ESI joins French software association AFDEL

14 April 2011
Paris, France

ESI Group, a pioneer and world-leading solution provider in virtual prototyping, today announced its membership of the French software association AFDEL (Association Française des Editeurs de Logiciels).


The software industry today is an immense market that drives many technological and societal innovations. More than ever, software is changing the way companies do business and ESI’s pioneering solutions are an integral part of this change, thanks to their ability to shorten the product development cycle and reduce costs through numerical simulation. More specifically, ESI’s Virtual Engineering solutions enable companies to reduce or eliminate physical prototyping and testing by building and testing physically realistic virtual prototypes.

As a key player within the virtual prototyping market, ESI joins AFDEL to contribute to the promotion of the software industry. As the 6th simulation vendor worldwide, 11th overall software vendor in France and 67th in Europe, ESI is well placed to provide key insights into the development and progression of the numerical simulation sector, share best practices as well as outline what the future holds.

ESI’s alliance with AFDEL, will help provide the visibility and market representation required of the virtual prototyping market, and illustrate how companies can best take advantage of the latest advances in simulation technology.

Commenting on the raison d’être of AFDEL, Patrick Bertrand, Chairman of AFDEL declared: “Over 5 years ago French software houses recognized the need to promote the importance of software within the IT sector, and therefore created their own software association to do so. Indeed, at this time it was evident that the software industry in France was not supported as well as it could be, with decision makers and students sometimes unable to distinguish between a hardware manufacturer, a software engineering company and a software vendor.”

Mr. Bertrand continued: “We are delighted to count ESI Group among our affiliates. Their membership brings an abundance of experience and will contribute greatly to supporting the promotion of the software industry.” 

Vincent Chaillou, ESI Group Product Operations President and COO commented: “The drastic evolution in digital technology and practice, including Cloud Computing, data sovereignty, and new license subscriptions, which sustain the growth of companies today, means that ESI will benefit from having AFDEL as an advocate for our industry.”    

AFDEL comprises more than 230 French and International software vendors amongst its members. These include 60% of the top 10, 45% of the top 100 and 80% of SMB software vendors.

For more information on virtual prototyping, visit ESI’s website: www.esi-group.com

For more information on AFDEL, visit: www.afdel.fr


About AFDEL

Founded in October 2005, AFDEL, brings together software vendors into one community and aims at heralding the role of spokesperson for the software industry in France. AFDEL currently has over 230 members in France nationally including major international and leading French companies. AFDEL contributes to the development of its own members by safeguarding their interests, promoting best practices, offering a range of personalized services as well as encouraging proactive exchanges between members.