Brittany’s Digital Technology and Mobility Services Ecosystem According to Créativ
Since 1993, Créativ has been advising SMEs in Brittany about innovation strategies, in particular in relation to mobility solutions. Franck Lamiré, Innovation Advisor with this ‘development accelerator’, analyses the digital technology and mobility services ecosystem in Brittany for inOut.
Describe Créativ in a few words
Créativ is a European Centre for Business and Innovation. Our primary role is to support the dynamics of innovation by SMEs in Brittany. By innovation, we not only mean technological innovation, but also a business’s capacity to adapt to its environment; product innovation and diversification, new economic models, partnership development and so on.
Créativ has been working alongside SMEs in Brittany for almost 25 years now. What can you tell us about the region’s digital technology and mobility services ecosystem?
Brittany, Rennes in particular, has always been an ecosystem favourable to digital technology. The region is home to a large number of technology companies which, while their core business is not necessarily mobility focused, have often been involved in developing applications in this field. The region’s business network is complemented by academic resources and various centres such as Images et Réseaux, ID4CAR, La French Tech Rennes St Malo, all of which benefit from the vitality of the ecosystem here.
Culturally, Brittany is a region which welcomes experimentation, its local players keen to support innovation. Moreover, it’s not down to chance that BlaBlacar has taken to adopting Brittany as the testing-field for its technological and economic innovations.
What examples come to mind to illustrate the local dynamics of digital, shared mobility solutions?
While there are numerous examples, those I automatically think of are KelBillet and Mobility Tech Green (MTG). KelBillet, originally a platform for the resale of train tickets between private individuals, has today become more of a mobility solutions aggregator. MTG, originator of the Rennes-based car-sharing scheme City Roul’ in the early 2000s, is now a national leader in B2B car sharing, recently having secured funding to the order of 5 million euros to speed up its development.
What is your vision of the mobility sector, its trends and challenges?
The mobility sector has undergone massive transformation in respect of both technological changes and use. Over the last 50 years, changes in the car market have been relatively few, the trend being to develop an existing model. Today, however, privately owned, conventional cars are largely being called into question: the electric market, now a viable alternative, is growing and the currently emerging autonomous vehicle is leading us to reconsider how we travel while altering the legal and insurance framework of the transportation sector. To support the development of electric mobility, charging infrastructure, based on the smart grid model, is becoming more widely established. The Drop’n Plug project; a web platform which manages charging points and the number of data loggers connected for optimal energy management, also developed in Brittany, illustrates this trend.
Furthermore, we see a kind of dichotomy between urban areas where the private car is being replaced by other types of transport and semi-urban and rural areas, of which there are a large number in Brittany, that remain characterised by dependency on private car use.
Digital solutions, beyond their purely technological dimension, help bring about changes in use by transforming urban logistics and rationalising last-mile logistics. They also promote car sharing and carpooling over individual vehicle use, facilitating multimodal transport for public transport users.
Créativ operates Themavision Véhicules & Mobilités, a vehicle and mobility platform, details of which can be found by clicking here
Franck Lamiré is Innovation Advisor at Créativ. Following a career in the car industry, Franck Lamiré became support advisor for local business and innovation projects with Créativ. His areas of expertise are vehicles and mobility, eco-business and industrial enterprises.
Photo credits : Shane Rounce
Category : Business / Research and innovation /
06/20/2017
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Brittany’s Digital Technology and Mobility Services Ecosystem According to Créativ
Since 1993, Créativ has been advising SMEs in Brittany about innovation strategies, in particular in relation to mobility solutions. Franck Lamiré, Innovation Advisor with this ‘development accelerator’, analyses the digital technology and mobility services ecosystem in Brittany for inOut.
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