StoreAlliance Inaugurates StartupVillage in Paris, France

StoreAlliance, specializing in the incubation and business development for U.S. companies in Europe and Asia, announces the launch of a service called StartupVillage.

Starting with France, this new offering will enable enterprise IT stakeholders (CTOs, CIOs, and their direct reports) to meet with innovative fast-growing technology companies that are offering new solutions in the areas of Storage, Archiving, Backup, Datacenter, Business continuity and Disaster Recovery, Infrastructure and Storage Management, Networking, Mobility, Security, Virtualization of Servers and Workstations and Cloud Computing.

StoreAlliance has been named the exclusive and official partner in charge of Start-ups for the CRIP Association (Club des Responsables d’Infrastructure et de Production / Association of Infrastructure & Operation Managers) whose mandate is to select and qualify innovative technology businesses relevant for the community of CTOs and their direct reports, for companies and public administration members who belong to this professional association. CRIP members are the ‘who’s who’ of the French Fortune 300 Chief Infrastructure & Operation Officers and their direct reports.

"It is very important to provide our end-user members with this direct link to start-ups and offer quality information on emerging technologies. We have immediately joined the StoreAlliance initiative and we are pleased to collaborate in the organization of the first meeting sessions between large French clients and start-ups," said Michel Grosbost, CRIP General Secretary.

CRIP members and their representatives will have access through the StoreAlliance web site communication platform to detailed information on each StartupVillage member with comments from  ‘world experts’ in the field.

"Technology survey is an essential phase in defining our choices for the coming years in such a fast-moving IT environment to know about the innovative solutions available. At StartupVillage Events, large enterprise and public administration customers talk directly with the creators of innovations, and will allow startups to identify real opportunities. The enterprises will be exposed to new technologies that may impact an organization’s IT plans," said François Stephan (Thales), CRIP Vice President.

In addition to the StartupVillage web site StoreAlliance will organize, on a regular basis, presentations and networking events.

The first two StartupVillage events
in partnership with CRIP/ItiForums will be:

• StoreAlliance StartupDay, CRIP Thématique StartupDay: Presentation and meetings between start-ups and ItiForums / CRIP end users. (March 16th , 2011 – Pavilion Dauphine, Paris)
• Channel Dating: Meetings between start-ups and selected resellers, system integrators and distributors. (March 16th, 2011 – Pavilion Dauphine, Paris)
• Conference ItiForumswww.itiforums.com / Annual CRIP Convention (21st and 22nd of June 2011): StoreAlliance Startup Pavilion. Opportunity for end user attendees to meet with emerging start-ups.

"We are very pleased to launch the StartupVillage offering in partnership with ItiForums and the CRIP. Now StoreAlliance has a portfolio of unique and comprehensive services that allows Start-ups to effectively gain visibility and develop their sales and channel presence in Europe," said Thierry Ezeghelian, Director, StoreAlliance.