Frédérique Segond – Research Director – Xerox Research Centre Europe

What is the role of Xerox in France?

Since 1993, Xerox has had an R&D presence in France, with the opening of a site in Meylan near Grenoble in order to manage its research activities in Europe.
Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE) combines research, engineering and the TeXnology showroom for clients regarding Xerox technology and a technological exchange forum.
Among other things, we focus on natural language processing to anticipate and design the documentation systems of tomorrow. In 2004 we were even congratulated by the AFII, giving Xerox the prize for the most innovative American investor (Innovate in France Award), rewarding us for our commitment and investment in France.

Why and how did Xerox join Cap Digital?

Joining the Cap Digital business cluster just seemed like a natural, and obvious decision for Xerox. There was the similarity of our R&D for image, text, interactivity, information technologies, video games, etc.
The XRCE, has been in Grenoble for 15 years and is responsible for developing networks within the European scientific community through collaborative projects and partnerships. We’ve taken part in several high tech initiatives in France and locally and see how this is now considered as the French Silicon Valley. Since  we are on the same wavemlength as Cap Digital … it was obvious to join the team.

What benefits does Cap Digital membership bring to Xerox?

Cap Digital helps Xerox to work alongside the scientific community and other companies, boosting combined operations between R&D players. In regards R&D, Cap Digital allows Xerox to stay innovative – that’s to say encouraging research today to offer new services tomorrow.
Cap Digital facilitates access to more projects, helping to foresee needs by exploring new application areas.  
The Cap Digital projects: Thanks to research players jointly working in related domains, Cap Digital gives us the chance to test new ideas, allowing Xerox to easily envisage the future service expectations.

François Pachet – Director of Sony CSL research – Sony Computer Science Laboratory

The Sony Computer Science Laboratory opened in October 1996 in Paris and brings together internal well-know researchers. Their objective is to combine their efforts to create new technologies likely to make fundamental changes within our company.
The IT research programs are led by the Sony Computer Science Laboratory, covering fields as vast as artificial intelligence, new programming languages, and the interface between man and machine.   
These keen scientists from around the world use their research help shape the world in which we live today

Why did Sony CSL chose Paris?

Sony CSL is split between Paris and Tokyo. Sony CSL Paris was created in 1996 following the model of Sony CSL Tokyo which opened 10 years before. We decided to set up our research laboratory in the heart of Paris, mainly due to the possibility of benefiting from a real close-by excellence network. On an institutional level with universities, the presence of laboratories and both public and private research centers, known worldwide, as well as some of the most prestigious French universities (and the “élite” ones): (Normale Sup, Paris VI…)… are all located in the centre of Paris!!

Why did Sony CSL join the Cap Digital competitive cluster?

Both the competitive clusters and the Cap Digital cluster are particularly capable of networking with excellence networks, promoting the development and concentration of combined operations using complementary means and know-how. This is an original policy, consisting of the association of scientific innovations (being based on R&D) and organizational innovations. Sony CSL joined the Cap Digital cluster it has opened new doors for integrating a network of research and excellence.

What benefits does Cap Digital membership bring to Sony CSL?

As I said earlier, belonging to Cap Digital competitive cluster allows Song CSL to somewhat “officialize” its relations with other companies and shapes a structured framework for our projects with precise objectives and constraints. We are currently working on several projects (THD, EarToy) on a national and European level.
Cap Digital cluster creates a project infrastructure and simplifies the alliance of varied competences. Besides, belonging to the Cap Digital cluster also helps for financial aid (Source: AFII 2007 Projets Jean-Noël Portugal- HD3D IIO)
Backed by a Cap Digital consultant while becoming official, the HD3D-IIO project was labellized in June 2006. Today there are 17 partners involved in developing a common platform of interoperable tools. This unprecedented device should allow, in the long-term, for French special-effects creation players (VFX) to answer to worldwide production needs for fiction and film animation.
Jean-Noël Portugal, President of the HD3D consortium since March 2007, emphasizes Cap Digital’s support in changing the mindsets and usages of this profession. However, in the future, he recommends the cluster to follow-up on the projects after the labellization, sharing knowledge acquired by managing different projects … using Think-tanks.

