Kelis
Kelis is a French employee-owned cooperative that develops and maintains the Scenari open-source editorial chain suite, delivering custom documentary and pedagogical solutions to education organizations, software publishers, and documentation-intensive enterprises across Europe.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2004
- HeadquartersThourotte, France
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Kelis does
Kelis, founded in 2004 and headquartered in Thourotte, France, is an employee-owned cooperative (SCOP since January 1, 2014) that develops and maintains the Scenari open-source editorial chain suite. The 17-person multidisciplinary team, which includes doctorates in EIAH (Environnements Informatiques pour l'Apprentissage Humain) and engineers who have worked on Scenari since the late 1990s and early 2000s, combines technical development of the core framework with functional consulting for customer-specific editorial solutions. The Scenari platform is an XML-based, model-driven editorial chain framework built on web-component standards, supporting synchronous collaborative editing and integrations including LTI for LMS interoperability, SCORM packaging, and LDAP authentication. The portfolio spans the core Scenari framework, specialized editorial chains (Opale for pedagogical content, Dokiel for technical documentation, Optim for optimization documentation), SCENARIbuilder for customizing editorial chains, and experimental pedagogical platforms (Parcours, LibreCours).
Kelis generates revenue across four streams: professional services for custom editorial chain design and personalization, training services (publicly priced from EUR 555 H.T. for a 3.5-hour functional management workshop to EUR 2,220 H.T. for a 2-day Dokiel author course), hosting and infrastructure administration, and ongoing technical support and maintenance. Its go-to-market is sales-led for direct client engagements, community-led through the Association Scenari ecosystem (forums.scenari.org, annual Scenari meetings, MyScenari), and event-driven around its community gatherings. Customer segments include education and training organizations producing pedagogical content, software publishers and industrial companies producing technical documentation, and broader organizations requiring specialized editorial workflows. The company maintains active R&D collaborations with academic laboratories (Université de Technologie de Compiègne/COSTECH, MOCAH/LIP6 at Sorbonne Université, Heudiasyc) and participates in the French open-source ecosystem via APRIL, CNLL, and Framasoft, with historic funding from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir. Operating scope is France and broader Europe; no global footprint is claimed.
Kelis firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Kelis
- Legal name
- Kelis conseil & développement
- Website
- https://scenari.kelis.fr
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2004
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Kelis is a French employee-owned cooperative that develops and maintains the Scenari open-source editorial chain suite, delivering custom documentary and pedagogical solutions to education organizations, software publishers, and documentation-intensive enterprises across Europe.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Kelis industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Open Source Content Authoring Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)
- akta.pro primary industry
- OER Authoring, Remixing & Publishing Tools/Platforms (EDAGAJAM)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- IT, Software & Cybersecurity Reference (Cert Guides, Admin Manuals, Dev Docs) (EDAGAGAD)
Keywords
Where Kelis is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Thourotte
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Kelis business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Professional Services: Consulting services for editorial chain personalization, design of original editorial solutions, and custom development projects. The company employs both technical and functional competencies to deliver tailored solutions.
- Training Services: Training programs for authors (Opale, Dokiel), modelers (SCENARIbuilder), and functional managers. Training is delivered remotely via webconference or on-site, with pricing from 555 EUR to 2,220 EUR depending on duration and content.
- Hosting and Administration: Hosting services for Scenari platforms including infrastructure administration and management
- Technical Support and Maintenance: Ongoing technical assistance, support, and maintenance services for deployed Scenari solutions
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Multi-year contract | SCENARIbuilder Advanced Training - 1 to 3 days |
| Unit Pricing | Multi-year contract | SCENARIbuilder Fundamentals Training - 4 days |
| Unit Pricing | Multi-year contract | Functional Management Training - 3.5 hours |
| Unit Pricing | Multi-year contract | Using Dokiel Author Training - 2 days |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Kelis product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Kelis publishes the Scenari open-source editorial chain software suite, a model-driven framework for designing and producing structured digital content such as pedagogical materials, technical documentation, and optimization documentation. The company develops and maintains the core Scenari platform along with specialized editorial chains (Opale, Dokiel, Optim), the SCENARIbuilder modeling application, and server-based collaborative writing tools. Beyond the software, Kelis offers professional services including editorial chain customization, bespoke editorial solution design, hosting, technical support, and instructor-led training for authors, modelers, and functional managers.
