27/06/2008
Babelgom is off the ground, ready to grow

Dear Babelgom friends and supporters,

First (since I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before), Michel Colin and Benjamin Beirnaert have recently joined Mathieu and me in our (too small) office. Michel, 39, joins us as IT Operations Manager from NRB where he led an infrastructure team of 12. He brings with him a wealth of experience in the development of reliable and scalable infrastructure, as well as in project and team management. Benjamin, 31, joins us as Lead Technical Architect from Electrabel where he developed the Extranet solutions for business and residential customers, as well as designed data exchange systems. Benjamin will be responsible for our R&D. Among other things, he will be leading a research project in partnership with UCL (University of Louvain-la-Neuve).

The other great news is that we have now completed around 30 projects with (mostly) Belgian customers, many of which involve introducing automated orders, delivery notes and invoices for suppliers of large distributors. Our customer base includes an industrial fresh meat producer, an industrial bakery, a fresh fruit distributor, a brewery, a bookseller, a mobile phone distributor, etc. So we do what we can to boost consumers’ purchasing power by optimizing the supply chain between the manufacturer and your home.

As we’ve grown, we’ve realized that Babelgom is in an excellent position to help companies of all shapes and sizes, whatever their data exchange needs (from just a few to tens of millions, and anything in between). Our unique ‘EDI in SaaS’ model provides a great deal of flexibility, which will satisfy the needs of even the most demanding customers.

To help us grow even more, we are now looking for a Sales Director to lead our business development strategy. Please feel free to spread the word.

Most of you will soon be off on a well-deserved vacation. When you come back, it might be a good time to think about working on your data exchange system with Babelgom so we can help you try to reduce the mountains of paperwork that may be cluttering up your office. In the meantime, have a good break and enjoy yourselves.

Many thanks for all your support.

03/03/2008
'Software-as-a-Service' EDI hub : Babelgom’s innovative product grabs the attention of distribution businesses.

It’s onwards and upwards for Babelgom following the launch of Babelgom 1.0 – the first web platform for automated data exchanges or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) offered as ‘Software-as-a-Service.’ The simplicity of Babelgom’s solution is already notching up a fan base amongst distributors. Projects are already up-and-running for the automated exchange of orders, delivery notes and invoices for Carrefour, Makro and Delfood (Louis Delhaize and Delitraiteur shops). All this in addition to eBay, one of the first to assign an automated exchange project to Babelgom in 2007.

According to GS1, the organisation that regulates standards of data exchanges in distribution (e.g. bar codes), only 20% of businesses active in the sector have fully or partly automated their data exchanges - a mere 1000 businesses in Belgium. Clearly, most companies are still mainly relying on paper, fax and emails. When you take into account that the cost of handling a document in this manner ranges from 5 to 10 Euros, then the economic benefit of upgrading information flow processes becomes glaringly apparent.

Babelgom’s mission is to make the integration of automated processes a piece of cake for any business. This simplification stems from Babelgom’s ‘key-in-hand’ web accessible solution. The system requires absolutely no changes to the client’s existing software and permits automated data flow with any trading partner whatever the latter’s technical requirements may be. Truly revolutionary! An innovative tool with relevance that Babelgom’s initial consumers are quick to grasp.

In the next few months Babelgom aims to fine tune its web platform further for optimum user-friendliness and completeness.

22/01/2008
Babelgom becomes a certified ‘eBay Compatible Application’

Dear friends,

So what’s the benefit? It means that eBay customers can now use Babelgom to automate exchanges with the eBay website. This is particularly useful for companies using eBay as their webshop by placing multiple announcements every day. Laborious manual handling is avoided as a result.

To top it off, eBay also asked us to build an automatic channel between the eBay website and a key customer’s application. We are of course proud of this relationship and hope to develop it further in 2008.

Another key achievement in 2007 is the referencing of Babelgom by Carrefour Belgique as an electronic exchange provider for their suppliers.

We are making rapid progress with the construction of the Babelgom platform. Layer after layer we’re making it meet a wide range of data exchange needs. Our goal for 2008 is to establish Babelgom as the best system for automated data exchange between business partners.

We are sponsoring 2 events where you can meet us in person for more information.

• February 14th, 08.15 – 10.00, Evènement rencontre Infopole, Louvain-la-Neuve
• March, 18th, all day, GS1 Forum 2008, Diegem

With all the best for 2008 and thanks again for your support.

07/09/2007
We announce the launch of the Babelgom data exchange hub.
Real-life deployment is underway with pioneers like eBay and
Fund-X.

Dear friends, we talked the talk, now we’re walking the walk. August 10th marks the birth of Babelgom 1.0, the first data exchange hub offered as ‘Software-as-a-Service.’ Babelgom enables automated of data exchanges between business partners. Babelgom can be accessed via the Internet and does not require the purchase or installation of new software. We believe that Babelgom offers the simplest and most effective method for automated data exchanges with trading partners.

Our current priority is real-world deployment. We are currently offering interested parties the opportunity to use Babelgom without restrictions until the end of the year.

Pilot projects are already under way. One is with Luxembourg based Fund-X. This company provides specialised expense management services to investment fund companies. Fund-X receives detailed daily financial data reports from their customers. These reports are generally in Excel or CSV format. Data is captured in the Fund-X internal application to feed the analytical tools. As part of this pilot project, incoming reports are routed to Babelgom for automatic re-formatting and re-routing to Fund-X. The data can then be inserted directly into the Fund-X application. The protagonists are myself and Mathieu Pasture. Our goal is to save precious time spent on manual manipulation and data capture.

Another example is with auction platform, eBay. eBay invites professionals to use their website as a distribution channel. To enable professionals to automatically post new announcements, eBay developed an XML interface through a SOAP protocol. Although eBay used cutting-edge technology, their customers are not always able or willing to use it. Babelgom suggested integration with eBay. The goal is to allow professionals to use Babelgom to exchange data with eBay. This pilot project is currently in progress with results expected by early October.

The pilot phase expires early 2008. By this date, any Internet user will be able to register online and have his/her own private data exchange hub to integrate with trading partner applications via any data format or protocol. A big promise, but you have our word.

Babelgom is participating in a conference organised by Technofutur on September 20th at 16.00.To join us, click on: http://www.technofuturtic.be/code/fr/detail.asp?ID=566.

22/05/2007
Babelgom obtains start-up financing from Emerge, Sherpa Invest and others. Babelgom makes major progress towards becoming an operational concern.

Dear friends,

Just to let you know that Babelgom has made major progress towards becoming an operational concern over the past 4 months since the release of the Babelgom 0.1 prototype.

Top news too is that Mathieu Pasture, an experienced technical architect and a very good friend of mine joined in January to be the driving force behind the company’s technical management. Together we secured funding from 2 venture funds and a few private investors to the tune of €630,000 for Babelgom. In March we incorporated as a SA/NV. This breaking news provides us with the means to build our team, services, customer base and hopefully a great company. Feel free to visit our newly published website at www.babelgom.com. Along with the picture on the right, we hope it clarifies Babelgom activity as a universal on-demand message exchange service.

Babelgom 1.0, is scheduled for release by the summer. This is the first production version of the service and we will be taking on board our first customers.

With all good wishes and thanks for your support.