SME / Large Account Relationship
The environmental market in France is equally divided between the public and private sectors.
With few exceptions, eco-SMEs currently have limited access to public contracts. Among the reasons for this situation, the eco-enterprise sector in France is dominated by two large groups from local public services. This configuration is very atypical on an international level.
It is therefore necessary to promote collective actions so that eco-SMEs are better able to successfully respond to public procurement.
It is also important to facilitate relationships between innovative SMEs and large accounts, to make meetings between large accounts and SMEs on environmental topics more regular, and to promote regional opportunities.
Since the environmental market is driven by the ecological and energy transition dynamic of the economy, initiatives aimed at raising awareness among actors about these changes also support commercial development and growth.
Bringing together large accounts and innovative eco-SMEs.
To address the challenge of bringing eco-enterprises and large accounts closer, the Pacte PME association, in partnership with PEXE, regularly organizes innovation showcases around environmental themes. Short formats, lasting half a day, allow innovative eco-SMEs to meet purchasing departments from the 50 large groups members of Pacte PME, who are keen to maintain balanced partnership relations with SMEs and to encourage open innovation. In 2013, 16 showcases were organized on the main eco-industry topics: polluted soils, sanitation, acoustics, eco-mobility, ecological engineering, air quality, waste treatment, energy efficiency in industry, etc. 160 eco-enterprises were involved.
Raising awareness among private contracting authorities.
APPEL – the eco-enterprise network of Rhône-Alpes – has implemented an action to raise economic actors’ awareness of improving companies’ energy performance with support from institutions: ADEME, DREAL, Grand Lyon, and about fifteen members of APPEL’s Climate Plan working group. This promotes the expertise of members and publicizes the offer of transversal skills and services, thereby generating potential economic activity for the sector. By making the network’s skills known to craft, commercial, service, or industrial companies, eco-enterprises gain visibility and create business opportunities for participating members.
Raising awareness among public contracting authorities.
Bretagne Éco-Entreprises has implemented a related program to help municipalities of all sizes familiarize themselves with sustainable development planning and also take action by creating a simple and pragmatic tool designed by field actors. A sustainable planning guide was published in several thousand copies, distributed, and has received 700 download requests from municipalities across France. Numerous testimonies from municipalities have demonstrated the relevance of this tool, notably to assist the urban planning commission during a revision of the Local Urban Plan (PLU). This enabled several eco-enterprises involved in its creation to be solicited by municipalities wishing to benefit from their expertise.
The Eco-Enterprise Monitoring Platform: a tool for technological, competitive, regulatory, and commercial monitoring (public tenders) supporting the commercial development of eco-enterprises.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Colmar and Central Alsace has been managing the Alsace Eco-Enterprise Network since 2006 (more than 450 eco-enterprises listed in the region). This network is mainly composed of micro-enterprises with functions such as consulting firms, design, manufacturing, services, training, or research. It has three main objectives: to promote partnerships between companies and laboratories, support companies in exporting, and promote the expertise of eco-enterprises.
In 2006, the CCI conducted an information needs audit among Alsace eco-enterprises and laboratories. The Regional Strategic Monitoring Center (CRVS), created in 2003 in partnership with the State and the Alsace Region, launched this audit, which was the starting point of a large-scale monitoring project serving eco-enterprises. This project was part of the Alsace regional economic intelligence program, COGITO.
The eco-enterprise monitoring platform is now a dedicated tool of the Eco-Enterprise Network that allows companies to monitor their environment and make strategic decisions.
In a context of “information overload,” the platform centralizes targeted strategic information on the eco-industry sector.
The tool is aimed at Alsace eco-enterprises.
Besides these companies, other organizations subscribe to this service. Since 2009, a national rollout has been underway with support from the consular network. The subscription is packaged in accounts marketed to eco-enterprises thereafter.
Revenues from the platform’s commercialization mainly finance the development of new modules (patent mapping, implementation of article comments, collection of contract award opinions, etc.) to maintain an attractive, constantly evolving tool that meets companies’ needs.
Measures and results of the action
More than 200 tenders and about a hundred press articles are published daily on the tool.
The tool’s uses are varied: some business leaders extract interesting tenders and send them to their sales teams, others use the tool as a general newsletter to quickly spot interesting articles.
The tool is easy to use and successful among companies, as evidenced by the 80% renewal rate.
For more information: http://www.colmar.cci.fr/environnement-et-developpement-durable/eco-entreprises-2.html