Invest in France Agency international Office

Hans Sjöstedt, Regional Manager Southern Europe QlikTech International

Founded in 1993 in Sweden, QlikTech International specializes in business analysis software. The Business Intelligence software editor rapidly expanded and launched its first subsidiary in France in 2007, in order to broaden its client base and partnerships. The company has 420 employees worldwide and should employ around twenty people in France by the end of the year.

When did you choose to set up your business in France and why?

QlikTech opened a liaison office in the Paris region in the autumn of 2006. It developed a client base of around 150 strategic accounts and SME’s, and worked with a network of around 40 service providers. The latter were responsible for recommending and integrating the QlikTech Qlikview software, which was then purchased directly by the clients from the editor.
It was in October 2007 that we decided to consolidate our business structure by setting up a French subsidiary at La Défense (Paris). To start with, we recruited a team of 10 people, managed by René Bergniard. QlikTech France currently has 14 employees and 4 new employees will be hired by the end of 2008.

What advantages does France have to offer?

The French market offers great potential for QlikTech and the evolution of our turnover figures meant that we were eager to establish a direct presence. Having a subsidiary in France has enabled us to considerably broaden our client base and our partnerships, since we are closer to our market and therefore more responsive. France is an extremely important market in terms of the Business Intelligence sector in Europe, because it was here that Business Objects software was created. More than ever, we feel that the economic slump in the business intelligence sector does not have an impact on us. On the contrary, we are winning around 13 new clients every day.

Can you tell us about QlikTech’s development plans for France?

As far as France is concerned, we have not decided to recruit dozens of people, or expand through external growth. However, what we would like to do is to broaden our partnership strategy, which is very important to us. This is why we have signed agreements with IT service companies specialized in Business Intelligence, such as Keyrus, Micropole-Univers or Ysance. By the end of the year we should have increased our circle of active partners in France to over twenty.

• More information on QlikTech International