French Bank Launches E-C Solution for Small Businesses

French bank Société Générale has launched “Sogenactif”, a complete e-commerce solution to help its customers transition into e-business.

The solution is made of one main module and two
options. The main module, “Sogenactif paiement”, takes advantage of the secured payment SIPS of Atos, which uses the SSLN protocol, and the transactions are all managed by Société Générale. From now until the end of the year, the solution Cyber-Comm will also be used.

The first option, “Sogenactif Boutique”, proposes a complete Internet solution which is based on the Microsoft Site Server Edition, with hosting provided by Atos. The second option, “Sogenactif Transport”, includes responsibility for distribution of the products.

The Cyber-Comm solution was prepared by a
consortium of French banks. The system associates the SET protocol to a card reader. This module can also be subscribed by merchant sites which
are already on the Web, and will cost between $330 and $830 monthly.

Fifteen percent of the online storefront profits from these businesses will go to Société Générale.

Société Générale has launched the solution with partnerships forged with Atos for Web hosting, Microsoft for technology, and the group La Poste and UPS for distribution and delivery.

All the storefront sites of the “Sogenactif” network will be
featured on a shopping portal by the same name. The bank expects to publish a directory of these merchants by January.

The French Federation of Rugby — of which Sociiti Ginirale is the official
partner — is now the first site to use Sogenactif.

The bank has 30,000 customers which it quantifies as small- and
middle-sized companies, the company expects the solution to become its tie-up to the e-commerce wagon.