French Partners Connect at Ibexa Conference in Paris

On 23 May 2023 we held one of our biggest ever French Partner Conferences at the stunning Châteauform' Monceau Rio in Paris​. Our guests were greeted with a networking breakfast, allowing time to get acquainted before the main event got underway with a range of product updates, partner success stories, and networking opportunities.

Keynote – digital innovation drives success 

First to present on stage was Grégory Bécue, Chief Growth Officer at Ibexa. He kicked things off with a look back on the past 15 years, highlighting the success achieved by companies that invested in digital innovation despite the global recession which hit in 2008.

We heard how those that failed to recognize market demands, which signified the need to digitize business practices, struggled to bounce when the recession loosened its grip. Those that prioritized digital transformation achieved growth and continued an upward trajectory. 

Our partners were also reminded of Ibexa’s position within the QNTM family, as they continue assembling a composable, best of breed ecosystem of leading experts in digital transformation.  

We were also introduced to the latest member of QNTM’s family – Qualifo, who supply an engagement and loyalty platform which is complimentary to Actito. The Belgium born business joins a host of sister companies in the QNTM Group including Raptor, Adnami, and SeenThis.

Partner activities 

Michael Colpin – Commercial Director and Partner Manager at Ibexa introduced the team which brings improved organization before supplying an update on the latest partner activities. He detailed how each partner would benefit from weekly meetings to define a business plan, lead the activity, carry out account mapping, offer training, report of leads, opportunities, and projects, and evolve the partnership.  

Michael then took a moment to explain the new partnership contracts which have been adapted to mirror our new ambitions with significantly greater marketing actions, unlimited access to our e-learning platform, new interactive demos, and even the introduction of our themed Partner Friday tech meetings.

Experience driven commerce  

Ibexa’s Director of Product Management - Sylvain Guittard - took a moment to clarify the importance of digital experience. Whether it is to boost sales, or to increase customer or user satisfaction, the experience supplied is pivotal to success.  

We heard how creating relevant experiences requires two ingredients, content and data which can be achieved through Product Information Management (PIM), Customer Data Platform (CDP), and Personalization. But by adding automation as the third ingredient, we can achieve successful experiences and that’s where Ibexa Connect comes in.  

It was explained how Ibexa Connect continues to expand, linking Ibexa features to the customer ecosystem with the ability to connect more than 1,300 MarTech solutions, business systems, and custom and bespoke apps using a simple drag and drop functionality. 

Sylvain described how the complete online experience is even more important in the B2B market as sellers struggle to present their complex products online. Younger generations crave and demand digital only environments which do not require human interaction, and buyers are increasingly likely to switch providers in search of better digital experiences. 

Whilst the journey to achieving a unified digital offering which places these ingredients into the mix is simplified with Ibexa DXP, we must be mindful of the digital maturity of each of our clients.  

The overarching message was clear…  

“We are here to help our customers shape and bring their digital transformation strategies to life to help them become digital winners!”

Ibexa 4.5 goes live, what’s next?  

We were also notified that Ibexa 4.5, the penultimate release in the Ibexa 4X series is now live! There are many new features and updates to support and enhance digital transformation projects.   

Sylvain explained that the Ibexa 4X series has focused on the data driven B2B DXP, enabling the B2B digital selling shift by bringing customer and product data together onto one platform. In line with this theme Ibexa 4.5 brings enhanced B2B commerce capabilities with three redesigned and restructured features: Payment, Shipping, and Order Management.

There are also new capabilities for marketers, product managers, and developers with updates for Page Builder, Personalization, and Connect.  

You can discover more about these exciting new and updated features in our exclusive blog article.  

After demonstrating these new capabilities, Sylvain provided details surrounding the Ibexa 5X series which will kick off in 2024. The theme relates to B2B DXP intelligence where automation and interoperability is key to solving complex B2B sales processes. Development work will therefore center around IPaaS, marketplace, and analytics. Moving into 2025 the roadmap goes beyond DXP with an emphasis on sales engagement, procurement, and digital sales rooms.

Significant opportunities for Ibexa and partners 

At the Ibexa Global Partner Conference in Marbella earlier this year we heard about the excellent financial results which had been achieved during 2022, driven by our amazing partners.  

Greg announced new and exciting opportunities for upselling thanks to Ibexa DXPs composable nature with a range of addons including PIM, Ibexa CDP, and of course Ibexa Commerce.   

“This is a huge opportunity for both Ibexa and its partners to drive growth through upselling, whilst accelerating digital maturity for clients.”  

