It’s fair to say that for most businesses, 2023 has been a year of evaluation and re-evaluation. The global operating environment continues to change at pace, with energy prices, supply chain disruption, and inflation keeping organisations on their toes.

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On the whole, this has made the business community stronger, more adaptable, and more efficient. We’re all better at determining what delivers value and leaving behind anything that doesn’t.

Both consumers and businesses will approach 2024 with caution, but I hope the new year can bring some cautious optimism. Sometimes it’s the greatest challenges that produce the most important change. That’s certainly the case with the progress being made towards the low carbon, circular transition, which thankfully is also intensifying, both because of and despite economic stressors.

That alone should give us cause for hope. So, how do we keep up the momentum and what opportunities might lie ahead over the next 12 months?

Geopolitical uncertainties fuel a shift to clean energy

Conflict in Russia and the Middle East has caused devastation for millions of people who live the daily realities of war. It’s heart breaking to see the ongoing impact on human lives.

These conflicts have also had a significant influence on global fuel prices and placed more emphasis and urgency on the transition to alternative energy sources. Energy resilience and autonomy is now a top priority for governments, including the EU, which has ramped up efforts to secure supply.

Today, the energy transition is not only an ecological imperative but also an economic one, which despite the circumstances, can only be good for progress.The demand for clean energy infrastructure is increasing, with financed volumes for energy-generating equipment reaching €1 billion last year, according to recent data from Leaseurope.

The leasing sector will have an important and growing role in enabling the adoption of clean energy tech and infrastructure by ensuring it is an accessible and sustainable alternative to the status quo. This will require flexibility and innovation from lessors who will need to find solutions to finance new asset classes and offer customers value-add services as part of these deals, aiding the shift away from traditional cash ownership towards a service-based, circular approach to asset management.

As producer responsibility solidifies, the secondary market will flourish

Producer responsibility is another ever-present theme in EU regulation, with manufacturers being asked to “take care” of their products long after they leave the factory. This regulatory burden may put new pressure on manufacturers to be responsible for the end-of-life of their products, but it also has a whole host of benefits. Not least of these is that it has promoted a shift towards product-as-a-service (PaaS) models, which inherently draw on the principles of the circular economy, a key component of the sustainable transition.

When a manufacturer retains ownership of its product throughout the entire lifecycle, it can gain a much deeper understanding of its component parts, likely wear and tear, and the residual value of used goods. Shifting to a service-based approach also allows producers to develop new revenue streams, by offering customers valuable services at different stages of the lifecycle – from digital asset management to data insights to sustainable and secure asset disposal.

As a result, we’re seeing a growing interest from vendors seeking to secure assets at the end of their first useful life and aiming to build a strong stock base of used products. This allows manufacturers to respond to the increased client demand for used or refurbished assets to form a mandatory percentage of bids as part of ESG-aligned procurement processes, regulatory compliance, and budget considerations.

Leasing companies can play a significant role in the development of PaaS models by creatively collaborating with vendor partners to ensure asset responsibility is retained throughout the lifecycle, related services that promote reuse are integrated into the product offer, and customers are supported to adopt the principles of the circular economy across their operations.

A digital transition is also underway as organisations manage costs

Technology has been another key theme in 2023, and despite the ongoing global uncertainty, this year has seen a resilient demand for business equipment, particularly for investments that are core to business operations.

Rightly, businesses are making strategic decisions based on how critical investments are to growth, with technology a clear driver of both efficiency and competitiveness.

In 2024, progress with artificial intelligence (AI) will undoubtedly continue. For the leasing sector, it has exciting potential to improve customer experience by speeding up transactions like credit approvals and making services like fraud detection more reliable and consistent.

Leasing can also support customers to accelerate digitalisation, reducing upfront costs and allowing them to take advantage of the application of the technology. These days transitions come in many guises, but the digital transition will be crucial in supporting organisation to grow sustainably.

Time and time again, we see the leasing industry playing a key role as an enabler, supporting businesses to future-proof their operations and contribute to a better tomorrow.

We have a huge opportunity ahead of us to do more and I think that calls for a healthy dose of cautious optimism.

Isabelle Loc, Chief Executive Officer, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions

When the European Commission launched the landmark EU Green Deal in December 2019 it set out a bold plan for the continent to transition to a sustainable economic future. Described as “Europe’s man on the moon moment”, in broad brush strokes it outlined its ambition to be the world’s first carbon neutral continent by 2050.

