The IT System Has to Support the Business and Ward Off New Potential Risks and Threats
Interview by Global Security Mag with Cyrille Duvivier, Customer Care Strategic Director at Prodware
Prodware is a Digital Services Company that was founded in 1989 and that has expanded its footprint in Europe mainly selling Microsoft solutions. Prodware addresses IT security with a full range of solutions designed to protect its customers at a time when cyber crime is on the rise with cyber attacks happening all the time: user and terminal security, perimeter security, data security, security audits, SOC organization (Security Operation Center). For Cyrille Duvivier, Strategic Director of Customer Care at Prodware, the IT system has to support the business and ward off the new potential risks and threats.
GSM: Can you please introduce your company?
Cyrille Duvivier: Prodware is a Digital Services Company that was founded in 1989 and that has expanded its footprint in Europe mainly selling Microsoft solutions. Today Prodware boasts 1300 employees and generated 172m€ in turnover in 2020. The Infrastructure, Cloud &t Digital division caters to SMEs and Mid-Market organizations essentially and makes up 10% of the group’s turnover.
GSM: What leading range of services are lined up for 2021?
Cyrille Duvivier: The Cloud and Infrastructure business calls for agility in order to adapt to customer requirements and to new opportunities provided by our partners. Our historical expertise is based on Microsoft solutions and relies on the design, implementation and support of Information Systems for our customers’ critical business applications. In continuing with our traditional “On premise” approaches, we developed our own private Cloud more than 10 years ago. Today, we complement our private Cloud with Microsoft Azure, the open and flexible public cloud platform with cloud services. Prodware addresses IT security with a full range of solutions designed to protect its customers at a time when cyber crime is on the rise with cyber attacks happening all the time: user and terminal security, perimeter security, data security, security audits, SOC organization (Security Operation Center).
Of course, we fully leverage Microsoft’s ecosystem, whose main takeaway is providing a fully integrated security layer regardless of the services used: On premise, Azure, Office 365, Power Platform, Dynamics.
GSM: What is your role in the organization?
Cyrille Duvivier: I took over the management of the Infrastructure, Cloud and Digital department about 8 months ago after having founded it more than 20 years ago. Meanwhile, I have held various positions within the group, including Head of the Excellence and Quality department for a few years, then Director of Customer Care, where I reorganized the entire TMI and TMA Managed Services for the group’s countries: organization, processes, tools and value proposition. With the latter now on track, I decided to return to my first love, i.e. infrastructure, whose fundamentals have not fundamentally changed since it is still all about serving our customers while complying with their IT strategy, their budget and their operational requirements. What is new is the increased use of outsourcing (Cloud and Managed Services) so that customers can better address the complexity of their hybrid infrastructures without compromising their security.
GSM: Can you explain how services are set up within your organization?
Cyrille Duvivier: In France, Prodware has four business lines that are supported by our Infrastructure, Cloud and Digital division: CRM and ERP business applications with the Dynamics suite from Microsoft; Sales and Management, Finance and Payroll solutions from Sage and Autodesk for engineering and architectural firms.
GSM: What would be your message to our readers to conclude this interview?
Cyrille Duvivier: The connected and immersive world we now live in holds great promise and opportunity for both individuals and organizations. In this Eden of possibilities, we are now witnessing cybercrime as it depicted in science fiction novels and movies only just a few years ago. The role of CIOs, and by extension that of Prodware, is centered around the IT system: not only must the IT system support the business but also has to make sure it keeps these new cyber risks and threats at bay.