The interview
Q: What is your name?
Hey, I'm Thomas Fauré, CEO of Whaller.
Q: What is your product?
Whaller is a collaborative platform that brings together all the tools needed to exchange and communicate securely on a single platform. Whaller was founded by me in 2013 because I wanted to develop a collaborative platform that respects its users' data and where security and confidentiality are paramount.
Q: Are you a market leader? Who do you consider leader in your market? Does GAFAM play any role in your market?
Whaller is committed to digital sovereignty and to provide a European response to GAFAM, most notably Facebook and Microsoft in our domain of Enterprise social networks. However we're not presenting oursevels as an "alternative", since we offer an original solution and not a copy of something which works successfully elsewhere.
The market is actually ultra-competitive, not only via GAFAM, but also at the European level, with for example a dozen French SMEs offering similar services. Having a unique solution therefore is really important to stand out from the competition and attract customers from all types of fields: industry, defense, university, public services, etc. and of all sizes,
Q: Can you name users or clients of your solution? Preferably in the CAC40, DAX30, Fortune500, European governments?
With our ultra-ergonomic and easy-to-use solution and with a particular emphasis on cybersecurity, we've been able to win customers such as the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, as well as some sixty European universities and Grandes Écoles such as Polytechnique, the Institutes of Political Science, Centrale Supélec - Université Paris Saclay - but also BNP Paribas and other CAC 40 companies and public services. We are listed in the GouvTech catalog, and provide our services for France Télévisions or Pôle Emploi.
Q: What European policies do you suggest to ensure sustainable development of your technology and its adoption?
Whaller's focus on cybersecurity is one of the main reasons for our success, especially in the current geopolitical and economic context. Europe has been dependent on American solutions for decades, but still, we are only timidly replying to domestic offers that respect user privacy.
Considering how much telecommunications and IT infrastructures are a major focus of new forms of conflict, as we are seeing today in the Ukraine, access to sovereign solutions, which France is spearheading within the European Union, can provide more protection of citizens' data.
It is a political as well as an economic issue, at a time when GAFAMs are selling information to the highest bidder and we need to put more spotlight on these issues - on civil society, but also governmental and supra-governmental institutions. We need a more "protectionist" legislation that favors European entrepreneurs. The United States and China are doing the same on their respective markets. Solutions such as Whaller prove that we are not trailing on technological terms, but in political and public support.
Q: Can you give us an idea of sales/staff/clients/end users over the last 3 years?
We are currently a team of 30 developers. And we're currently serving about 800 000 users.
Q: Tell us about a successful implementation. How did you implement it, why was it a success, where is this implementation today? Plans for the future? How is the relation with the client? Did the client help you get other clients?
It is with the Pôle Emploi that we have one of our most successful collaborations running for over five years now. After successfully experimenting with the export of a social network for job seekers in a few regions for two years, our tool was deployed nationally more than four years ago and now has more than 500,000 subscribers since its launch on a custom-developed platform.
Accenture also posted an offer for the tender but failed to comply with RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation) made the Pôle Emploi chose a domestic software publisher, which could also develop the product according to their needs. Plus, Whaller is more modular and configurable to go from social networking to teamwork on a single interface, which in the end made us win the tender. Our successful project with the Pôle Emploi also attracted other clients, most notably the APEC.