Managing time and security

In the world of business, there is one saying that is often heard: “Time is money.” Some companies who grasped this principle ahead of others, have taken advantage of it, using their savoir-faire to assist companies wishing to optimise their time management. This is the case of Horoquartz, a pioneer in France in this domain. Founded almost forty years ago in Fontenay-le-Comte (Vendée), this company was headed at the time by Jean-Michel Poupeau, a watchmaker with a passion for electronics. This entrepreneur is notably known for designing the first electronic badge-based time-clock, which has gradually replaced the mechanical version. Riding the wave of this innovation, Horoquartz designed its own computer for managing badge-based time-clocks to manage working hours.
A first turning point took place at the start of the 1980s, with the emergence
of PCs and MS-DOS. Horoquartz began using PCs while continuing to develop its own badge systems and software. “The advent of PCs was decisive: it allowed us to make significant savings and democratised computing applications. This gave us the possibility of reaching out to a much wider clientele,” explains Thierry Bobineau, Marketing and Alliance Manager at Horoquartz. At the start of the 1990s, the second turning point took place for the company: it developed a comprehensive range of applications for AS 400 environments (IBM computers) and Unix. This range allowed Horoquartz to target not only SMEs-SMIx, but also large groups. The company also offered its key software, Temptation, functional on Windows, shortly after the latter’s release.
In 1999, Jean-Michel Poupeau sold Horoquartz to Hervé Courtaigne, an investor wishing to develop the company in the domain of security (a sector that was growing quickly at the time) and to give it an international stature. The Temptation software evolved and was re-written in 2004 for a web environment (a first at the time), under the name e-Temptation. The SME grew and Hervé Courtaigne ended up selling it to the Japanese industrial company Amano in 2008. Set up in 40 countries and with over 4,000 employees, this group seeks to develop in Europe where Horoquartz benefits from top positioning. In France, for example, Horoquartz is number one in the time management sector, with 25% of the market share (according to a survey published by IMS Research last year).
Today, Horoquartz carries out two major activities: time management (time organisation and planning, 35-hour week management, days off and holidays, follow-up of employee activities...) and card systems with embedded chips (mainly access control systems and badges). In this second domain, Horoquartz notably launched Protecsys in 1999 to monitor the access of employees to their company via badges with embedded chips and to supervise security. A new version of this product was recently launched, in January, under the name Protecsys 2 Suite. This system, much more modular than the preceding one, offers modules for access control, visitor management, supervision and detection-intrusion. This offer reaches out to a broader clientele, by meeting the needs not only of SMEs but also more substantial ones of the likes of a nuclear plant or a Seveso-classified chemical site.
In its two activities, Horoquartz has won the fidelity of numerous prestigious names: Alstom, Areva, BNP-Paribas, Bonduelle, Casino, Conseil Général de Loire-Atlantique, Fnac, Macif, Mairie de Nantes, Michelin, Novartis, Pfizer, Rhodia… “On a morose market, we have succeeded in keeping a growth dynamic,” boasts Thierry Bobineau. “This has mainly been due to our willpower to keep two large budgets for Research and Development (16% of our turnover for 2010) and for employee training (5% of the wage bill).”

More information on www.horoquartz.fr