to deal with a threat, or better yet, use it to our advantage, we must perform a proper diagnosis. We are talking about competitive advantage here, nothing more but nothing less either. This involves markets, products and technology. Provided you haven’t already used methods like absorbing or taking out your competitors, you must consider these two: innovation and optimization. There is no alternative. Innovation is in my opinion the best method. It consists in delivering a unique and relevant service, which comes from successful R&D, with relatively high prices, margins, and shielded by patents and other protections. Lower margins were once exclusive to industrialized countries. When emerging countries entered global markets, they conveyed lower budgets and considerably weakened competition, in a very short time. Succeeding in innovation rarely consists in only waiting by a tree for apples to fall on your head. Innovating may be a costly endeavor, but above all, I think it happens thanks to well-structured, coordinated, documented collaboration which is closely monitored in real time and optimized with feedback. The Web was invented by researchers who needed to communicate to make progress and succeed; today we see collaborative solutions appear, that allow dynamic organization and online collaboration, conveying necessary information and methods, automating the learning process, and transmitting data via voice, image and text. These solutions are efficient when they rest on Cloud technology and user-friendly, even vector interfaces, opening the way to new, scalable navigation. Innovating at low costs today is possible, and it is new. This kind of innovation has more to do with (collaborative!) intelligence than investments. The second method is about optimization, but in a broader sense than only unit costs indicators. Costs are a sensible matter, undoubtedly, but have you never, as a manager, had to deal with ignorant, incompetent, unreactive, or even outright lazy collaborators? Have you ever considered what profit could amount from optimizing the way collaborators work by only 5 or 10%, instead of laying employees off in equal proportions, losing potential value in the process? Optimizing organization structures, sharing and capitalizing on knowledge -from the company as well as its ecosystem- was often a moot point, because it rested on complex tools (BPM, BPA, WF, CM, KM and so on) that were hard to set up, integrate, share and adapt to your company’s obvious mutations. Today, solutions exist and they are integrated, scalable thanks to Cloud technology, and they feature accessible interfaces. They can be quickly implemented, you can adapt costs to your requirements thanks to the SaaS model, and they are immediately operable. It is very frustrating to see we have immediate solutions available but do not use them; because in doubt, it may be easier to believe the solution doesn’t entirely depend on us. The available technology has evolved formidably. Younger generations are already adopting them completely, for fun. Let us take time to reconsider our old reflexes, look at the situation from a higher angle, and embrace this new challenge that web tech advances offer us. After the “web springs”, let us be actors of this competition strategy revolution.” Author’s note: “Just imagine what could happen to DMV administration waiting lines if we put these solutions at their disposal…” Olivier Bourrouilh, ROK Solution CEO

