ECAC 40 2016 awards: Societe Generale ranked 3rd best company and top bank for its digital maturity

• The Bank’s digital transformation is gathering pace and involving the whole company, in all its businesses and all its locations
• An original open innovation strategy with digital ecosystems around the world
• A digital culture that engages all employees at all levels of the Group

After ranking fourth for two years running, this improvement confirms Societe Generale’s place among the CAC 40 index’s most innovative and agile companies in terms of digital transformation. The committee of experts** asked to assess the digital maturity of CAC 40 companies acknowledged Societe Generale’s far-reaching transformation, in particular in terms of its digital culture and open innovation strategy.

“We are extremely pleased to be among the prize-winners of the 3rd annual e-CAC40 awards. Our digital transformation is our number one priority at a strategic and operational level. The whole company is involved - all of its business lines and corporate departments and all its offices around the world. We believe that by creating the conditions to foster innovation and agility, by spreading our collective knowledge and by opening up to the outside world, we will make a difference over the long term. We will continue our digital adventure with humility, confidence and energy, to serve our customers,” explained Frédéric Oudéa, Chief Executive Officer at Societe Generale Group.

The Group has faced the digital challenge head on in recent years and is now ramping up the digital transformation of its businesses and its corporate culture.

A transformation in all the Group’s businesses and locations
Digital provides Societe Generale with an excellent opportunity to reinvent and enhance its relationship with its customers. All of the Bank’s business lines are involved. For example, Societe Generale is leading the way with the transformation of its retail banking networks and with the rapid growth of its online bank, Boursorama, combining digital and human solutions to enhance its customer relations.
In International Retail Banking and Specialised Financial Services, the Group is also implementing many disruptive initiatives, in particular in Africa with, for example, the pan-African mobile banking offer, or in Insurance, the launch of the StarDrive vehicle insurance app.
Global Banking and Investor Solutions, which is highly focused on technology challenges, has set up a Digital Office whose main responsibility is to reinvent the interfaces used to interact with customers, while ensuring security and confidentiality.

Ramping up the transformation by opening up to the outside world
With the emergence of new players, Societe Generale sees digital as an exciting opportunity. In this competitive environment, the Group chose to work closely with these new players in an open innovation approach to create the bank of tomorrow.
As well as keeping track of digital ecosystems around the world, Societe Generale stands apart for its original approach based on three priorities: to enhance relations with the startup ecosystem, to coordinate business communities, and to promote new places to work. Over 60 experimental projects are under way with startups. The Group is establishing partnerships with innovative places: for example in France Societe Generale has been the first partner in residence of Player (a business incubator for community innovation), since 2015. In India, Senegal and London, partnerships with the local ecosystem aim to open up business challenges to local ecosystems and to stimulate innovation within all Group entities. The Group also invests in the capital of selected funds or startups, such as Tag Pay in Africa, or makes strategic acquisitions such as Fiducéo by Boursorama.

Promoting the digital culture at all levels of the Group
The entire company is evolving, at the same time as its relationship with its customers is evolving, by engaging all its staff with the digital transformation.
Societe Generale has set up a number of initiatives to develop digital skills and experience at all levels of the Bank. For example, it has set up an Innovation Committee at the level of the Group Executive Committee, and rolled out a range of digital solutions under the Digital for All programme (60,000 tablets handed out to employees, WiFi for All and the Bank’s social network, which has over 70,000 members). The Group is also committed to facilitating new, collaborative and agile ways of working (creation of four internal MOOCs, immersion of over 1,000 employees in innovative external workplaces in France, development of home working and flexible office sharing solutions). 

For Societe Generale, this 2016 award corroborates its vision of the digital transformation as a strategic priority. This vision is for a far-reaching transformation over the long term, with an open approach that engages all employees, as they are the ones who are driving the transformation to serve the Bank’s customers.

Click here to read the article in Les Echos about the eCAC40 Awards (in French)

*32 companies in the French CAC 40 index completed the Les Echos digital transformation questionnaire, which covered different topics: the company’s digital culture, relations with the digital ecosystem, online visibility, technological capabilities and cybersecurity.
** Members of the 2016 eCAC40 awards committee of experts: Chloé Bonnet (co-founder, Five by Five), Jean Bourcereau (managing partner, Ventech), Christian Buchel (chief digital officer, Enedis – formerly ERDF), Alain Crozier (president, Microsoft France), Alix Debussche, digital expert, Françoise Gri (chairwoman of the board of directors, Viadeo), Bruno Buffenoir (vice president, Hewlett Packard Enterprise), Thierry Happe (co-founder, Netexplo), Marie-Christine Levet (Les Entrepreneurs Réunis), Lara Rouyres (founder, Selectionnist), Yves Tyrode (chief digital officer, BPCE), Guy Mamou-Mani (co-chairman, Open group), Charlotte Weill (managing director, Equancy).