Beyond the cost impact, the Sourcing Line also strives to help improve operational efficiency: every year, the Sourcing Division initiates projects sometimes involving significant changes in the Company’s internal processes. These projects, and the improvements they bring, are assisted by suppliers’ ability to prospect and to innovate.

Moving forward in partnership with dynamic and innovative suppliers to seek new long-term solutions adapted to requirements is one of the main areas of the Sourcing Division’s work.

Promoting SME development and innovation
By becoming involved in the Pacte PME (SME Pact) association, Societe Generale wants to contribute to the emergence and growth of dynamic, innovative and competitive partners. This is a long-term partnership between major corporations and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. The association intervenes within the framework of a “positive mobilisation” approach whose aim is to create a growth ecosystem between all French companies and to help the emergence of medium-sized companies.

Societe Generale, the first bank to sign the Pact back in December 2007, thus wants to strengthen its commitment to innovative SMEs that, combined with the know-how of our internal teams, help increase our competitive advantages.
Being a signatory of the Pacte PME has enabled us to take a fresh look at our sourcing policy in order to make Societe Generale’s markets more accessible to small companies. Since 2008, four Pacte PME meetings* have been organised and have enabled 35 innovative SMEs to talk to numerous representatives of the Group’s various business lines.
It has also led the Sourcing Division to broaden its sources to include French SMEs, which account for around a third of our purchasing volume.

* SME Meetings and the topics addressed:
- June 18, 2008: Immersive Web, Green IT, IT Security
- December 2, 2008: Mobile Services
- October 1, 2009: Innovative Man-Machine Interfaces
- February 4, 2010: E-reputation, a Threat or an Opportunity for Companies? / Unified Communication Solutions for helping 2.0 Staff