What were the benefits for the HD3D project partners?

The cluster created a meeting place and generated a new form of debate. Previously, the VFX players only had a competitive relationship, but slowly, and for the first time, it created a common strategic vision of our industry.
The cluster allowed them to imagine solutions and approaches which they otherwise could not have considered

What points did you agree on?

In our industry, competence-sharing has become a must. For one, it guarantees profitability, and also encourages co-contracting on big markets, such as movies full of special effects. This is a rapidly growing trend consisting of many hurdles.
The intelligence of the HD3D project was having know-how to identify the software capital which once shared, represented a higher profit than the technology capital of each partner – in other words their “in-house” algorithms – without questioning their independence or distinctive capacity.  
Whenever the question of group work costs and performance prevail over competitive skills, the studios had better share their solutions. One of the project’s characteristics is this balance, this tension between competence-sharing and keeping the distinctive identity of each company.

How was this common strategy implemented?

HD3D is half of industry players who decided to work together. Each partner joined the project “armed” with their specific shareholding, culture, their individual interests, and long-ago implemented industrial strategies, resulting from group, industry or creation practices.
They became a joint venture and fused their R&D division.  At first they were a little reticent being asked to work alongside direct competitors! But after a couple of months their behavior changed.
Technicians from different studios now get together three times a week and form a real team with a sincere mutual respect, trust, and a competitive spirit.

What’s the key to smooth running?

The keys for this particular success are a friendly and zealous environment along with a real desire to make things work. We can see it at all personnel levels and in exchanges during management meetings. This cluster has enabled a real change in mindsets although there are always those that remain wary. Each partner must make sure this balance is maintained. .

What made HD3D a success?

The success of the HD3D project will be seen in the players’ future ability to develop real economic partners. It will also be on the vision’s durability after this 3-year program established with the Cap Digital framework. There must be a long-term, maintained and increased interoperability. For now, we are just working on the foundations.
The software to implement is complex and so is the development approach. We are working in a context of so-called agile methods using Extreme Programming (XP). Also, the FTTO component, essential for high-speed companies like ours, is not yet operational in France.
In London, it is currently underway with Sohonet, a cluster of our industry which already has a head start. This is why we are seriously considering possibly collaborating with initiatives happening today regarding networks and telecommunications.

What is your course of action for the project management?

I’m an advocate of pragmatism. My energy, as well as the project manager’s, is concentrated on risk management in regards to the consortium size and limits. In practical terms, the purpose is to secure the first project sub-section as early as possible, and then move on to the deliverables. Each time a new step is taken we must ensure its relevance to the last …. A continuous process of useable processes. It is not along the same lines as gothic architecture where it was the last stone laid which meant the “building process” was finished.

In your opinion, what changes should this cluster make?

I think it would good if Cap Digital added three more key aspects, on top of the R&D, to the project. First, to integrate an economic and legal watch. The second essential component in our industry is design. This skill is nearly always absent in our project files. In France there are distinct studies for this, from the Gobelins up to Ensci.  In the United States today, it is unthinkable to avoid any interactive presentation at the start of a project, as without designs, there is no vision, and particularly no usability for the end phase.
Once labellized and comfortably financed, the third aspect would be a project follow-up.  The best method would be to integrate the immediate exploitation of acquired know-how into a sort of Think-tank. This time a “downstream” exchange area where each project carrier and the partners should participate.
This would permit experiences to be pooled and to prevent the players from individually experiencing the same problems and to look for the same solutions … Management, legal questions, project management … all this can be capitalized, exchanged, and share, for the great benefit of everyone.

