Percall Group: Success enabler
One of the most significant trends in the industry today and in the future is the movement towards increased collaboration. Startups understood that they could not succeed alone and that it was important to work as a team with large industrial groups. This trend is driven by the need for startups to cut costs and access new markets for growth.
On the other hand, many large companies no longer have significant R&D departments, which encourages them to partner with startups to develop new innovative projects. Startups are often synonymous with innovation, and this collaboration allows companies to strengthen their image as innovators and therefore reinforce their employer brand. Adopting a “startup” corporate culture provides a more stimulating work environment for current employees whilst attracting new collaborators at the same time.
Innov'Consulting - Percall Group & Ubleam - Startups
When startups are asked on ways to improve their relationships with large corporations, they tend to come back with the following four:
1. The first “request” is to give startups direct access to the right people. Large companies often have many stakeholders, making it difficult to identify and access decision-makers. It is therefore important to be able to quickly identify the right people or internal sponsors, in order to act in an agile manner.
2. The second is to clarify the objectives. Objectives must be set in advance based on the relationship between the two parties to avoid any misunderstandings during collaboration.
3. The third recommendation concerns facilitating the process. Large companies are known for their administrative complexity and “steamroller” operation, so it is important to find a way to lighten some processes. Startups should also develop opportunities for exchanges with major accounts in order to better understand each other and communicate in a different context than a customer-supplier relationship.
4. The fourth and final request is to accelerate the pace of decision-making. Large companies must become more agile in innovation by adopting an open innovation approach and exploring opportunities before constraining them.
In summary, the Time-to-Market is not the same for an industrial group and a startup, and one of Percall Group‘s missions is to bring them together.
Thanks to our experience within the Percall Group, we understand the Startup universe and this vision of a very short Time-to-Market, as well as the incompressible constraints of industrial groups.
When we met with this recognized actor in maintenance engineering based in Aix-en-Provence, an integrator of engineering and construction solutions with international reach, we analyzed how to quickly solve one of their issues: the traceability of industrial elements during the maintenance phase between the operating site and maintenance sites.
In our network of partners, qualified by our teams, the company Ubleam offers a platform in SaaS mode and tags that associate industrial assets with the platform.
Percall Group and its Innov’Consulting department’s mission was to bring the two entities together, facilitate the discussion, and always come back to the basic motto of Traceability, Speed, and Reliability. This motto, in the case presented, was the convergence of the need and the solution. Indeed, we usually start with the need and not the solution: this allows us to truly respond to our clients by providing the most suitable solution, developed internally at Percall Group or carried out in collaboration with one of our partners.
The deal, based on mutual knowledge and trust, was signed fairly quickly and supported by Percall Group for a sharing of risks and also for the opportunity for success: this is also our mission: Sharing.
The mission, clearly framed and defined, led by Percall Group, was successfully completed within the allotted time.
Now, this French industrial group and Ubleam can continue their collaboration together because they know each other, have the same language and will be able to tackle the future together, and Percall Group continues its collaboration with both entities on other topics.
In summary, the partnership between startups and large companies is a win-win relationship based on a real exchange, with Percall Group as the central link. Startups bring their agility, large companies contribute their expertise and market knowledge, while Percall Group animates this relationship with its digital innovation expertise. The success of a successful collaboration depends on the open-mindedness of both parties!
Samuel Boury, CEO / Co-founder of Ubleam, concludes as follows: “Thanks to Percall Group and in particular David Rolland in charge of the “Transformation 4.0” offers, Ubleam was able to find industrial application needs for its solution with a recognized player in the maintenance engineering. We are now considering a massive deployment of it on their client portfolio”.
On our side, at Percall Group, we will be continuing with this type of mission as they are extremely fulfilling for our consultants given their diverse industrial actions, interactivities and increasingly ambitious challenges to meet. We have a qualified network of partners with whom we collaborate every day to advance our clients’ digital transformation and enable them to support an ongoing process or launch it.
To conclude, the advantages of collaboration between large companies and startups are undeniable, but their success depends on effective implementation. For this, companies must define a clear and coherent open innovation strategy, and exchange with business teams to gather their opinions on these collaborations.
By turning to third-party partners such as Percall Group, industrial companies can find the solution with us or with the partner or startup best suited to their needs and thus launch fruitful collaborations.
Percall Group
“Percall Group specializes in the integration of PLM and IoT systems within high-tech industries such as Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Luxury, Transportation, and major European manufacturers.”
UBLEAM
“Simplify the management and monitoring of your equipment with digital notebooks and associated tags.”
