In the entrance of the Saint-Julien social center in Petit-Quevilly (Seine-Maritime), it is impossible to miss it.
The imposing connected booth installed at the beginning of May by the company Weem is able to accommodate four people and allow them to access various online public services (taxes, employment center, prefecture, etc.) via a large touch screen, to scan documents or print them, and even participate in video calls thanks to an integrated webcam.
A tool originally designed for nomadic workers, but which quickly found a new vocation: to help reduce the digital divide. As Emmanuel Ratel, the CEO of the Quevillaise company, which designed and assembles them on its site located just a few kilometers away, explains: “Discussions with communities and associations have shown that this workspace could be useful. to those who are not used or not used to carrying out online procedures ”. A problem that is regularly confronted by the mayor of the town, Charlotte Goujon: "It is essential to support these audiences and not leave them by the wayside." This is why the elected official was the first to invest in these cabins, the cost of which per unit is around 20,000 euros.Spacious enough to accommodate one or two people accompanied by an agent responsible for guiding them in complete confidentiality, they are fully autonomous and only need an electrical outlet to operate.
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Initially, three will be deployed in the city.
These are the very first ones put into service by Weem after those which were used for a test phase lasting several months in three Normandy towns.
"By the end of the year, we should have installed around a hundred in the region with an objective of 1000 on the scale of France within two years", details Emmanuel Ratel who specifies that "others applications, such as teleconsultations, should be possible in the coming weeks ”.