Jean-François Marcotorchino – INFOMAGIC

Project Initiator, Jean-François Marcotorchino, Scientific Manager of R&D Management at Thales Communications, describes the direct consequences of the project for its partners and praises the actions of the Cap Digital cluster.
Infom@gic was the first project labellized by Cap Digital and has been financed since December, 2005. It will be initiating its 3rd step in 2008 by creating applicative demonstrators of a fusion of multimodel analytical information. This was made possible by implementing a common platform during the first steps of technological interoperability. This covered the fundamentals of knowledge engineering with these applications being, in the long run, industrialized in the aim of a commercial development in domains as varied as the multimodel indexation of cultural patrimony, civil protection, or the CRM. The purpose of this technological platform, Infom@gic, is also to constitute the technical scope of the clusters development within all the sectors it covers.

What were the beginnings of the Infom@gic project like within Cap Digital?

Infom@gic had an extremely difficult start. There was so much competition between the current players making it hard for them to be happy with the idea of a new person on the market. Then one day, something triggered off a different mindset and most companies admitted that by collaborating, exchanging technologies and skills, this principal of “win-win” will clearly be more popular than that of “lose-lose”. From then on, Infom@gic began to get off the ground.

What are the advantages for the SMEs participating in this project?

When we see today that in Google’s domain, it rallies 3000 developers, and that in our domain the general trend is to be integrated, it is impossible for a start-up to hold-out if not in a collaborative environment.
For example, there is also room for the language-learning sector. These SMEs only come out winners in a competitive cluster project with visibility, facilitated networking with potential partners, contracts ….

What was the direct outcome from this Infom@gic project for these SMEs?

The development of Pertimm is a great example of this outcome. The SME which edits information processing solutions and building a new search engine, has managed to multiply its employees by 2 in just two years.
Patrick Constant, its CEO, confirms that the influence of this cluster was decisive when Pertimm was chosen for the Pages Jaunes contract. Another outcome for this SME was a contract signed recently with Meetic, a large player of digital contents and very interested by the direct tie of the R&D and industrial contacts set up by Cap Digital.
For other partner companies such as Vecsys, it is not just contracts but also the realization or the reorganization of a whole sales proposal, made possible thanks to the Infom@gic project.

What advantages are there for a large group such as Thales?

For a large industrial group, a collaborative project managed within the context of a competitive cluster represents an extraordinary opportunity of benchmark technologies from academic research and specialties represented by the PME. This great creative playground, a unique place to intermingle ideas, allows us to check strategies, test laboratories, exchange procedures, and therefore to gain in time and efficiency.
This dynamic and intelligent accomplished by this cluster is priceless.

What were the markets which the group partner industrial groups obtained?

Thales signed an operational installation for information feedback from the National Gendarmerie thanks to certain technologies inspired from the Infom@gic project. Furthermore, the use cases developed within the project framework will create some real short-term competitive problems. Callsurf is a good example. Created from client data (masked) from EDF, Callsurf is the result of an innovative technological chain (“speech to text data”). It can instantly fuse multimodel analytical information integrating the audio data from EDF call centers, transcribed and analyzed semantically as well as textual and digital company information. This is undoubtedly the future for CRM when processing large volumes of information.

What do collaborative projects do for academic research?

The French laboratories are experiencing a change period. They are moving from a procedure to a partner process which modifies their time and objective constraints.
In the future, when doing research, it will be aligned with expressed and identified needs. By integrating a cluster, these laboratories become known by big companies, work with them, and sometimes carry out their tests on a more operational level, benefiting from new technological exchanges with a precise objective.
Their activity is contextualized. They also become part of a new temporal state by concentrating on mid-term problems much more than in the past. This is what happened with Infom@gic where all of a sudden, certain university laboratories were faced with making a choice between different topics.
Lastly, the cluster has made many common research studies possible and for the first time, (in certain leading edge theory domains) the juries are composed of representatives from varied universities as well as researchers from large companies.

What changes should Cap Digital make?

The process between the various Cap Digital projects is a natural development which must be encouraged and structured. A certain process form already exists for partners of a project who are called upon to participate in a second project within the cluster. It is also essential to work for the long-term skills of the Cap Digital projects.
As for us, the cluster’s strong backing to prepare for the “after-Infom@gic” is a must. Infom@gic has allowed for standards to be developed with numerous future applications, all the while creating an active and close-knit community. The analytical fusion of multimodel information is a real trend for the future … and this community is part of it!