The “no email” goal

Against the threat of email abuse looming against companies, ROK Solution, a powerful diagnosis tool, campaigns to raise managers’ awareness on the zero e-mail goal. Even though not so long ago, emails were perceived as proof of an employee’s involvement, they ended up being a time, concentration and resource-hungry process. Email management is an undeniable stress factor for employees. The French Observatory for Corporate Social Responsibility (ORSE) states that 38% of polled employees receive more than 100 emails a day, and 65% admit checking their inbox at least every hour, when they actually do it every 5 minutes! This stress factor has been strengthened by smartphones, which make it possible to check emails anytime anywhere, turning it into a full-fledged addiction! This addiction we call “mailism”, is a causing many employees to fall into depression or resign altogether. In order to raise company leaders’ awareness on this issue, ROK Solution started a campaign this summer. We met an anonymous employee who accepted to share their experience of mailism. Hello and thank you for accepting to share this painful experience with us. First of all, could you tell us the reason that motivated you to come and speak to us? Anonymous: Hello. If I have decided to speak up today, it’s because I think it’s important to shed light on an issue everyone is familiar with, yet no one wishes to speak of. The law of silence in companies is hard to break through. We need to inform people so that my experience does not happen to other employees. You speak of a law of silence, but still decided to testify anonymously. Why? I used to work for a telecommunications group. Even though I am no longer part of the company, I am still concerned for my privacy. Can you tell us how this all started? I was hired in 2009, in the finance department. It was tough work but we were motivated. I would come back home, kiss my spouse and kids, and even though they wished I’d come back home earlier we were happy. Just like any other employee, I received a lot of emails every day. Mailism seeped in slowly. At first I managed my priorities, I’d answer smaller questions on the phone, then emails started to stack up more and more, and answering the phone took too much time, so I answered by email. This was a vicious circle… The more emails you send, the more you receive. At the beginning, I’d only spend about half an hour a day managing emails, but this quickly rose to two, three hours. You spent two to three hours a day answering emails. This must have had an impact on your productivity, right? Not at first. I had responsibilities and other tasks to do. So I started going home later and later, in order to finish my daily tasks, and I became more and more tired. I didn’t see my family much because of how much time I spent working, and tensions appeared. In hindsight, I see how hard it has been for my spouse to take care of the children alone and not see me. My spouse worked in a shop so emails were a really minor aspect of their daily routine. They did not really understand when I said: “I’m staying late at work because of emails”. So you came home late and tired, and your family started to suffer from that. What happened next? It all happened very fast. My spouse gave me a smartphone for my birthday, thinking that managing emails from home or during commute would free up my schedule. But what happened was actually the opposite. With the usual work stress, and increasing expectations from my employer, I didn’t come home any sooner, and coming home now meant checking emails on my smartphone, sometimes for hours, at night! I would check my inbox up to 10 times an hour, and take a long time to answer. Even during weekends I wasn’t really with my family. I was there, but clearly distracted, always expecting the sound of a new message notification. Then one Wednesday I received a message from my spouse, telling me they left me with the children, and didn’t want to live with a ghost any longer. This is when you became aware of your addiction? Not even then. I kept on as best I could, coming home even later! My smartphone became my best friend… I would even talk to it, sometimes! “Come on, answer, answer!” Then I ended up falling into depression. Nothing was important, except for my emails, and this had an impact on my work. A few weeks later, HR contacted me to tell me this couldn’t go on, and they let me go. The company I worked for had been suffering a 30% productivity drop, and my case was only one of many layoffs. Other employees too suffered from the same disorder. I had no job, no email, nothing. My depression worsened. I started going online to pass time, using social networks and forums just like my work inbox. I didn’t eat or sleep. I broke down, with an acute “mailingitis”. I became Out Of Service Reply (laughs). At this moment, I became conscious of my addiction. What about today? Today, I rarely go out. Every person using their phone in front of me is a temptation. I only have a home phone line and no computer. I’m trying complete withdrawal but it’s tough. Even Internet TV is a temptation. Thank you for answering our questions. We wish you a fast recovery. If you found this testimony interesting, don’t hesitate to get in touch! For obvious reasons, our anonymous interviewee will not answer your questions, but our experts will be available. Thank you and tune in soon for more!

ROK Solution takes on competitiveness challenges thanks to Windows 8

ROK Solution, Microsoft partner, is the first integrated collaborative mapping, modeling, workflow, and risk management solution on the market to work on Microsoft’s Windows Azure Cloud. In today’s globalized market economy, being competitive is no longer an option; it has become a crucial aspect for companies. Today, two essential driving forces allow companies to achieve this: optimization and innovation. The French Institute of Industrial Property, INPI, has stated that in 5 years’ time, 50% of innovations will stem from collaborative processes. Real time collaboration has become a major challenge for companies. Making it possible to communicate between remote collaborators everywhere and the rest of the company has become a critical aspect of efficient collaboration. Companies need to strive for mobility and flexibility. This is where a combination of Cloud and touch interface technology can come into play. ROK Solution was built around these new business practices and is available today on a SaaS (Software as a Service) model. For a monthly fee, this plan grants complete control over costs and makes it possible to connect from everywhere with an Internet or mobile connection (3/4G). ROK Solution’s very user-friendly interface was designed to work on touch devices, ensuring quick and intuitive operation for immediate returns on investment. ROK Solution allows companies to: Model processes simply and intuitively Execute workflows in a few clicks and manage key indicators easily Map out dynamic layouts (process management, risks, IS, content) in real time Receive relevant information at the right time, thanks to custom user dashboards. That much is clear: companies focused on the future need to innovate, integrate new technology and new means of communication. These are only a few examples of what will impact company competitiveness and differentiation. ROK Solution helps anticipate these factors and supports clients through this transition.

Finally, content on the Cloud!

The Cloud is here, and it is real! In a context where competition gets fiercer every day, companies need to maintain their edge, and the Cloud is a valuable solution to consider. For many companies, the question does not lie with actually using the Cloud, but rather how to do it! ROK Solution was developed on Microsoft’s Cloud, Windows Azure, in order to provide clients with immediate returns on investment. No more complex installations, no more waiting for investment greenlights or IT resources, ROK’s externalized platform frees you from logistic and human infrastructure concerns. With ROK, harness the power of the best Cloud features. Today, most collaborative solutions on the market are more declarative than actually structured. Thanks to ROK and the Cloud, knowledge collection and processing is optimized, by facilitating synergy and translating knowledge (guidelines) into application components. Collective knowledge becomes collaborative, generating real value, and helping to reach competitiveness goals. Finally, ROK allows seamless integration with other Cloud-based solutions (such as SharePoint, Office 365 or Microsoft Dynamics), generating instant ROI. Thanks to the Cloud, you can now deploy processes in a few clicks, very intuitively and flexibly. Integrating and using ROK requires little to no change management.

