Hexagon: the alliance of 7 French companies
Under the determined leadership of the state, a collaborative office suite in the cloud, proudly French, is entering the commercialization phase. This application addresses the challenge posed by the hegemony of American solutions in this area and aims to offer all local authorities a sovereign and secure alternative.
This suite is operated by publisher Interstis (clickable link to HP), leader of the Hexagon consortium made up of seven French digital companies, including six SMEs.
The aim of this consortium is to operate an alternative office and collaboration suite to Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace by positioning itself on clear strengths: simplicity and accessibility, data sovereignty and security, technological robustness and digital sobriety.
This consortium is characterized by its territorial coverage. Far from the Parisian centralism of certain large digital projects, Hexagone is present in six regions with its seven member companies, thus guaranteeing proximity to regional stakeholders.
A collaborative suite made in France
The offer should be simple and readable. 100% SaaS, allows a community to subscribe to the suite in whole or in part through four modules: office automation and collaborative work, messaging and diary, instant communication, security and IT and application management.
The Burgundian publisher Interstis, cornerstone of the Hexagone project, offers the building block “Office automation and collaborative work” around the work areas and functionalities that have made its platform successful: electronic document management, instant messaging, shared calendar, directory, project and task management and Workflow. The office tools (document, spreadsheet, presentation) developed by the Ile-de-France publisher Xwiki are natively integrated into this module.
The Toulouse-based company BlueMind brings its technology and expertise to the “messaging and diary” component. Its unique technology, compatible with Outlook, makes it possible to secure the company’s email without changing user habits.
The Grenoble SME Belledonne Communications, publisher of the Linphone application used by hundreds of thousands of users around the world, provides the technological basis for the “Instant Communication” module (videoconferencing and softphony).
The Nantes company Tranquil-IT provides its technology for managing and securing IT assets (hardware and applications) and forms the fourth module of Hexagone’s offering.
Dassault System, through its subsidiary 3DS Outscale, plays an essential role in providing all modules with French hosting, referred to as SecNumCloud by ANSSI, to ensure the highest levels of security and availability in the cloud.
Finally, a zero trust version of the suite will be announced by 2025. It is intended for projects and services that have to deal with particularly sensitive data and is based on the technology of the Bordeaux startup PARSEC.
Sovereignty and security are priorities
This consortium is characterized by its consistent commitment to sovereign digital technology. This bold and realistic initiative offers a third option for municipalities looking to equip their agents with modern office automation and collaboration solutions. Previously positioned between Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace, communities now have a confident alternative that combines the simplicity of a 100% SaaS offering with data security guarantees.
At the heart of this new proposal is a strong commitment to sovereignty: data hosted in France on infrastructures called SecNumCloud and technologies developed and operated by French SMEs, the technology leaders in their field.
Reduce the social and environmental impact of digital technology
On the agent side, the Hexagone offering aims to stand out for its user-friendliness through a significant amount of effort on the user journey within the four modules of the offering. Particular attention was paid to issues of the digital divide, with the stated aim of the suite meeting the accessibility standards of the RGAA Reference System.
Finally, as a leader, Interstis has made strong commitments to responsible digital technology. In particular, it is about allowing each user to know the environmental impacts associated with their use and providing them with good practices that they can follow to limit them.
The Hexagone office and collaboration suite is already in use by several pilot customers and will initially be marketed by Interstis in a preview to municipalities from October 2023 and to other private and public players from mid-2024.
Content offered by Interstis