What can you say about your progress after two years?

The cluster initiative is really quite incredible. The open doors create synergies between partners, give them more visibility, and increase their networking or their presence in cluster committees.
The choice of Infom@gic’s project, its implementation and development with the Cap Digital cluster all constitute a vast progress for industries in our sector. My conclusion is perhaps … “Why wasn’t this initiative presented by Competitive Clusters earlier? In any case, this is just what many partners at the Cap Digital cluster also wonder.”

Guillaume Gouraud – PLAY ALL

The Play All project, with the aim of sharing the R&D players’ efforts in the video game industry, resulted in September of this year in the creation of a unique site bringing together 40 engineers for a period of 2 years. This should eventually allow for the production of multi platform games (PC, living room console, handheld console). Guillaume Gouraud, Play All consortium project manager, is also the co-founder of Darkworks studio – one of the 19 partners involved – relates the hardships for carrying out such a project and suggests that Cap Digital should finance and be co-responsible to maintain client viability.

How did the cluster assist you after the first Play All proposal?

Play All was a project which had been backed for a long time by the DGE, the 6-month initiation stage was financed by the Ile-de-France region and City of Paris, thanks to a global lobbying to which the cluster participated. During the actual submission of their file to the cluster, our specific Cap Digital consultant did an excellent job in assisting with rewording and improving our file.
We in fact literally learned right then and there how the cluster worked as it had just been created. Therefore there were no past references or comparisons to examine, nor an “instruction booklet” for how to “use” this cluster and no form letters.
The Cap Digital consultant also helped recruit some rather wary partners, who then helped to create the consortium. But, despite his presence at our sides, the actual initiation stage went on for way too long.

What is the result of this 18-month development stage?

Today, Play All does more than just play the game in Cap Digital. We have put together part of the partners’ resources onto a specific site. Among these partners, the SMEs have all agreed on the fundamentals, but there is another side to this story as everyday they must face functional difficulties whereas 30% of their workers are not on-site.
Today, Play All is beginning to work, but I still think the project is still too low – it should be the same size as European projects and their budgets.

How do you see the short-term situation of Play All?

What we are putting in place with Play All should serve us over the next following 5 years. But the video game sector is constantly shaken up by a merciless technological war. The death-rate of SMEs in this sector is very high …. Much more must be invested.

How does the governance work today?

Today, each partner has two people working full-time on the project follow-up. Even if the PME resources are reasonably reduced, this way of operating will not last. I personally give 50% of my time.

Did the network effect and visibility offered by the cluster resulted in favorable consequences for your partners?

For some of our clients, belonging to the cluster is a positive aspect as it shows the backing of the video game sector by local authorities, the Ile-de-France region and the French state. Internationally, Play All is considered as one-of-a-kind and regarded as the most suited solution for the present market situation. But this visibility is solely due to belonging to the cluster as this really isn’t enough. So, we decided to call in a specialized public relations agency to muster up some effective communications.

So is communication one of the cluster’s progress strategies?

With the reliable support of an agency, Cap Digital really should set up an enterprising communication strategy equal to the project issues defended. All the cluster projects will be gain in visibility and influence.

What are other ways to improve the cluster’s general way of working?

My recommendation is simple: the cluster must finance, at 100%, the driving of each consortium created. From the offset, Cap Digital should have a business development manager working exclusively on project development, project management and then the project growth.  
The last responsibility of the business development manager will be to provide biannual reposts regarding project progression, specifically related to the financial and legal issues which surfaced.

What kind of good practices do you recommend?

Inspiration must come from the European projects’ good practices which progress by regular advances rather than “by assistance”. On the other hand, let’s try to avoid  their pitfalls, administrative red tape and systematic dispersal of responsibilities. What’s also important is for the investors to have a clear vision of our project progression. The cluster is a great tool and must remain flexible and active, achieving more and more with each six months which pass.

