The Connoisseur Of Testing Services... :: THESMARTSENSE.COM

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The Connoisseur Of Testing Services...

Understand why 'Testing Services' are of utmost importance when you want to achieve optimal time-to-market speed, along with compliance and certification assurance. Pascal Le Ray, CEO of FIME is no stranger in the testing field. Come join him as he gives us an in-depth look on his expertise...

Cover Personality: Pascal Le Ray

Designation: CEO

Company: FIME

The SMART Sense: Celebrating your 10^th year at FIME, what has been your most memorable moment thus far?

Pascal: I entered the world of smart cards in 1990, when I began my career at Schlumberger - now Gemalto, since its fusion with Gemplus – and joined FIME ten years ago in 2001. Throughout this time, there have been many memorable occasions, including corporate achievements; expansion into new geographical areas and customer wins amongst others.

On a professional level, the most memorable and satisfying moment has been leading the expansion of FIME from a small, yet successful testing outfit to a leading international corporation working with manufacturers, banks and authorities within the telecom, payment, transport, identity and logistic sectors, to provide consulting and testing services for smart devices and chip-based applications. On a personal note, it has also been a privilege to play such an integral part in the development of exciting new technologies, witnessing their inception and use in everyday applications.

FIME's Head Office in France

The SMART Sense: As CEO of FIME, what are your guiding principles in leading the company to such great success?

Pascal: In my opinion, expertise, technical knowledge and ability are key to success in today’s competitive marketplace. At all levels of business, I believe in providing value to customers, from our communication to our service offerings and support. I also strongly believe in relationship development, both internally and with our customers. As a small to medium sized company, we have the ability to dedicate time to listen to customer needs and react promptly to provide flexible and tailored solutions. This is what differentiates FIME from its competitors and enables us to provide an unrivalled, global service.

The SMART Sense: Your career roots trace back to a production factory environment. How vital was it to have kick-started your career path in this setting?

Pascal: As ‘Head of Quality’ in the production factory during my early days, I became very aware, very soon, of the importance of developing and manufacturing quality products on time and to the customer’s deadline. It was here on the factory floor that I learned the manufacturing process, which taught me how to develop a strong and unified team that is able to react promptly in any given circumstance. My experience in the factory also taught me the importance of logical thinking. As the production process moves quickly, decisions need to be made quickly so that production time is not hindered. A pragmatic mind is therefore essential in this environment! It is this basis of understanding which also enables us to connect with our customers, since we too have experienced many of the situations they find themselves in.

Pascal Le Ray

The SMART Sense: With Cartes & ID 2011 just whisked by, how successful was the show for FIME?

Pascal: Cartes 2011 was incredibly successful for FIME as we were able to meet with existing and new customers during the event, in particular within the mobile payment market. We felt that this confirms FIME's visibility in this high-growth market. In addition to this we also met with media and key partners to reinforce our position and role within the smart card industry. With a prominent location in the exhibition hall, we were able to welcome a high number of visitors to the booth throughout the event. On the stand, we were able to demonstrate our NFC test bench and other key tools for banks and vendors, and our consultants also took the opportunity to share their extensive market knowledge with visitors.

FIME at CARTES & ID 2011

The SMART Sense: As it has been asked and answered many times over, why is testing important? What would be your final answer?

Pascal: Testing is important to ensure that a customer’s solution is secure, interoperable and achieves the highest levels of industry standardisation required. Providing reliable testing is fundamental to FIME which is why all of our laboratories are fully compliant with ISO 17025.

FIME Demo Station

The SMART Sense: With over 200 employees under your wing at FIME, how significant is human capital to you compared to technological superiority?

Pascal: FIME has over 200 employees, including approximately 150 specialists operating across America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India and Asia, but of course size doesn’t necessarily mean success.

Our employees are leading experts in smart devices and secure chip applications, chosen for their technical knowledge and their ability to provide world class consultancy. We aim to ensure that the calibre of our employees matches our technical ability as an organisation because ultimately the two are mutually dependent.

FIME - Chip Application

We also place great emphasis on employee loyalty, transparency and sincerity in order to develop and maintain open relationships with our customers. Without the ability to communicate on a human level with our customers, technology alone would not make us the successful company we are today. I think we have struck the right balance in terms of employees – our international customer base certainly thinks so.

The SMART Sense: How do you keep up with the latest technologies? Is R&D the only way to stay ahead?

Pascal: As FIME plays a critical role in the development of every smart device and secure chip-based application, FIME must not merely be aware of new technologies, we must be ahead of the curve.

We invest considerably in the development of our expertise at both a technical and strategic level across telecom, e-payment, transport, e-identity and logistics sectors in order to stay ahead.

FIME - R&D

Research and development is absolutely vital, as is the rigour with which it is conducted. The usability, interoperability and security of a product all hinge on thorough R&D. Oversights in the labs can cause serious and costly headaches further down the line. It’s essential that you get the basics right before move on to production, testing etc. Failure to do so can be catastrophic for a product and, at best, will hinder time to market, at worst render the product obsolete.

