The Jarvis Legal application has been available since 2015 in 6 languages including Russian. The presence of some of our clients in Moscow led us to carry out a real economic development mission in Russia in 2016, with the French Tech Tour Moscow.
We provide our Russian customers with a website www.jarvis-legal.ru. The Jarvis Legal application is also available in Russian, at the choice of each user. Many users already trust us there to manage their billing, store their documents, share their information.
The Russian market
Moscow is the largest city in Europe and has almost 15 million inhabitants. The presence of around 35.000 lawyers and jurists makes Moscow a market comparable to Paris.
However, the purchasing power and working habits of Russian law firms are still different from France.
However, the younger generation is catching up and computerizing at high speed. Billing habits are becoming more Westernized with hourly rates constantly increasing. The internationalization of lawyers, with the presence of more and more European and American firms, also contributes to this catch-up.
In summary, we can consider that Moscow is a significant market in terms of volume that will need to be monitored over time. The rest of Russia, except Saint Petersburg, remains a smaller and less developed market.
This is the reason why we decided to develop in Russia and to rely on French Tech Tout Moscow for this.
French Tech Tour Moscow 2016
After a tough selection, we were selected by Business France to participate in the French Tech Tour Moscow. Many business meetings have been organized there, including:
- important players in the French community
- prospective law firms
- IT distributors and resellers
- hosts and IaaS providers
Summary of this experience
Driven by Stephanie Morley, the Business France teams worked to create relevant connections between all the economic players concerned.
The quality of exchanges, a strength of the program
For example, Yannick Tranchier of Numa Moscow was able to share his deep knowledge of the Russian ecosystem. Thanks to him, many French or Russian players working with French customers or suppliers were able to share their knowledge of the Russian market. Long-term implementation is an important condition for success, because it is the basis of trust. Great successes like Auchan were possible because they were able to hang on during phases of economic crises and therefore take full advantage of the restarts that followed.
Thierry Cellerin, CEO of Buzzfactory, insists on his side on the cultural differences between Russians and French. It is not uncommon to see your Russian interlocutor leave after 5 minutes of meeting because, simply, he does not see the point of your project. It's not insulting on his part, it's simply pragmatic!
The presence of 6 other start-ups is another strong point of the program. Indeed, the exchanges that take place allow you to put your own strategic choices into perspective and to discover new approaches.
An expanding innovative ecosystem
More and more Russian players are acting in Russia as in Europe and the United States, to create a credible tech scene. Very large digital companies, like mail.ru or Yandex, are driving the entire sector. On the investor side, key players like Runa Capital invest increasingly larger amounts.
For its part, Skolkovo is a huge space subsidized by the Russian state to develop the Moscow technological ecosystem. Although hampered in its development by international sanctions and uncertainties over certain international cooperation programs, the mega-center should succeed in bringing out key players, albeit in a culturally very different way from Europe.
The new promotion of the French Tech tour Moscow is now known! Find the participants here.
We wish those newly selected great opportunities for economic development. Without a doubt, Russia is a land of conquest which will reward perseverance and pragmatism in line with the scale of the country, that is to say on a very large scale!
