Interview with Fatima Berral, CEO of Sogelink

Batinfo: Can you come back to the history of the Sogelink group?

Fatima Berral: Sogelink was created in 2000 in Lyon. The group publishes software, cloud and mobile solutions to support the digitization of the construction and public works sector. We are currently present in Canada, Switzerland, Hungary, the Netherlands and Norway. After our merger with Geodesial Group in 2021 and several major acquisitions in France and internationally, Sogelink now has 37.000 customers and 220.000 users.

Batinfo: What are your latest major news?

Fatima Berral: We made two major acquisitions in 2022, in Norway and the Netherlands. These acquisitions have enabled us to strengthen our international presence but also our offer across the entire value chain of construction projects. Thanks to our growth strategy, we have also taken a new step by reaching 21ᵉ place in the Truffle 100 and 27ᵉ place in the Top250 (rankings of French software publishers).

There are many opportunities to continue to support the digitization of the construction sector and generate productivity gains for all players in the ecosystem. Today, our challenge is to seize them, to maintain our level of growth in order to reach a turnover of 2025 million euros by 150 (against 130 million currently).

Batinfo: Are your customers only professionals or are local authorities also working with your solutions?

Fatima Berral: Local authorities play a central role in construction and public domain management operations. They therefore need to have an overview of the work and events taking place in their territory in order to better coordinate activities and stakeholders. Sogelink provides them with intelligent solutions that make it easier to manage the public domain and limit the inconvenience caused to users.

Batinfo: How is your further growth planned?

Fatima Berral: We have a very precise roadmap and acquisitions are part of our objectives. These allow us to complete our technical building blocks and enrich our customer portfolio. 2023 will above all serve to consolidate our position as European leader in tech construction and to finalize our international roadmap for the years to come by leveraging the solutions offered in our various subsidiaries. We adapt our means to the goal we intend to achieve, this has been part of our DNA since the creation of the group.

Batinfo: What are your next projects?

Fatima Berral: Today, we want to go even further in the simplification that we bring to our customers. This will result in the provision of new solutions and functionalities. We are also reworking our business models so that they correspond to the realities of our customers and their expectations.

In concrete terms, the new features for the coming months will mainly be linked to our acquisitions in the Netherlands and Norway with the aim of offering the most complete offer possible to our customers.

Batinfo: In your opinion, what differentiates you from your competitors?

Fatima Berral: On each of our solutions, we have competitors. On the other hand, on a European scale, no player offers an offer across the entire value chain as we do, from the design of a project to operation via its digital twin.