Michel ARTIERES, founder, President and CEO of ATEME had the honor of being awarded the IE Club “Trophées de l’International du Numérique“. He received the prize from Nicole Bricq, the French Minister of Foreign Trade. Through that trophy, ATEME has been rewarded for the best international performance among French SMEs in the digital economy.
Dorota Bouskela: What motivated ATEME’s participation in the “Trophées de l’International du Numérique” ?
Michel Artières: The IE-Club is the ideal meeting place for innovative SMEs willing to make contacts with other major players in cutting edge fields: investors, major groups, public organizations and research centers. Through this event, IE-Club wishes to promote innovative companies which demonstrate an ambitious international strategy, as they will take a significant part in the development of tomorrow’s economy. We felt that ATEME had a nice story to tell from this perspective, so it was natural for us to compete for the trophy.
DB: Why do you think ATEME won?
MA: Participation in the competition is open to all French innovative start-ups and SMEs which have implemented an exemplary strategy in international operations. The jury classifies applicants according to three criteria: innovation, international strategy and teams. For each of these criteria, ATEME has a great story and noticeable statistics:
In terms of innovation, the fact is that we are continuingly investing in R&D and our brand name is synonymous with encoding quality, as stated by Frost and Sullivan in 2012. More than 40 % of our total staff are actually in R&D!
When it comes to the international market, the fact is that our sales out of France have grown again this year to an impressive 92% of our total sales. The jury appreciated ATEME’s sustained growth in all regions (including USA, Latin America, and Asia), as well as effective sales in more than 60 countries this year.
Finally, the seasoned international management team, as well as the 23 nationalities represented in ATEME staff, definitely made it for the third criteria.
DB: In what countries does ATEME have operations? Do you intend to expand to new countries in the near future?
MA: We have a physical presence in 7 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and we are just about to open an office in Singapore.
DB: What is ATEME’s innovation, originality and added value in the digital field?
MA: ATEME is one of the very few players in its market which relies on its own home grown video compression technology. Large and sustained investments in research (we own almost 20 patents) allow us to be ahead of the race in periods of disruption (like we are with the new HEVC standard today) and constantly offerour customers future proof products with superior compression efficiency. Therefore, we help our clients improve the quality of their services (video quality, more subscribers eligible to the HD,…) or launch new services (HD for mobiles, catch up TV, …). Obviously this helps them protect or even increase their ARPU.
DB: Would you recommend other companies to participate in IE Club ?
MA: Yes of course, it will give them more exposure, all the more so as the pitch and award ceremony are hosted byUbifrance during the 2 days of “International Conference of the Digital Economy” . The presence of the Minister for Foreign Trade speaks to the visibility and credibility of this event.