Assystem - 2018 Register document

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NON-FINANCIAL INFORMATION STATEMENT CREATING VALUE FOR CLIENTS AND SOCIETY

3.4 CREATING VALUE FOR CLIENTS AND SOCIETY

3.4.1

A PROCESS OF SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION

competition aims to encourage interns, young hires and seasoned experts to feed off each other’s ideas, concepts and knowledge, in order to propose new technologies or business models, or improvements to internal processes. Eighty-six projects were submitted on the platform, including twenty from our Group’s young talents. The short-listed projects were presented to Assystem’s management during a special innovation week. The winning projects included the EMOBY app, which matches employee skills with project/client engagement needs. Another innovation that attracted a lot of attention was the Erex virtual reality platform presented by two young Saudi Arabian engineers. The two engineers travelled to Paris to collect their prize, which included a study trip to Barcelona. CREATING AN OPEN ECOSYSTEM Imagine Lab also works with schools and universities, start-ups and clients to co-develop new offers and solutions. The aim is to link our R&D and innovation processes to our clients’ future needs through various initiatives: ● framework agreements have been signed with academic research chairs at around ten higher education establishments, including Arts et Métiers, INSA Lyon and Rouen, ESIEA, the DataScience Institute and UTC. These agreements will help us to develop new skills, hire young talents and keep abreast of the latest technological advances in the area of resilient industrial and urban systems or data-driven systems engineering; ● partnerships have been set up with start-ups in France and the United Kingdom, including Saagie, a Big Data start-up, Rebim, which is developing innovative asset management approaches, Cosmo Tech, specialised in augmented intelligence, and Sparte in the virtual reality sphere; ● Imagine Lab also participates in co-development projects with clients. Examples include ConneXiTy, an EDF R&D programme designed to measure the impact of digital transformation on nuclear infrastructure. It is also working in partnership with Engie on several innovation projects in the area of Industry 4.0 cybersecurity at the IRT-SystemX institute in Saclay, close to Paris. Additionally, the Group is working with RATP and Alstom Transport on the development of new on- demand transport services and with EDF on predictive maintenance projects. 20 DATA SCIENTISTS ARE PARTICIPATING IN THE IMAGINE PROJECT We operate in highly regulated markets on projects with a very long life-cycle (between 40 and 50 years). As a result, we are subject to heavy reporting obligations. In addition, data knowledge has become a strategic tool to identify potential sources of competitive advantage and transform our decision-making processes. That’s why we have hired some twenty data scientists tasked with inventing new data-driven strategies to manage project complexities more efficiently and ensure digital continuity during the different phases of the infrastructures’ life- cycle.

Policy and commitments The engineering sector is experiencing a period of unprecedented change driven by the digital revolution. Digital innovation and transformation are changing partnership dynamics and our clients’ business logic. Engineering disciplines and expertise are evolving with the emergence of more collaborative working methods involving multidisciplinary and international teams. To keep pace with these changes and anticipate clients’ needs, we have developed an open innovation strategy. This strategy has been translated into the Imagine programme launched in December 2017, which acts as a catalyst for all technological innovations and innovations for internal and external use. The programme addresses two major challenges: ● make Assystem more attractive by launching innovative projects, strengthening and developing the teams’ safety, security and project management expertise, and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of interns and young hires by placing innovation at the centre of the Group’s culture; ● align the innovation strategy with the needs of companies in the energy, transportation and healthcare/life sciences industries by developing or co-developing solutions, applications and tools that help to improve their competitiveness. Our pipeline of some twenty R&D projects involves 100 full-time equivalent employees, a number that is steadily increasing. INNOVATION GOVERNANCE To fulfil this ambition, we had to set up an appropriate organisation. Governance of the innovation process is led by the Energy & Infrastructure Executive Committee, which meets every two months to review innovation projects and decides to invest in the projects viewed as offering the greatest strategic benefits. Alongside this decision-making body, an operational body named Imagine Lab was set up in 2018. This lean structure is tasked with coordinating innovation activities across the Group, supporting the Business Units or subsidiaries in developing new projects and incubating new services or technologies that contribute to driving Group performance. Imagine Lab employs a team of some ten people, supported by correspondents in all the operating units. It is headed by the Group Chief Technology Officer, who is a member of the Energy & Infrastructure Executive Committee and is responsible for coordinating all innovation activities. Action plans and results Many projects were deployed in 2018 to stimulate employees’ imagination, increase their creativeness and inventiveness, leverage their experience and knowledge and encourage collaborative innovation. INNOVATION HACKATHONS In 2018, we launched the first edition of the Imagine our Smart Future innovation competition in partnership with the Agorize start-up. The

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ASSYSTEM

REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2018