Four years on and the road map outlined in the Green Deal has delivered significant change, and today, Europe undoubtedly leads the world in the transition to a low carbon, circular economy.

But as climate change accelerates and we inch ever closer to the 2050 deadline, one thing is clear – unlike the moon landing, Europe’s final destination is still unknown and if the Green Deal is to be an equally historic success, the devil will be in the detail.

What is the EU Taxonomy? How does it link to the transition to a circular economy?

The EU Taxonomy, Europe’s sustainable finance framework, is the place to dig into that detail. It underpins the Green Deal by setting a standard for economic activities that can be classified as environmentally and socially sustainable. It includes the transition to the circular economy as one of its key objectives and could help to unlock the trillions in finance needed to make circularity mainstream.

A recent taxonomy policy development has circular economy enthusiasts talking, with new guidelines that set out criteria to determine whether certain economic activity makes a “substantial contribution to the transition to a circular economy” – a transition that could be worth €1.8 trillion to the EU economy by 2030.

From a side note to a key theme

What caught my attention is that product-as-a-service (PaaS) has re-emerged as a key theme for the EU and an important lever for achieving the circular transition.

In 2020, PaaS was given just a passing mention as part of the 35 actions set out in the Circular Economy Action Plan (a major building block of the EU Green Deal), but through this taxonomy update the EU has signalled that it will prioritise PaaS as a mechanism to achieve the circular economy and, crucially, give organisations the criteria they need to implement it successfully.

The new technical guidance defines product-as-a-service models as “providing customers with access to products through service models, which are either use-oriented services, where ownership remains with the provider and the product is leased, shared, rented or pooled; or result-oriented, where the payment is pre-defined and the agreed result is delivered (i.e. pay per service unit)” (pg. 67).

It goes on to list a range of manufactured product groups that fit the bill, including textiles, electronics, furniture, and more (pg.67). This alone is a welcome step towards acknowledging the breadth of possibility that PaaS models can deliver.

However, the list is far from exhaustive, with medical tech, agricultural machinery, construction equipment, and automotives all notable omissions. Most, if not all, manufacturing sectors are being transformed by digitalisation at a rapid and increasing rate, meaning products become obsolete overnight and extracting the maximum value from resources, via circular models like PaaS, is paramount. The guidance will surely be broadened in future updates to capture the endless opportunities that as-a-service models can offer a multitude of industries.

The guidelines also set out criteria PaaS models must meet to be considered to be making a substantial contribution to the circular economy. First and foremost, the activity must “provide the customer with access to, and use of product(s), while ensuring that the ownership remains with the company providing this service, such as a manufacturer, specialist or retailer” (pg. 67).

The leasing industry’s role in circular transition

This is a call to arms for the leasing industry, which has an important role to play in helping organisations to implement systems that aid the circular transition. There is an opportunity here for lessors to build on our expertise in offering customers residual value pricing on assets (which inherently fosters the preservation of assets and their value) to offer a broad range of services covering the full lifecycle of an asset from asset management tools to data analysis to in-life maintenance support and sustainable end-of-life disposal.

Interestingly, the guidance also states that both a longer useful economic life through, for example, repair/refurbishment, and greater usage intensity (i.e. ride share services) are positive outcomes to be derived from PaaS models that will promote the transition to the circular economy (pg. 68). Clearly, the results for each of these approaches is very different because the more intensely a product is used, usually the shorter its life will be.

This is a powerful motivation for organisations to move away from traditional ownership models and work with lessors, who advocate for an optimum life of an asset rather than sweating an asset beyond its useful life, resulting in low value components with little opportunity for reuse. When managed properly, assets can deliver maximum value for organisations in their first lifecycle, be sustainably and securely refurbished and go on to fuel the second-hand market with high-quality products. These are the hallmarks of a truly circular economy.

Only three years after PaaS was just a side note in the EU Green Deal, it is now explicitly included in EU taxonomy, which is a hugely positive step forward. There’s still lots to do to create a framework that supports a truly circular economy and give investors and businesses the tools they need to implement circular solutions.

Setting these parameters will help the EU scale up sustainable investment, prevent greenwashing, and support organisations to transition to a more sustainable, future-proof way of doing business. Get this detail right and the sky really is the limit.

Andrey Maramzine, Chief Sustainability Officer, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions

By collecting and analysing user data, connected devices make it possible to offer an infinite number of services based on current or upcoming needs.