“Competitiveness above all is about promoting innovation” – Olivier Bourrouilh, ROK Solution CEO

At the heart of current matters, the topic of company competitiveness is a very lively one. Even though companies tend to consider innovation with a costs and performance-oriented approach, it remains an essential factor of competitive differentiation. Olivier Bourrouilh, CEO of ROK Solution, a collaborative intelligence platform aiming to promote innovation and performance optimization for companies, shares his point of view on competitiveness. Hello Olivier and thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Let’s start with a simple one: When we talk about competitiveness, what is truly at stake for companies? Olivier Bourrouilh: Today, competitiveness is about perimeters. Companies follow the logic of globalization, custom barriers are falling, and competition is fiercer than ever. Gaining a competitive edge is crucial for companies to survive in this constantly evolving environment, and all companies, SMEs and larger CAC 40 companies alike, need to integrate this concept into their organization. This advantage can be achieved with two different approaches: Cost-driven competitive advantage: Optimizing costs is an essential factor for competitiveness. If the cost for prime materials increases, so will overall expenses. Wage costs follow the same logic. In a number of cases, cost reduction cannot depend only on management. In order to decrease overall expenses, companies need to produce better and more efficiently. Processing, managing, measuring and optimizing organizations becomes essential. Innovation-driven competitive advantage: In a market environment where competition is constantly evolving, innovation is essential to gain and keep a strong competitive edge, by offering unique services, or better-performing production processes. Can you tell us about ROK Solution? ROK Solution is a Collaborative Intelligence software solution aiming to improve company competitiveness, by acting on two essential aspects: organization optimization and innovation. ROK may be one among many other business applications on the market, but unlike others, it is based on SaaS Cloud technology, which allows it to adapt better and provide more flexibility to client companies. ROK is also an integrated solution that seeks to improve, drive and manage all the existing company applications, thus breaking barriers and silos between various company departments. ROK Solution makes it easier for all business operators to integrate the solution into their system without needing any IT intervention (iBPMS approach). In other words, ROK is an integrated collaborative intelligence solution that provides both financial and technological flexibility, involving little to no change management. What makes ROK Solution so innovative? ROK Solution is innovative both as a concept, and as a technology. An innovative concept: ROK’s innovative concept provides a new approach to collaboration. Often seen only through the prism of web 2.0 tech and social networks implemented just for the sake of it, collaboration only makes sense for ROK if companies are able to model relations between individuals in an ecosystem. Modeling relations between individuals means using workflow tools on a collaborative platform (lighter client), which also needs to include BPM, BPA and VoIP tools. ROK shifts paradigms: the ability to model relations and provide business references (ROK Store) is now a prerequisite to building a successful social network. Innovative technology ROK Solution has already gained a head start on the market, and our teams have worked relentlessly on light client interfaces. As an example, ROK was one of the first solutions developed on Silverlight, at a time when Microsoft’s solution was still in its early stages. Similarly, ROK has developed a tile view interface module, similar to Windows 8’s today. Innovation is at the heart of ROK’s philosophy, down to its actual kernel. Our organic and systemic approach is present in our kernel’s patented architecture. This approach is different from all the existing IT methods, and offers unequaled performance, particularly in terms of rights management. How can ROK help companies promote innovation? Innovation can consist in sitting down by a tree and waiting for apples to fall on your head (innovation driven by randomness), or in an organized brainstorming, with collaborators of varied skills, pooling their knowledge together to meet a specific goal. Everybody brings their experience and vision to create new ideas that individuals could not have come up with alone. The main flaw in the existing collaborative solutions on the market is their lack of structure. ROK, on the contrary, allows to innovate by creating the conditions for efficient knowledge sharing, facilitating synergy and translating this knowledge (guidelines) into application components. Collective knowledge becomes collaborative, generating real value, and helping to reach competitiveness goals. Thank you Olivier for these answers. Contact ROK Solution now for a free demo of their platform. Tune in for our live web conferences on important business topics. Thank you for your attention, and see you soon!