Product overview
Kelis is the publisher of the Scenari open-source software suite, a modular platform for designing and producing structured digital editorial and documentary content. The portfolio consists of the core Scenari framework and several specialized editorial chains (Opale for pedagogical content, Dokiel for technical documentation, Optim for optimization documentation), supplemented by the SCENARIbuilder modeling application for creating and customizing editorial chains, SCENARIstyler for graphic customization, and SCENARIchain/SCENARIsuite-starter for server-based collaborative editing. Kelis also offers experimental pedagogical platforms (Parcours, LibreCours/librecours.net) and the Kelis Learn training service. The offering includes professional services such as customization, consulting, hosting, technical support, and instructor-led training programs for authors, modelers, and administrators.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Scenari: Open-source editorial chain software suite developed and published by Kelis, including chains such as Opale, Dokiel, Optim, and others for editorial and documentary solutions.
Products and services
- Scenari Open-source editorial environment for designing and producing structured digital content; serves as the framework underlying all Kelis products and is freely available for download.
- Opale Open-source editorial chain dedicated to producing pedagogical content for face-to-face, distance, or mixed training scenarios, with accessibility features for web and PDF publication.
- Dokiel Open-source editorial chain for creating and publishing technical and software documentation, including user manuals, reference documentation, and online help.
- Optim
- SCENARIbuilder
- SCENARIchain
- SCENARIsuite-starter
Quantifiable outcome
- Near-zero turnover ensures client continuity and experience capitalization
Companies that use Kelis
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Kelis technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
Feature8 records
Kelis partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Access42coreCollaboration between Kelis and Access42 for digital accessibility of Opale editorial chain. Access42 uses Opale to produce pedagogical content for online training on digital accessibility. The partnership involves ongoing joint work to improve accessibility features of Opale for web and PDF publications, including skip links, keyboard navigation, color contrasts, and complex table management.
- Association ScenaricoreKelis is a member of the Association Scenari which fosters cooperation between different actors of the Scenari community (users, service providers, designers). Kelis is actively involved in community animation through forums and annual meetings, and develops and maintains certain community services.
- APRIL (Association pour la Promotion et la Recherche en Informatique Libre)minorAPRIL is a pioneer association for free software in France since 1996, working to promote free software and open standards. Kelis supports APRIL to contribute to awareness of software patents risks and to promote a societal approach of creating high value-added solutions and services through free software.
- CNLL (Union des Companies Libres)minorCNLL's mission is to structure the free software sector in France and represents over 200 companies whose business model is based on open source. Kelis is a member as an Entreprise du Numérique Libre (ENL).
- FramasoftminorFramasoft is an association and network promoting free software. Kelis supports Framasoft to promote awareness of decentralization, independence, and private data protection issues.
- Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC)corePartnership with Stéphane Crozat, teacher and researcher at the Costech laboratory of UTC, for the LibreCours research project. The collaboration involves experimentation of pedagogical platforms using Scenari technology.
- COSTECH Laboratory (UTC)minorLaboratoire COSTECH at Université de Technologie de Compiègne for thesis supervision including Audrey Guélou's work on techno-ethical configurations for decentralized social media and Léonard Dumas's work on XML diff algorithms.
- MOCAH/LIP6 (Sorbonne Université)minorMOCAH team at LIP6 laboratory for thesis supervision including Camila Morais Canellas's work on learning analytics metamodels.
- UMR-CNRS 7253 HeudiasycminorHeudiasyc laboratory for thesis supervision including work on document editorial chains and documentary graph formalization.
- IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique)minorPartnership in the ECOUTE research project (2006-2008) coordinated by IRCAM, focused on sound content enhancement on the web and music education applications.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Kelis competitors and assessment
Company assessmentOthers
- Moodle: Open-source Learning Management System widely deployed in the same European university and training-organization buyers Kelis serves via Opale. Scenari integrates with Moodle through SCORM/LTI, making it a complementary ecosystem partner rather than a direct competitor.
Direct peers
- Paligo: Cloud-native Component Content Management System (CCMS) for technical documentation, with strong DITA/XML underpinnings similar to Scenari's model-driven approach. Competes for the same structured-content, multi-channel publishing use case.
- Syncro Soft (Oxygen XML Editor): Provides XML editing, authoring, and publishing tools widely used by technical documentation teams working with DITA, DocBook, and other structured formats. Overlaps directly with Scenari's XML-based editorial chain model.
- Antidot (Fluid Topics): French-headquartered knowledge portal and component content delivery platform for technical documentation, serving large industrial and software publishers. Directly comparable to Scenari/Dokiel in the technical-documentation publishing space.
- MadCap Software: Provides specialized authoring and publishing tools for technical documentation (MadCap Flare, Doc-To-Help), directly comparable to Kelis's Dokiel chain. Targets the same technical-writer and software-publisher buyer with structured, multi-channel publishing.
- Heretto: DITA-based structured content management platform (formerly easyDITA) for technical and product documentation. Closely comparable to Scenari/Dokiel in delivering model-driven, multi-channel publishing for technical writers.
Broad incumbents
- Adobe (FrameMaker): Long-established desktop technical-documentation authoring tool now part of Adobe's broader content and document cloud portfolio. Competes for the same technical-documentation buyer but as part of a much larger product suite rather than a specialized platform.
Emerging players
- H5P: Open-source framework for creating, sharing, and reusing interactive HTML5 content — particularly strong in educational contexts where Opale also operates. Represents the 'interactive content' layer adjacent to Scenari's structured editorial chains.
- DocDoku: Open-source document management and PLM platform, also French-headquartered and serving similar European industrial and engineering documentation needs. Provides adjacent rather than overlapping functionality to Scenari's editorial chains.
- XWiki: Open-source structured wiki and content platform, with comparable open-source licensing philosophy and EU-based development. Targets similar European public-sector and enterprise buyers needing structured, collaborative content.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Kelis social profiles
Digital presenceKelis financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Kelis leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Kelis funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Kelis M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Kelis
What does Kelis do?
Kelis publishes the Scenari open-source editorial chain software suite, a model-driven framework for designing and producing structured digital content such as pedagogical materials, technical documentation, and optimization documentation. The company develops and maintains the core Scenari platform along with specialized editorial chains (Opale, Dokiel, Optim), the SCENARIbuilder modeling application, and server-based collaborative writing tools. Beyond the software, Kelis offers professional services including editorial chain customization, bespoke editorial solution design, hosting, technical support, and instructor-led training for authors, modelers, and functional managers.
Is Kelis a public or private company?
Kelis is a private company. It is classified as management employee owned and is currently operating.
When was Kelis founded?
Kelis was founded in 2004. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Kelis based?
Kelis is headquartered in Thourotte, France, in the Europe region.
How does Kelis make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Professional Services are the primary driver. The others are training Services, hosting and Administration and technical Support and Maintenance.
Who are Kelis's main competitors?
Moodle is listed as an others. Direct peers are Paligo, Syncro Soft (Oxygen XML Editor), Antidot (Fluid Topics), MadCap Software and Heretto. Adobe (FrameMaker) is listed as a broad incumbent. Emerging players are H5P, DocDoku and XWiki.
Does Kelis have an API?
No public API is recorded for Kelis.
What industry is Kelis in?
Kelis's product category is Open Source Content Authoring Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAGAJAM, OER Authoring, Remixing & Publishing Tools/Platforms, with a secondary code of EDAGAGAD, IT, Software & Cybersecurity Reference (Cert Guides, Admin Manuals, Dev Docs). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.