CKS Public

What CKS Public does

CKS Public is a French consulting and training firm specialized in public procurement (commandes publiques), serving ministries, territorial collectivities, public institutions (EPA, EPIC, SDIS, CCI), state-adjacent enterprises, and — to a lesser extent — private-sector buyers in France, Belgium, and Spain. Founded in 2000 by Arnaud Salomon and François Collineau as part of the CKS Group, the firm operates through wholly-owned subsidiaries covering general consulting (CKS Consulting), professional training (CKS Learning), healthcare procurement (CKS Santé), outsourcing (CKS Outsourcing), and support services (AP Service), with eight offices across Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes, Toulouse, Vannes, Brussels, and Valencia.

The firm's offering sits on four service pillars — strategic and operational consulting, catalog and custom training, Assistance à Maîtrise d'Ouvrage (AMO), and a remote Help Line — augmented by thought-leadership publications (annual ITM-CKS report, white papers, regulatory monitoring notes) and the international Procurement 4.0 Club community. Its technology layer consists of augmented decision-support tools, process mining applications for S2C and P2P workflows, and predictive analytics built on the ForePaas cloud data platform partnership (formed 2019), applying NLP, machine learning, and data visualization to procurement programming, workload forecasting, and savings measurement.

Revenue is generated through professional-services engagements (consulting fees, training program fees, AMO contracts, Help Line subscriptions); pricing is not publicly disclosed. Go-to-market is enterprise field sales — direct engagement with public and large private buyers — supplemented by content marketing, webinars, regional petit-déjeuner debates, and the Procurement 4.0 Club. Notable client outcomes include a 15% savings result delivered for the Service de Santé des Armées across ten military hospitals. The firm is founder-owned and private, with no disclosed external investors or funding rounds.

Name

CKS Public

Legal name

CKS

Website

https://cks-public.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CKS Public is a French consulting and training firm specializing in public procurement advisory, training, and AMO services for ministries, territorial collectivities, and large enterprises across France, Belgium, and Spain. It augments its consulting work with AI-driven decision-support and process-mining tools built on the ForePaas platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices8 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Consulting Services: Strategic and operational consulting engagements for public procurement optimization, audits, and AMO (Assistance a Maitrise d'Ouvrage) services.
2. Training Services: Catalog and customized training programs for public procurement professionals, including certification programs.
3. Help Line: Remote assistance services for public buyers and companies on public procurement matters.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

CKS Public is a consulting and training firm dedicated to public procurement (achats publics et marchés publics). It provides strategic and operational consulting, professional training (catalogue and customized), AMO (Assistance à Maîtrise d'Ouvrage), and a remote Help Line to public buyers and companies. Its services are augmented by proprietary data analytics, AI/Big Data, and process mining tools for procurement steering.

Product overview

CKS Public is a consulting and training firm dedicated to public procurement (achats publics et marchés publics) in France and internationally. Its portfolio spans four core service pillars — consulting, training, project management assistance (AMO), and a remote help line — supported by a series of thought-leadership publications (annual ITM reports, white papers, surveys). Technology-wise, the firm offers augmented business intelligence tools (Outils décisionnels augmentés) for public procurement steering and process mining solutions for procurement optimization, both built on a data analytics platform. The Procurement 4.0 Club extends the firm's reach into an international community focused on AI, IoT, and data for the future of procurement.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Conseil Achats et Marchés Publics (Public Procurement Consulting)

Quantifiable outcome

• 15% savings achieved for Service de Sante des Armees on the targeted procurement perimeter
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor, core and flagship.

• YteraminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024CKS collaborated with Ytera on the Observatory of Public Food Procurement (Observatoire des marches publics de denrees alimentaires). Ytera created the observatory and CKS analyzed over 2,500 public procurement contracts using data tools to measure public procurement performance on bio, local, and direct-sale criteria.
• ForePaascoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2019CKS partnered with ForePaas to integrate their data analytics platform into CKS's procurement management tools. ForePaas provides a cloud PaaS environment that enables CKS to build and deploy augmented analytics applications for public procurement clients. This partnership extends beyond a standard commercial relationship into co-development of data solutions.
• Institut Thomas MoreflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013CKS and the Institut Thomas More (European independent think tank) co-authored a landmark report titled '150 milliards pour quoi faire? - Ten actions to make public procurement a growth engine.' This partnership produced policy recommendations on public procurement reform impacting 150 billion EUR in annual French public spending.
• MBA IMA (Institut Leonard de Vinci)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013CKS is a partner of the MBA Specialise IMA (Purchasing), with Arnaud Salomon serving as Director of the MBA. CKS co-organizes the Club Achats Responsables IMA, hosting events and debates on responsible purchasing topics.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Efficio: London-headquartered procurement and supply-chain consultancy serving large public and private buyers across Europe. Closest pure-play peer to CKS in terms of specialist procurement advisory with technology augmentation.
• Wavestone: Paris-based consulting firm with a substantial public-sector and procurement practice. Direct French competitor for public-buyer advisory and transformation work.
• BearingPoint: European-headquartered management and technology consultancy with a strong public-sector and procurement practice. Competes with CKS for European public-procurement transformation mandates at larger scale.
• Source Group: Oslo-based procurement and supply-chain consultancy operating across Northern Europe. Comparable specialist model combining consulting, training, and procurement technology enablement.
• H&Z Business Transformation: Munich-based procurement and supply-chain consultancy with a European footprint and dedicated public-sector engagements. Comparable mid-sized specialist competing for similar transformation mandates.

Broad incumbents

• Accenture: Global professional services firm with established public-service and procurement advisory. Competes for the largest public-sector modernization programs across Europe.
• Capgemini: Global consulting and digital services leader with public-sector and procurement consulting practices. Larger-scale competitor for end-to-end public-sector transformation mandates.
• Sopra Steria: Large French IT services and consulting group with deep public-sector and procurement-systems capabilities. Competes where digital procurement platforms and large transformation deals are required.

Regional players

• Kéa & Partners: Paris-based independent consulting firm with public-sector transformation work. Comparable mid-sized French advisory competing for similar public-buyer engagements.

Emerging players

• Jaggaer: Procurement-software vendor with analytics and process-mining capabilities serving European public-sector buyers. Adjacent competitor where the analytics layer is sold as a platform rather than a service.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/5344355

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CKS Public