Seres: Allegro was born under the impetus of GS1 France 20 years ago. How did this completely innovative initiative arise in the late 80s?
P. Georget -The Allegro project arose from the desire of users, suppliers and distributors to find an electronic interchange solution other than the Internet, which appeared too unreliable. Some initial testing of computer-to-computer electronic interchange was conducted, but directly from mainframe to mainframe, because at the time, PCs were not yet in common use. These connections were difficult and costly to implement. Then, with the arrival of PCs, the idea of using them to exchange data between different information systems emerged, being easier, cheaper and more standardised. Thérèse Angué, who was running Gencod – EAN France at the time, and her team, then considered setting up a common system between all distributors and manufacturers, which is how Allegro started, with support from Bull.

Seres: How did electronic interchange develop?
P. Georget - Slowly at first with products such as poultry, and electronic interchange then expanded considerably. Volumes are still growing today and companies are exchanging more and more data. The first message type used was the order message, but nowadays there are also invoices, dispatch notes and shipping notices.

Companies now prefer electronic interchange to paper and faxes.

Seres: How do you see the future of electronic interchange?
P. Georget – There are several aspects to that question. We could wonder whether companies will continue to use Value Added Networks or whether the Internet will take over a share of the traffic currently exchanged using VANs. This will be the case if companies review and reduce the security level that they currently require for their interchanges. But I don’t believe they will. I think that companies will always have significant needs in terms of interchange security and traceability that can only be met by VANs. Consequently, I think that VANs will continue to occupy a legitimate place on the electronic data interchange market.
One could wonder whether message types other than the three that I previously mentioned will be developed.
I think that there will probably be new messages or new commercial processes, such as sales reports or stock reports, but that will need a change in companies’ mentalities. Lastly, the third aspect relating to the future of electronic interchange concerns distributor portals. In fact, portals that are used to make information available, rather than sending it out, are starting to emerge, and these could be the solution to bridge the digital divide isolating SMEs.

Seres: What do you think of Allegro’s success and durability?
P. Georget – I’m happy about it! It is evidence that tools arising from collaboration between companies are longer lasting than those born out of a single company's wishes. It is a good demonstration of implementing a single service point enabling open dialogue between all companies, unlike closed networks which restrict interchange. I think that Allegro will grow further because it is a reliable VAN, well-integrated within companies and inexpensive for its users.

Seres: Seres and GS1 France have been partners for 20 years. How would you sum up this long-standing collaboration?
P. Georget – Very, very positively! All projects that GS1 France and Seres have undertaken together have been a success! The electronic interchange project with Allegro and the electronic catalogue project with Parangon which took a while to start but which has now found its rightful place in the international catalogue network. And I think that there will be many other areas for collaboration, especially around mobile commerce or in anti-counterfeiting applications.

Seres: Could you introduce IM Media to us?
D. Leblanc: IM Media is an IT services company with 6 employees formed in 1995. We are software developers and integrators, we sell hardware, software packages, etc. One of our partnerships is the development of a specialist package for the fishing industry as we are based in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France’s leading fishing port and Europe’s top seafood processing centre. We currently have around 100 customers, mainly based in Boulogne-sur-Mer, but also throughout France.

Seres: Why did you use an external company for tax-compliant electronic invoicing?
D. Leblanc: We wanted to set up a partnership for tax-compliant electronic invoicing following a request from a customer, who had been asked by Carrefour supermarkets to switch to electronic invoicing, quickly followed by two or three other requests. It should be pointed out that the majority of our customers work with major retail chains since Boulogne-sur-Mer is also the leading centre for sale and distribution of seafood products, and is consequently the top supplier to retail chains in this sector. Our current workload meant we could not develop an EDI translator ourselves. We therefore conducted a comparative study of electronic invoicing solutions from several companies. We initially looked at the cost, then the financial health and soundness of these companies in order to recommend to our customers the most cost effective partner selected.

Seres: Why did you choose Seres?
D. Leblanc: Its prices were among the most attractive and Seres proved to be a lasting and financially sound company with which we could establish a stable, long-term partnership. Our choice was then backed up by a comparative study already conducted by one of our customers.

Seres: How did working together go?
D. Leblanc: Perfectly! We firstly developed an interface between our Nautile application and e-Facture, then ran some full-scale tests in order to finalise it. Our partnership relationship was straightforward with just one contact person on each side. If they need additional explanations, our customers can ask the Seres sales department directly. We now already have seven customers running live, and five others which will be dealt with soon. We think we will have more and more requests in the coming months, since Casino, Auchan and Carrefour supermarkets among others are asking their suppliers to implement a tax-compliant electronic invoicing solution.

Seres: Have the results seen by your customers been satisfactory?
D. Leblanc: It should be pointed out that before being an area for optimisation in our customers’ minds, electronic invoicing solutions are for them first and foremost an additional cost. However, we can say today that our customers, like ourselves, are satisfied with the solution. Not enough time has passed to assess the benefits in terms of quality and quantity. They hope that dispute resolution will eventually be quicker. One thing is certain, Seres’ solution is moving in the direction of improving relationships between the various commercial partners, taking advantage of new technologies.