This new technological trend allows your company to move from selling products to selling services linked to device usage. Read on to discover more about the Internet of Things.

What is the potential OF Internet of Things?

According to a study by the GSMA, a professional association of mobile network operators, the global market of Internet of Things (IoT) will be worth 1.1 trillion dollars in 2025. And the total number of IoT connections will reach 25.2 billion dollars in 2025, compared to 6.3 billion in 2016. What exactly is it? The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the connection of physical devices to the Internet.  In other words, it’s a matter of the increasing use of everyday products that are connected to the web (objects in smart houses, driving aids, connected watches, etc.) as well as professional equipment (medical aids for patients and doctors, for example.)

A rapidly developing solution

In numerous sectors, this development is changing the way that companies approach their customer relationships, as well as the type of services that they offer them. The increasing use of connected objects allows manufacturers and publishers to collect, store, and analyse data on clients’ usage of their equipment.  This encourages the manufacturers and publishers to adapt their offers to the users’ specific needs and expectations, based on data collected from their connected devices. In short, they are able to sell solutions precisely adapted to their clients’ needs, in place of or in addition to the product itself.  On the other hand, the client can take advantage of measurement tools provided by connected devices to put together adequate service requests.

The Internet of Things thus clearly contributes to the development of the “usage economy,” or “functionality economy”: an economy in which companies sell the use or the usage performance of a product, rather than the product itself. The provider and the client both find their niches: it becomes more interesting for the client to pay the fair price for the benefits that they gain from using an object, and it becomes easier for the company to sell an offer specially designed for a user.

An example of pay-per-use offers with the Internet of Things: Schneider Electric

Manufacturers are already exploring the new possibilities offered by the connectivity of everyday objects and are more than ready to change their habitual way of doing business. For example, in 2016 Schneider Electric, a French leader in electricity management products, launched a platform for the massive deployment of IoT solutions, called EcoStruxure.  The goal was to develop equipment (lighting, air conditioning, etc.) and sensors that are placed in buildings and connected to the Internet in order to exploit data, improve everyday consumption, and most importantly, anticipate future needs. Launched two years ago, EcoStruxure has the potential to improve a building’s energy performance by more than half, and to reduce costs by approximately 30%.

IoT solutions are thus contributing to the development of the usage economy. This isn’t just a simple technological trend, but a sustainable movement. According to Iot Analytics, more than 21 billion of these objects will be deployed in the world by 2025.

A long-term presence in the traditional markets

At the heart of the real economy, we support businesses by financing equipment that are essential to their growth. This involves a large range that has constantly evolved and expanded over the years.

Like in the 1950’s, when the focus was on rebuilding the French economy post-war, we channeled our resources to finance innovative equipment (by the 50’s standards!) like tractors, combine harvesters, cranes, trucks, forklifts, excavators and much more across the construction, agriculture, material handling and the transport sectors.

Later, with the advent of new technologies, businesses needed to finance newer types of equipment like computers, mobile phones, photocopiers and telecommunications infrastructures. Once again, we supported them through this major transformation.

Today, we still finance logistics and technology equipment in these well-known traditional sectors, through the strong relationships we’ve built with the major manufacturers and dealers.

An ever-evolving equipment range to support Sustainable Development

We capitalise on our expertise in traditional markets to explore newer sectors, especially those that push for a more sustainable future.

We do this by financing more and more businesses and equipment that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations.

Through our long-term presence in the traditional markets, we had already been contributing to helping feed the populations and build new and more sustainable infrastructures.

But we wanted to go further and take proactive steps to promote and support the positive-impact investments of our clients.

We therefore continue to enlarge the range of equipment financed to include those that promote ecological transition by reducing pollution, consuming less energy and/or by deriving energy from renewable sources. Like LED lighting systems, photovoltaic panels, cogeneration systems, etc. The latter, for instance, ensure that energy is generated in a more efficient and cleaner way and that the residual energy usually wasted, is put to use. To promote greener mobility, we also offer finance solutions for hybrid and electric buses and vehicles, their charging terminals, and for trucks running on NGV (Natural Gas for Vehicle) and BioGNV.

In addition to energy transition, we work in sectors like healthcare and recycling to promote Circular Economy. We fund medical equipment that ensure good health and well-being of the people. But also equipment for waste management and recycling which allow for a more sustainable management of equipment at the end of their lifecycle.