News of a 100% year-on-year uplift in opportunities which exist in the current sales pipeline was then revealed. This paints a hugely positive picture for the coming months with a wealth of consulting and integration projects on the horizon. 

A three-step plan to achieve greater success was shared as we move forward together: 

• Partner training in line with new product releases and increasing the number of Ibexa certified employees. 
• Upselling opportunities will help retain customers and involve less risky projects without competition.  
• Selecting Ibexa for larger projects, with composable architecture, powerful products, supporting materials and demos, and team of experts to help at every project stage. 

We heard how a 2023 Gartner report predicts that 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels by 2025 which reinforces the message of a bright future for Ibexa and its partners.

Welcoming new partners and celebrating success 

It gave us great pleasure to welcome aboard two new partners to the Ibexa network. We also heard about a couple of success stories from two of our established partners. 

Jérémy Poulain, Web Project Manager and Tech Lead at Clever Age presented a project for their client in the leisure industry. He explained that Clever Age had been commissioned to conduct a total overhaul of the client’s website including a new UX/UI, new infrastructure, reservation systems, mailing and tracking, and design. 

Ibexa was identified as the best fit for the job due to its capabilities including page builder, personalization, key elements for business and IT teams, its Symfony open-source framework, and lower licensing costs. 

The project kicked off in March 2022 with 30 UX, functional, technical, and SEO workshops, and in May, nine months of development work began which consisted of eight batches. By September six months of design work was complete. On 28 February 2023, the website went live, just 11 months after this complex project began.  

The key wins included: 

• Daily indexing of prices and availability of the 60 clubs and the two (summer/ winter) seasons 
• Huge data volume with the plan to multiply by 10 in the coming years 
• Global stats-of-the-art web performance 
• Significantly faster response times on web and mobile sites driving a shift in web metrics 

Aurore Dubuisson, Director of Web, and Mobile Division at Almavia CX shared their story concerning a French cultural and tourist public sector client. The project was broken down into a four-part strategy which included the requirement for a unified and transversal tool, the need to improve the user experience, creating a separate space for each of the 90+ tourist attractions, and implementing a co-design approach. 

Enabling users to search for specific attractions, events, guided tours etc., each attraction with its unique opening, closing, and holiday information. Ticket availability by date and time brought added complexity. Pricing information also differed by attraction with multiple variations based on visitor demographics.  

18-months of planning and development began on 04 November 2021 with a kick-off meeting followed by persona workshops. Development started in mid-July with nine, three-to-four-week sprints. Safety tests were conducted before the project went live with one portal site and 94 individual tourist attraction sites on 13 April 2023. 

Six skins were created, supplying varying color schemes and styles to give each attraction its own look but keeping some consistency throughout the attraction pages. Contributors now have great autonomy and flexibility, and roles and permissions exist to retain control over the changes which are carried out across the site. 

Translations are also managed in platform using Deepl via API (Application Programming Interface) and prepopulated for a far more efficient process. 

I think we can all agree these are two fantastic examples of what can be achieved by our incredible partners when delivering complex projects at great speed on Ibexa DXP.

Co-marketing actions and events 2023 

Molly Faure, Senior Marketing Manager of France at Ibexa wrapped up the event with a reminder of all the marketing materials which we have at our disposal including interactive product demos, eBooks, and brochures. Molly invited our partners to take advantage of our co-marketing opportunities at events, webinars, eBooks, success stories, and much more.  

We heard about past and upcoming events, starting with a review of the E-MARKETING event which took place in Paris in late March this year. We attended as a gold sponsor, exhibiting on a co-branded stand alongside our trusted partners Coexya and Inforca. During the event, we also shared the stage with SQLI to deliver a presentation entitled: 5 steps to succeed with digitizing your B2B company.

Upcoming events for the rest of 2023 were revealed which include: 

BtoB Summit – Paris – 22 June 2023: here we’ll be a gold partner and listed on an action-packed schedule to present a masterclass to some of the 1,000 attendees. 

The Digital Benchmark – La Rochelle –10 – 11 October 2023: as a platinum partner we will give two presentations during the two-day event. 

Finally, plans for the next in-person French partner conference was announced which will take place on 05 October 2023, taking place in the heart of Paris. At this event we’ll be focusing on marketing acceleration and sales performance for the second half of the year. We’ll present our product roadmap and news surrounding Ibexa DXP. Registration is now open so be sure to save your place! 

Register now