The SMART Sense: Discuss the different solutions that you offer to the industry.

Pascal: FIME offers consulting and integration testing services for smart devices and secure chip-based applications.

In terms of testing, we offer products for customers that want to conduct their own testing in house and also test laboratory services for those wishing to outsource the process. In addition, we also provide industry insight and technical expertise on market requirements, product features and industry standardisation and regulation.

FIME - Smartspy

Overall, we ensure that a product is market ready and compliant with the relevant industry standards. FIME also makes sure that a product has the ability to integrate effectively with existing and future infrastructures.

The SMART Sense: Consulting, Training and Testing. From FIME’s perspective, give us an in-depth look on how these 3 offerings can complement each other.

Pascal: Consulting, training and testing complement each other to ensure the efficient and successful development of products. By supporting customers through fundamental product development stages, we are able to help customers save money by reducing solution complications and product time-to-market. Without thorough education and consultancy, products often fail at the last hurdle – a problem which FIME endeavours to overcome for its customers.

Card & Terminal

The SMART Sense: Discuss FIME’s involvement in industry associations and the achievements attained.

Pascal: FIME joined GlobalPlatform, the organisation which standardises the management of applications on secure chip technology, in early 2010. This was a strategic move in order to contribute to the development of a standardised secure chip ecosystem and to be part of the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program. Since our involvement with the organisation, FIME has achieved GlobalPlatform qualified status for its test tool products and laboratory testing offerings – making it the first full service testing facility to receive the GlobalPlatform certification for both its tools and laboratory. FIME has also achieved authorisation of its laboratories through its activities with the NFC Forum.

FIME - E-Passport

Involvement with both GlobalPlatform and the NFC Forum enables us to influence and support the market in its goal to achieve industry interoperability and advance the use of NFC technology.

The SMART Sense: FIME’s presence spans across the globe. With that being said, how do you address local support in every country?

Pascal: With operations throughout America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India and Asia, we are able to provide local level support for global projects. FIME has approximately 150 experts worldwide, dedicated to working at project level regardless of the geographic location. Due to our global presence, we are able to react quickly and effectively to the region’s requirements.

The SMART Sense: How much confidence does FIME have in NFC? Share this view from a corporate perspective, as well as your own personal opinion.

Pascal: Contactless technology and NFC have significantly advanced over the last few years. More deployments are taking place on a global scale, which is helping to establish the use of mobile services in vertical markets such as payment and transport. From a business point of view the technology is ready, however, in order to consolidate NFC’s position within these sectors, all stakeholders must now come together to build an interoperable and stable contactless ecosystem based on proven and trusted standards and products. The appropriate certifications must therefore be in place to test and verify product compliance, which will generate increased confidence in the market.

From a personal perspective, I think the advancement of applications on a mobile phone are the next logical step in streamlining the many services we access as end-users on a daily basis.

Pascal Le Ray

The SMART Sense: As a father to a daughter and a connoisseur in the testing business, would you expect or encourage your daughter to follow your career path?

Pascal: I would certainly not expect her to follow in my career footsteps; however I do hope that she will benefit from the knowledge and ethics, such as respect and open-mindedness to others, which I have gained over the years. I can only hope that she will work in a domain where she is both passionate and knowledgeable in order to succeed.

The SMART Sense: Our editors have heard that you were part of a symphony orchestra. Does the collaboration of different musical instruments translating into a symphony influence the way you manage an entire corporation?

Pascal: I was indeed part of a symphony orchestra, in which I played the oboe. Running a business is in many respects similar to conducting, as both require careful coordination of multiple sections within a group and all members must work harmoniously together to achieve an overall goal and objective.

Pascal Le Ray & Vincent Poty at CARTES & ID 2011, France

Being part of an orchestra or a company requires team spirit and mutual support from all involved and just like a symphony orchestra, I like to believe that as a team, FIME is in tune to each other’s responsibilities.

The SMART Sense: What can we expect from FIME in the next 5-10 years? What is currently on the drawing board?

Pascal: For over 15 years, FIME has developed testing services in conjunction with technical standardisation bodies in order to validate the industry compliance, functional competence and interoperability of a solution.

Moving forward, we hope to maintain our relationships with relevant standardisation bodies and be involved in compliance programs and certification schemes to help achieve industry interoperability. We are keen to commit further resource into these initiatives, as we recognise that once a stable and harmonised ecosystem is created, all actors can concentrate on developing new products, based on established technology and proven frameworks.

Over the coming years we expect FIME to continue to grow in size and reputation, serving the cross sector, smart device and secure chip markets with dependable testing methods.

: FIME; Pascal; Le; Ray; smartcard; Schlumberger; Gemalto; Gemplus; payment; telecom; mobile; transit; identity; ID; identification; chip; testing; ISO17025; America; Europe; MEA; India; Asia; U.S.; R&D; e-payment; e-identity; GlobalPlatform; NFC Forum; contactless; NFC; terminal; Cartes; test; tool; lab; consultancy; training; france; smartspy; certification; security; smart; device; standardization; bank; acquirer; transport; logistic


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