Solutions that promote Circular Economy

Maximising the value of raw materials is a major challenge for everyone, be it consumers, businesses, or even countries, since it involves limiting waste and preserving the Earth’s natural resources.

At BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, we aim to break away from the so-called linear economy of extracting, producing, using and disposing. For many years now, we have been pushing for a more circular model with the ambition to give a second or even a third life to professional equipment, in all sectors where this is possible. Finance, Recover, Refurbish, and Resell or Re-rent is our philosophy. A philosophy that resonates with all our customers who seek to limit the environmental impact of their activities. This is precisely what the solutions proposed by our subsidiaries BNP Paribas 3 Step IT and BNP Paribas Rental Solutions Trucks aim to do by working around the equipment life cycle. BNP Paribas 3 Step IT refurbishes 97% of the technological equipment at the end of the contract: this reduces the carbon footprint associated with equipment production and transport by 36%. BNP Paribas Rental Trucks maintains and repairs the vehicles it manages and ensures that they are resold at the end of the contract.

Usage Economy at the core

The Circular Economy model is a response to the new consumption patterns which involve paying for the use of an equipment, and not for its ownership. By leasing equipment from specialised companies, businesses get to completely outsource equipment management, particularly at the end of the contract. As the owner of the leased equipment, we recover the equipment and try giving it a second life, or recycle it according to environmental standards in cases where it can no longer be used.

While the preference for using an equipment has already started to dominate the will to own it, there is still a long way to achieve a true state of Usage Economy – a scenario in which the user would only pay for the actual use of his equipment, as in the case of industrial vehicles whose rents are calculated by the kilometre. Or like the first photocopiers that already offered the possibility to pay for the number of copies made.

This, again, makes for a truly virtuous model, since the objective is to keep using the equipment for as long as possible and to maximise its use. Even though the Internet of Things (IoT) has already given birth to pay-per-use services by offering the possibility to closely monitor the use of each machine, the road is still long. But it has a lot of potential and presents some great opportunities for companies, and we are ready to accompany them on this journey, as we have been doing on the ones towards Sustainable Development and Circular Economy.

Always open to innovation

Since the time we came into existence 70 years ago, we have always strived to provide the best possible working conditions for each of our employees. This involves initiatives like, but not limited to, training, continuous upgrade of equipment and improvement in the ways of working by leveraging the latest technologies. This has allowed us to evolve from a 100% paper approach of the 1950’s, to desktops, and from desktops to laptops, whose efficiency and practicality are now helping us gradually turn to zero paper and a flex office organisation – a new and evolved way of working that is more flexible, open, conducive to teamwork and homeworking at the same time.

Indeed, thanks to the systematic digitalisation of our processes, we’re able to allow a large proportion of our employees to work from home or in a much more flexible manner. As a result, even when they’re physically away from their offices, they can continue to carry out their day-to-day tasks while maintaining a strong connection with their colleagues, as well as with our clients and partners. This also allows them to benefit from a better work-life balance.

A health crisis that forced the world to review its working methods

Thanks to this progress, we were able to adapt almost immediately when the health crisis hit, to preserve the health and safety of all our employees while ensuring the continuity of our activities. In all the countries where we are present, we put in place specific action plans to respond to this exceptional situation. Homeworking became the general rule for a large majority of our employees, to whom we provided the necessary equipment and organised online trainings on remote working and management to help them navigate this change.

During the most acute phase of the crisis, 95% of our employees worked from home. For the few teams that had to go to the offices to ensure the continuity of certain activities that could not be done remotely, we did everything to facilitate and secure their commute and the time at the office (with, depending on the country, reimbursement of taxi fares, delivery of meal trays, etc.).

Be it during or post the lockdown, specific health measures are applied across our premises: wearing of masks, more frequent cleaning and disinfection, use of sanitiser gel, regulatory distance between desks, etc. Everything is done to make our employees feel safe.

Employees who feel supported

In the interest of ensuring their well-being, we conducted internal surveys to find out how they had been feeling during the crisis. 89% of our employees said they were satisfied with their working conditions and 90% felt they were well-connected to their teams during this difficult period. More than 9 out of 10 employees said they had received the support they needed. *

The health and safety of our 3,600 employees is and always has been our top priority. Thanks to our digital transformation programme and the collective unwavering mobilisation, we were able to reconcile security and business continuity in our 20 countries throughout the health crisis.