Jacques Angelé – SYLEN

Jacques Angelé has been the technological program director of Nemoptic since 2006. Assisted by Alain Boissier, the director of Optinnova, specialized in the assembly and management of innovative projects, this company is the first in the LCD bistable screen domain to present Cap Digital an electronic reader project support.
A week before, it was submitted to the ANR, answering to the latter’s call for tender in Software Technology, with the aim of finding a product for State Education. Neither the ANR nor Cap Digital accepted this project in its initial form but Cap Digital did in fact re-center it according to the needs of electronic calendars where many industrial job opportunities exist for short to mid-term. The competitive cluster also encourages all project carriers to form a consortium reaching content suppliers.  
After six months of sustained collaboration, it resulted in the labellization of the SYLEN project (System for Nomad Reading) in December, 2006 then its financing by the FCE (Competitive Company Funds) in the summer of 2007.  
Jacques Angelé recounts the outcome of Cap Digital’s initiative and wants to see the R&D projects be assisted up to their industrial development and beyond its present perimeter.

What did you collaborating with Cap Digital do for you company?

From the first contact with them, they asked us to reword our project, and I realized immediately that Cap Digital was a serious group, intent on creating a dialogue with the labellization candidates. After having identified the project’s potential, one of the cluster’s decisive actions was to have it re-determined. Cap Digital then provided us with an end-user which happened to be in the “Le Monde Interactif”. The SMEs are really the central point of the cluster, managing to have large groups become members and that’s truly remarkable.

What happened once your project was labellized by the cluster?

Once labellized, the networking effect took off the ground immediately. The SYLEN project rapidly had a high public profile and transparency that I would have never imagined.  
Some of SYLEN’s 10 organized, ecosystem partners had immediate consequences from this visibility, especially Booken which will soon double in size, and the TES industrial which now has an advanced observation post on electronic paper techniques and applications for nomad devices. As for Nemoptic, it is getting ready to focus on media applications using electronic paper not only via the SYLRN project but also by new collaborations.

How have your outlooks changed compared to previous projects?

This cluster allowed us to have an enterprising project. The negative answer from ANR was partly due to our project size, larger than what this organization usually finances. If this cluster didn’t exist, we would have gone to present out project in Europe, outside France. On a daily basis, I would say it’s our way of working which has changed. We’ve adopted a new state of mind which came naturally, helping us to shed off this feeling of being alone.
To make Cap Digital worthwhile, you have to live and breathe it, and the networking reflexes start coming naturally.  It is perfect for really motivated SMEs working on a collaborative project! For example, we were put into contact with the GTI and other very open players such as OSEO and the FING.
It is vital to build up a network of close-knit and quality relations with innovative players. We were able to really develop our work with the electronic paper ecosystem in the Ile-de-France, which created new contacts. I am thinking especially about exchanges with numerous content suppliers quite eager to find different ways of distributing written media.

How would you like to see the cluster change?

The economic impact of an R&D project is most often wrongly estimated. An R&D project must know how to change into an industrial project and the passage from the R&D stage to the market product is not simple. Cap Digital could help the project to make this transition.
The cluster must increase its efficiency, giving it the means to succeed.

Company training services “Understanding the financial options”

Christophe Mitenne, Xerox

It was a thorough training with a presentation that allowed us  and the other participants to stand back, identify what to improve, and so facilitating the process of convincing future investors, especially target markets, defining the offer, etc…

Ivo Flammer, XiLabs

I really enjoyed the training. The balance between theory and practice was perfect. All the participants were personally involved with their projects throughout the training.
Since the participants came from such a large variety of domains , we had less of an opportunity toexchange on a professional level.
Being in contact with angel investors made me realize that I still had lots of work to do before having a convincing file for funding. So it isn’t for right now, but maybe in six months?! …

Francis Gernet, Ramses 2

This training is useful for any entrepreneur wanting to concretely structure how to launch their start-up. Within a short amount of time, this training enabled me to step back and gain a better perspective of the project’s specifications, development and financing. At the same time, it gave me a thorough understanding of what questions to ask and the various tools to implement.