Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software (Part 2)

Sramana: Were you intending to sell primarily to manufacturing companies in the South of France?

Jacques Soumeillan: We were selling very quickly throughout all of France. We did focus on selling to manufacturing companies.

Sramana: Did you also become a partner of Parametric Technology?

Jacques Soumeillan: At that time HP had some activity in software, so we were just an integrator for that software component. We are involved with Parametric today, but at that time we were involved only with HP.

Sramana: How big were you able to grow the company based on your original strategy devised in 1987?

Jacques Soumeillan: We had a good start. The first year of activity we reached close to €1 million of revenue. I felt we did very well for a startup, and because we did well with our integration business we were able to get funding for the design of the software that became Cameleon. The engineering and design of software cost a lot of money, especially at that time. We were able to do that, fortunately.

That product is not the same software that Cameleon is today, but it was the first draft of our current product. In the early 1990s we were fortunate to meet a company that was very interested in our software.

Sramana: What was the concept behind your software, and why was that first client interested in it?

Jacques Soumeillan: They were one of the biggest retailers in Europe that sells windows, doors and home improvement products. The U.S. equivalent would be Home Depot or Lowe’s. We proposed to manage their difficulties addressing tailor-made products. They were addressing business in renovation which were very important yet also very particular.

They decided to use our product to sell their windows and doors to allow for ordering directly from manufacturing directly from the store. Our product allowed representatives in the store to configure and price the custom-tailored product in front of their customers.

They could provide the quote and send an order directly to the factory. It was integrated with the ERP, and it was a very big success. Once that product was implemented in 12 factories and 100 retail stores, it became very popular and became the spark behind our story.

Sramana: That sounds like a large enterprise software deal.

Jacques Soumeillan: It was a good deal. We did that deal over three years, but it was a very substantial deal for us. The good story is that they are still using our software and have embraced the new technologies that we come up with since then. They are a very good customer for us today.

Sramana: Who was your second customer?

Jacques Soumeillan: After that we had several customers contact us, including ABB. We had elevator companies and all types of customers in France. By the end of the 1990s I tried to make some streamlined decisions. We were able to implement Cameleon on a standalone laptop and deliver the product to allow people to sell it walking in the field.

We went that route because our licenses were linked to the number of users who needed our software. I felt that if we made our software more accessible, more people in an organization would want to use it. We had very good success with that business model as well.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software
1 2 3 4 5 6 7