*Results of an internal survey sent in April 2020 to our 3,600 employees

Solid, long-term partnerships

Since our creation, we have developed strong relationships with manufacturers and distributors of professional equipment. We work with all the main equipment suppliers across sectors (agriculture, transport, construction, IT, office equipment, healthcare, telecommunications, energy transition, etc.). We have more than 50 international partners today, representing about 400 local agreements, most of which are long-standing partnerships, some going even up to 30 years.

If in 2019 we were able to finance 346,000 projects for a total volume of €14.1 billion across 20 different countries, it is because we work very closely with this network of partners. A network that has trusted us with their business year after year and whom we have supported by providing the best-suited solutions to develop their sales.

Concrete initiatives to measure the satisfaction of our partners

In addition to our regular contacts with our partners, we also conduct specific surveys to measure their level of satisfaction and evaluate their changing needs.

We conduct a quantitative survey every year and a qualitative survey every two years. The combination of these two approaches allows us to continuously improve our service offer.

This has been a long-standing tradition at BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions – in 1978, for instance, we launched the initiative “At the service of our clients”, that aimed to get feedback from our clients and partners on the quality of our relationship and the areas of improvement.

For the past several decades now, the results are carefully studied and followed up with an action plan.

Which is why our NPS (Net Promoter Score) has been steadily increasing since many years:

This progression means that our partners are increasingly inclined to recommend us to a colleague or to a peer. And we sincerely thank them for their trust.

A closer collaboration during the COVID-19 crisis

Throughout the crisis and the lockdown, we’ve made every effort to stay by our partners’ side and maintain this strong relationship. Since in-person meetings were no longer possible, we switched to videoconferencing to keep in touch.

Regular newsletters were sent out to keep them informed on the evolution of the situation, our business continuity plan and the specific measures launched to support them during this difficult time.

We reminded them of the digital tools available, enabling them to continue their activity remotely. From the finance request to the electronic signature of contracts, the digitalised dealer journey had already been deployed before the crisis and helped us ensure the continuity of activities. We also shared with our partners the exceptional measures put in place to manage their clients’ requests for payment deferrals, including strengthening teams and deploying 15 robots to process a large proportion of requests automatically.

Once again, they trusted us with their business.
The mutual cooperation and solidarity that we saw during the crisis has only strengthened our ties and our partnerships are stronger than ever.

Clients with very diverse profiles

Because our client base is spread out across several sectors, the impact of the health crisis and the sudden halt of the economic activity wasn’t the same for all of them. For example, essential activities like agriculture resisted well to the consequences of the crisis, because no matter what the situation is, countries around the world will always have to feed their populations.  The IT equipment market was also one of the few sectors that was able to maintain their business inflow, particularly because of the accelerated pace at which companies had to implement work from home, to ensure the safety of their employees.

On the other hand, there were industries that saw a sharp decline in their activity due to the lockdowns, like transport (except for those in the food industry) and construction where economic activity fell by almost 50% in April. It was the same case for other non-food-related businesses like textiles and automobiles industries which suffered quite a lot.

To support these businesses, during this difficult and uncertain period, we introduced specific measures.

Measures tailored to the needs of each client

Thanks to the digitalisation of our processes that started several years ago and the introduction of new collaborative digital tools such as videoconferencing, our teams were able to remain in close contact with all our clients, despite the physical distance. They continued to respond to their requests, whether to finance a new project or to manage existing contracts.

In order to provide concrete support and help preserve the cash flow of our clients, we approved more than 160,000 requests for 3 to 6 months payment deferrals in all our countries, a third of which came from the clients of the banking network of BNP Paribas.

In order to respond to these requests as quickly and efficiently as possible, we deployed 15 robots that helped manage a large number of requests in an automated manner.

And for our clients wishing to finance new equipment, our European e-signature solution enabled them to sign their contracts remotely, in a secure manner.

Supporting economic recovery

As countries slowly exit the lockdowns, the focus is now on economic recovery, even though the local challenges specific to each country and each sector continue to persist.

Businesses will have to catch up to make up for the slowdown experienced during the past few months. And our teams are ready to support their future projects!

Vision for the post-crisis world

The crisis has brought forward many challenges, but beneath these challenges, there are also some underlying opportunities. It prompted us to implement new ways of working and management, more innovative and efficient processes, newer digital tools, and we want to continue to capitalise on these technological leaps we’ve taken during the crisis.
For instance, the remote connection capacity that was increased to allow all our employees to work from home will be maintained.

