Ippon Technologies prepares to conquer the South of France from Marseille

A seventh location in France for an expected organic growth of 30%

Ippon Technologies is the story of a successful second act after sports. Founded in Paris in 2002 by Stéphane Nomis, a former high-level judo competitor, the consulting firm helps its clients accelerate their innovative products and digital strategies. It now employs over 500 people around the world. As it opens a seventh agency in Marseilles, Ippon Technologies is ramping up its growth plans in France. In Marseille, Provence Promotion assisted the firm in scoring its "ippon". In judo, an ippon is a decisive action that leads to victory; for the company, the strategic play is to form a team of 50 people in Aix-Marseille to cover southern France in time for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Operating in Paris, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Bordeaux and Toulouse in France, plus Moscow, Melbourne, Richmond, Washington and New York abroad, Ippon Technologies is a French SMB that has become an international force. Now it is wagering on Aix-Marseille.

"Ippon's strategic vision is to better support its existing clients with a local presence and to grow in data and cloud computing. Opening an agency in France's second-largest city enables us to cover southern France from Nice to Montpellier. We are landing in a region where the digital transformation is flourishing. More than 300 start-ups are involved in the locale French Tech network, which we see as a strong indicator of the vitality of the area's digital sector," explains Nicolas Bouchy, Director of Ippon Marseille.

Newly opened in January 2021, the Marseille branch currently occupies offices in the Babel Community, a co-working space on Rue la République, the Haussmann-style thoroughfare that connects the Vieux Port neighborhood to the Euroméditerranée business district. The location was chosen after several site visits with Provence Promotion and is expected to serve as an interim, medium-term solution.

A multidisciplinary offer for businesses

Ippon Technologies helps companies speed up their digital transition by innovating, reducing their time-to-market and delivering value quickly.

For Ippon Technologies, the key to a successful digital transformation is to align a company's strategy with the information system and business challenges. "We support our clients in choosing technological options suited to their use cases and we assist them with the cultural and digital change, product ownership, data-driven processes, cloud-ready solutions, agility, DevOps..." describes Nicolas Bouchy.

For each digital product, Ippon's strategy is to converge business, development and operations goals. The process, called BizDevOps, ensures simplified, secure and optimal deployment while providing a quality return on investment for clients. Today, it is an integral part of the company's culture, alongside the sports-oriented values that have shaped it since its creation.

An appetite for challenge and acceleration

Stéphane Nomis ‒ ever loyal to his passion for judo, his taste for high performance and his commitment to inclusiveness ‒ has started several initiatives to nurture talent. At his company, the "Black Belt" in-house training program gives everyone a chance to advance their careers by earning different colored belts according to their role and their personal progress. Ippon also recently launched a studio start-up and during the first lockdown, it mobilized its foundation to fight the digital divide in France.

"France is a hotbed of talent, which is why Ippon is focusing on growth in France. We have already hired 10 employees in the Aix-Marseille job market. Five more will join us by the end of the year and we expect to create 15 jobs per year through 2024," notes Nicolas Bouchy. That target is in line with the company's latest challenge, the Ippon Accelerator 2024 plan, which aims to recruit 170 new employees in Paris and the provinces, 30% of which will be offered to students completing final-year internships.

To this end, Provence Promotion introduced Ippon to an array of IT schools, including CESI, Epitech Marseille and Ynov Campus in Aix-en-Provence. Some 50 new jobs are planned for the Provence region, moving the company toward its ambitious goal of timing the hiring of its 1,000th employee to coincide with the 2024 Olympic Games, doubling its headcount. Ippon's journey is not deterred by the crisis. The company continues to invest. In 2020, it saw a significant increase in total sales, jumping from €40 to €50 million.