In technological terms, France is a country of contrasts, with high levels of research and innovation but with one of the lowest penetrations of PCs in western Europe. However, French people are very familiar with on-line services, thanks to the extremely successful videotex Minitel service (in operation since the early 1980s), and a high penetration of electronic banking (all banks are on-line), mail order companies on-line, etc..
A few telework experiments took place in the late 1970s and during the Eighties, but - perhaps because of the technology then available - were not particularly successful. The first and only national report on telework, Rapport Breton, produced in 1993-1994, has led to increased interest. Since then a number of experimental projects have been run, sponsored among others by France Telecom, the Department of Telecoms and the regional development organisation DATAR. A report by DATAR on telework projects in France was published in 1995.
Since 1993, the agency CATRAL (part of the Ile-de-France regional government) has played a very active role in the promotion of telework. CATRAL has developed a neighbourhood office project, and has also published an influential practical guide to telework implementation. In 1996 the neighbourhood office concept received an award as the best teleworking application in the "Bangemann Challenge" initiative, for which the City of Stockholm invited Cities all over Europe of "half her size, or more inhabitants, to submit cases of best practice in each one of the application areas mentioned in the "Bangemann Report"24.
In Marseilles, Marne la Vallee, Roubaix and Nice teleports were set-up to provide both data and voice communications as a service to enterprises. Telecentres are a recent phenomenon and there are currently less than ten.
| The Vercors Telecentre25 In order to attract work to Vercors, a village in the Alps near Grenoble, a telecentre was launched at the end of 1996, which currently provides work to about 25 people. With links to local art products, and with contracts with several Grenoble based companies such as Hewlett Packard the expectations regarding the viability of the Telecentre are positive. Since this initiative has the interest and support of senior Senators (including the President and the Vice President) it is to be expected that this initiative will set a French national example. |
In the political arena, there is a telework special interest group in the National Assembly, and interest also among some Senators. Some telework experiments are being developed in the public sector, including one piloted by the Department of Industry. Success here would send an important signal to the private sector.
| Telergos Over just a few years, Telergos developed a network of 5 regional offices in France and one in the UK, where local people come in every day in order to work as telesecretaries for a large range of customers. One of these activities is typing of dictated texts, downloaded by high speed play back systems. The report is then sent to the originator. Many lawyers are now using this service on the move between their offices and the courts where documented "evidence" is all-important. |
Call centres, however, are not as common although some sources mention over 200, The tendency is to make them payable on a time passed basis via the 800 network (SNCF French Railways is a good example where it costs about 1.5 ecus to reserve by phone or Minitel). As far as teleservices are concerned there is a large network of telesecretaries.
It is not possible to give firm figures of the number of people teleworking in France, since this is not identified in the national statistics. There are clearly many thousands of nomadic (mobile) teleworkers. The first companies to introduce this change were the IT companies, initially for sales and then maintenance staff. Pharmaceutical companies and others have followed suit. However, there are very few examples yet of office-based workers undertaking teleworking. The idea of working from neighbourhood offices has also been slow to take off; companies ask why they should rent further space, when they already have office accommodation available. Some companies are beginning to explore new ways of organising work space.
| Andersen Consulting Andersen Consulting relocated to Avenue Georges V, Paris in 1996. Their Hotel Office has enabled them to considerably reduce the office space to approximately 3,700 sq metres for around 1,500 staff. Nobody has a permanent office, even the Managing Director. Reception staff all have previous fivestar hotel experience and the company is 100% client oriented The move has saved over $1million and the office cost has become part of the publicity budget advertising the re-engineering services of Andersen. The American partners are seriously considering using the same hotel office concept elsewhere. |
The French telework association (AFTT - http://www.aftt.net) was created in March 1997. This has been a long-sought event, created with high-level political involvement. There is increased academic interest in the subject. Among other telework websites in France is http://www.inp.fr/cybertel/.
France has had a lively teleworking magazine since December 1995, Télétravail, produced commercially every two months and available on news-stands. A successful telework conference has also been held annually since 1996 in Serre-Chevalier, with the 1998 event currently under preparation. France Telecom ran a newspaper advertising campaign on electronic commerce in May 1997.
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