We also realised that, while travel is essential for maintaining strong relationships with our partners and clients, we can certainly reduce it and thereby limit our environmental footprint.

Contributing to a more sustainable and inclusive future will become more important than ever and, as we slowly emerge from the crisis, our ambition will be to finance even more equipment and businesses that support energy transition and to further develop our circular economy solutions.

This crisis must not be a brake on sustainable development but rather an accelerator. In any case, this is how we see it at BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions!”

Supporting sustainable business growth has been part of our values as well as those of our partner IVECO for many years now. In early 2018, we decided to go even further together with preferential financing solutions that facilitate access to less polluting commercial and industrial vehicles. We therefore launched a first “green plan” in February 2018, before participating in the European BioLNG project in 2019. Let’s take a look back at these two initiatives.

The “Gas Route”: a pan European project to support the energy transition

Since the beginning of 2019, we’ve been part of a major European project with IVECO, aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions in Europe by 60% before 2030. Called the BioLNG Euronet, the project brings together several major players from the energy and transport sectors.

In concrete terms, we’ll be supporting the development of Natural Gas (liquefied or compressed) as transport fuel through our joint venture,CNH Industrial Capital Europe, in cooperation with European institutions.

In the first 2 months, CNH Industrial Capital Europe has already approved nearly 200 financing requests, 30 of which are currently being signed. This Joint Venture offers, in particular, competitive leasing solutions that partially compensate the price difference between diesel and gas trucks (up to €6,000), via a grant from the European Commission.

A solid common and proven commitment  

This European project is not our first collaboration with IVECO in favour of sustainable development. In 2018, our CNH Industrial Capital Europe joint venture provided preferential financing terms to IVECO customers wishing to purchase gas or electric commercial and industrial vehicles. In retrospect: nearly 1,000 files have been validated with a loan agreement, 2/3 of them are already being financed, and 1/3 are in the final decision process.

Half of these offers, in the form of leasing agreements or rental contracts depending on the country, were attributed to IVECO’s Daily Blue Power vehicles: the Daily Electric (zero emission), the Daily Euro 6 2020 RDE Ready (new generation of diesel vehicle) and the Daily Hi-Matic Natural Power (natural gas-powered light commercial vehicle). The other half of the contracts were financing offers for the Stralis NP 460, an ultra-durable, natural gas-powered truck.

“The financing plans offered jointly with BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions enable us to help our customers convert their vehicle fleets to gas or electric energy, and thus move towards a more sustainable transport sector,” said Gerrit Marx, President of IVECO.

“Like with these projects carried out with IVECO, our ambition is to build more and more concrete offers that support sustainable growth with our partners. It’s a part of our ambitions and our commitments within BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions as well as within the BNP Paribas Group,” comments Charlotte Dennery, Chief Executive Officer of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions.

Can you tell us more about the “Stretch Your Business” programme?

“Stretch Your Business” is an innovative 3-step programme that will allow us to incorporate disruptive technologies into mainstream business.
A first, an ideation stage allowed us to select use cases during JAM Sessions which took place in 8 countries with 12 participating teams.

The JAM Sessions are collaborative exercises carried out over 2 days with internal and external experts, with the aim of presenting a solid solution to our current business challenges through the use of new, disruptive technologies. This programme is decentralised to give more autonomy to the local teams, while maintaining a link with our central corporate teams. The idea is that the corporate will no longer take the lead but rather hold a role of support and guidance.
In fact, the second step, known as the incubation phase, consisted of working on a realistic and achievable vision of each project with the support of our central teams, taking into account the financial, technical and resource constraints.
Finally, the last step of the “Stretch Your Business” programme was to further develop the 6 retained use cases as a beta version in Paris with the help of start-ups during a one-week boot camp. With this programme, we aim at implementing the proposed solutions as quickly as possible. 

Which ideas were retained?

In January 2019, the General Management approved 5 out of the 6 projects, which are still subject to security and architecture validation by corporate IT team. We have 3 business-oriented projects that use the benefits of voice recognition, machine learning with a chatbot and artificial intelligence. The other two projects focus on operational efficiency using big data processing and artificial intelligence.

When will these solutions be available?

The goal is for these projects to be on the market by the end of June 2019. The Stretch Your Business programme is time-sensitive and disrupts the usual way of working to ensure that projects go on and quickly become a reality for our employees, partners and customers.