Mondher Ayadi is the founder of the French NUMERYX group, which specializes in IT engineering services and continuing education. Managers caught up with him during a recent visit to Tunisia to talk about the group’s achievements and ambitious plans. Interview.
Tell us about the start-up of Numeryx. How did you come up with the idea of creating this company?
The NUMERYX story began in 2012 when, in collaboration with the Cynapsys group, I set up Cynapsys Technologies. This adventure crowned a career spanning several years with major companies such as Siemens and Altran. The company, offering services linked to web & application development and digital transformation, has succeeded in establishing itself on the French market, particularly in the banking-insurance, automotive and energy sectors. In 2018, the company officially became NUMERYX. A year later, we set up our Tunisian subsidiary. From the outset, we chose to focus on people, giving major importance to our employer brand. This is a pillar on which we want to build the company’s development.
What does Numeryx do?
In the beginning, NUMERYX’s activities were mainly focused on services, in particular consulting in the field of information systems. Experts in information systems consulting and architecture made up our initial capital. This gave us a strong foothold in the French market, and enabled us to forge several partnerships with major groups such as Atos and Capgemini. Since then, we have succeeded in developing new skills in the industrial sector, focusing on the link between digital and industry, particularly through the Internet of Things (IoT). With this focus, we were subsequently able to cover other areas linked to software publishing and the cybersecurity of SD-WAN networks. As a result of this rapid evolution, we are now a company with over 200 employees. NUMERYX has also succeeded in developing new activities such as training, R&D and innovation as part of our long-term vision.
Why is a service company interested in training?
In a constantly changing world, training is essential. And at NUMERYX , we have chosen to develop training with an operational tinge closely linked to business needs. Today, we see a real need in the market for training in the fields of cybersecurity and the cloud, as well as in new approaches such as the agile method, DevOps and DevSecOps. This is why we created Numeryx University, which was recently awarded Qualiopi certification by the French government. Numeryx University currently boasts a catalog of over 140 training courses, not only for our customers and partners. As part of our managerial approach, we also offer them to our employees, so that they can stay at the cutting edge of technology and shape their careers and development with us. Our training courses are available in both e-learning and distance learning formats.
Do you also do research and development?
That’s right. R&D gives us the opportunity to focus on future issues on which we can position ourselves. This is currently the case for cybersecurity. We have succeeded in developing a new-generation firewall, which we have named Asguard, based on a new patented filtering technology developed in-house. This firewall is currently undergoing certification by France’sAgence nationale de sécurité des systèmes d’information (ANSSI). We expect to bring it to market in 2022. The firewall has reached TRL6 maturity, which has enabled us to offer this product to our customers for proof-of-concept purposes. And I’m happy to say that benchmarking of this product has revealed much better performance than similar products offered by the competition. In addition to this firewall, we are also studying the possibility of opening up to other areas of R&D linked to the security of the Internet of Things.
Why this interest in R&D?
This activity has given us a strong presence in France’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are a member of FrenchTech Paris Saclay and the Systematic competitiveness cluster. NUMERYX is also a member of theFrench National Technology Research Agency (ANRT), which has enabled us to take part in thesis projects with research laboratories and universities. In this respect, our collaboration withInria on topics related to next-generation firewalls was a great success. We have also just launched a new project in collaboration with theUniversity of Versailles Saint-Quentin, focusing on Artificial Intelligence applied to cybersecurity. And that’s not all! This rich R&D activity plays an important role in our strategy of developing human capital.
These ambitious projects enable us to retain our employees by offering them a motivating environment conducive to innovation. And I believe that this is an important element in enabling our employees to project themselves into the future.
How do you deploy your vision of human capital development?
Our company’s heritage lies in its human capital. It is these skills, and the way in which we organize them, that enable us to deliver offers and solutions that meet the needs of the market. For us, building our employer brand is a daily objective. To achieve this, we spare no communication effort, both internally and externally. I’m convinced that the development of human capital is the key to enabling a company to grow from an SME into an ETI and, eventually, into a group.
How is your business developing?
We managed to double our sales between 2017 and 2018 and achieve a 50% increase between 2018 and 2019. In 2020, we maintained our sales despite the crisis. And in 2021, growth resumed and we were able to improve our sales by 15%. The company has also strengthened its presence by multiplying agencies in France: in addition to Paris, we are present in Normandy, Le Havre, and, since the beginning of the year, in the Rhône-Alpes region, in Lyon, not forgetting our Tunisian subsidiary which we set up in 2019. Today, NUMERYX Tunisia has two premises, to which we have added a delivery center and R&D center.
We’d like to thank the entire team at Managers magazine for the quality of our discussions: https: //bit.ly/3h9G9jv. It was a very interesting and enriching experience.
