Q: Mr. Lebret, can you take a moment to introduce your company?
A: DDS Logistics is a French company, which was founded over 20 years ago. We are the leading French provider of transport management systems. We have developed two software packages: one for freight forwarders and another for shippers including companies doing international trade and retailers. We are now targeting the Chinese market and intend to open a representative branch in Shanghai next March.
Q: What is your purpose in opening an office in Shanghai, how do you view the Chinese market and what is your financial goal?
A: First of all, we decided to set up an office in China to get closer to our clients as most of our French clients have offices based in China. They are all using our software so we decided to come over here to bring them greater support. Secondly we are looking to develop our market in China by offering our software packages and solution to more Chinese companies.
Q: I guess your target customer group is intermediate or large scale companies. Can you tell me a little more about the services you offer?
A: We mainly deal with 3PL, third party logistics companies meaning freight forwarding companies, but we also offer services for sourcing offices. We provide an Internet platform that allows national buyers to post requests, which allows Chinese suppliers to make proposals directly to these French buyers.
Q: How is your company doing in terms of finance and turnover?
A: Today in France we have about 60 employees and we have a turnover of around 6 million Euros. At this moment we are not making any profit in China but that is our target for the near future.
Q: As we know the Chinese market is very attractive but the problem for the software industry is illegal copies of software, so how do you plan to overcome this problem?
A: We know that we are going to have problems with this issue, but to help to solve the problem we have been working on our contracts to make sure that we have protection. We need to wait and see how the market goes and try our best to build strong partnerships with our new clients.
Q: How do you compare your company to other large companies like Microsoft, and what are your company's views on localization and globalization?
A: In order for our company to grow, we are looking to developed local partnerships in China, maybe even to integrate with a local IT company. Finding local partners is one of our main targets, as it will help us to implement our software and increase our company's growth rate.
Q: Is there any risk to your current employees' jobs due to out-sourcing your work to Chinese companies?
A: We have around 30 people dedicated to development in France. We don't plan to out-source any work for the time being. I think if necessary we will start to hire IT people here, but for at least the next two years we will keep all the development in France, for now we have no plans for out-sourcing.
Q: What is the largest challenge for you in China?
A: The challenge is the huge market here in China. The freight forwarding market in China is growing rapidly, and it will be a challenge for us to manage all the information that is link to the global logistics industry.
|