Manage your Fast and Lean Closing Projects

A ROK Client recently told us: “We close accounts in less than 10 days and our productivity has increased by 50%”. What if you were next? Completing Accounting Closing procedures in a timely manner is an important challenge for finance managers. So important in fact, that account closing times are often seen as health indicators for a company’s organization. As such, more and more companies seek to implement efficient Fast and Lean Closing projects. Resting on a set of methods, management tools, control points and procedure improvements, as well as IS architecture optimization, these projects aim to provide faster reporting, but also more frequent, reliable and more relevant, in order to promote faster decision-making, which can make a significant difference on highly competitive global markets. Fast and Lean Closing projects help companies reduce closing times, publish results according to collaborators’ needs and responsibilities, and improve overall output data quality, which translates to a significant boost for competitiveness. How does ROK Solution handle these aspects? ROK is a Collaborative Intelligence platform that allows companies to map out, model and execute processes, managing risks and following performance indicators dynamically and in real time. The entire management structure is integrated to a unified communication platform. Gone are the days of departments failing to communicate efficiently, along with tools requiring heavy formation and integration costs. With ROK, users are at the center of the structure, and modeling processes becomes ridiculously easy. In order to share knowledge and help our clients lay out their process efficiently, ROK Solution comes with its natural companion, the ROK Store. Filled to the brim with data and preset processes, the ROK Store gives access to many useful references, which can be easily integrated into your company workflows. Carry out projects easily, thanks to proven and easy to use references requiring little to no adaptation to your company specificities. ROK Solution is the only integrated Fast Closing solution; ready to use, adaptable, fast and easy to deploy. Hosted on the Cloud and available on a SaaS (Software as a Service) model, ROK Solution can easily interface with existing Information Systems, optimizing IT investments, and making change management easier for your company.

Out with BPM, in with iBPMS!

Even though BPM has been acclaimed when it first appeared, it no longer meets company expectations or requirements. Meet iBPMS! Even though the aim of BPM (Business Process Management) was initially to tackle the issue of “optimizing organization and promoting innovation to boost competitiveness”, we now see that this promise is not being kept. Previous existing solutions no longer work in the current context, and companies do not need them anymore. The final objective is to gain a competitive edge, not to spend time laying out business processes! All the analysts agree to say new solutions exist, and they go far beyond what BPM could do. These are called iBPMS (Intelligent Business Process Management Suites) solutions. iBPMS is a solution with new features, such as real-time business analysis, complex event management and collaborative tool integration with existing BPM solutions. iBPMS also redefines business process management by including new features which aim to guide users and recommend the next most efficient action or decision. These new solutions allow organizations to make their business processes more intelligent, by improving efficiency, adapting faster, and implementing appropriate actions. ROK, an iBPMS solution ROK is a Collaborative Intelligence platform that allows companies to map out, model and execute processes, manage risks and follow performance indicators dynamically and in real time. The complete management structure is integrated to a unified communication platform. ROK functions according to an iBPMS solution approach: Flexibility: ROK Solution is available in the Cloud, via a SaaS sale model. The platform is instantly available and adapts in real time to the users’ needs. The SaaS model is calculated according to the user perimeter, allowing flexibility as well as complete control over costs, and immediate ROI. Collaborative tools integration: ROK Solution allows to collaborate in real time on internal and external processes thanks to integrated instant communication and visio conference tools. The objective of this integration is to make communication between various departments easier. Extended analysis capacity: ROK Solution allows to generate KPI, activity reports and alerts very quickly, in order to provide wider and better analysis and benefit from complete, real time visibility on company performances and risks. Out with BPM, switch to iBPMS with ROK Solution!

Model and execute collaborative processes: a key to success for organizations in 2013

In the current context, too many rigid IT solutions do not allow companies to adapt fast enough. It is time we gained back operational control over company processes. Processes today are the cornerstone of an organization’s performance. Modeling processes can allow to structure, organize and visually execute company activities, and efficiently manage the following aspects: Actor collaboration on extended processes Information System Management Company risk management Performance monitoring and organization optimization Competitive constraint pushes companies to favor optimization, innovation and flexibility as much as possible. In fact, the definition and management of organizations itself must rest on flexible and innovative methods that support collaboration. ROK provides a clear answer to this question and revolutionizes process management with their collaborative intelligence platform, which manages to simplify the whole procedure: Model and deploy: You can model and deploy your processes in a few clicks from Word and Excel files, or with a simple copy-and-paste. Link tasks together intuitively with your mouse or fingers on a touchscreen. Collaborate: ROK’s management tool allows you to simply execute and follow your processes as workflows. Collaborate in real time on shared processes linked to your transaction systems (SAP, Oracle, Dynamics…). Control: Thanks to our solution, you can ensure synergy between risk mapping and operational processes, and model your own auditing method, relevant indicators and aspects that need monitoring, into integrated workflows. Perform: You can precisely measure how each process performs, relay the relevant info and build target-oriented action plans to improve process efficiency. Innovate: Create and implement Corporate Social Networks that can be dynamically managed according to the relevant contexts. Switch to Collaborative Intelligence! ROK Solution provides you with the keys to success in 2013. Contact us now for an online demo!

Author: ROK Solution