Steria and ATG in partnership

Steria closed out its week by announcing a partnership agreement wtih Art Technology Group Inc. to deliver consulting and services in support of ATG European business. ATG Alliances Europe, Middle East and Africa director Peter Ford promised that “The partnership will offer Steria customers the opportunity to extend their existing CRM infrastructure and significantly enhance online customer experience and support services using ATG’s solutions.” The new agreement is certainly in line with the successful and harmonious relationship the companies have shared for some time.

Last week, Steria received an award from Orange Business Services and Syntec Informatique for a software kernel for applications to help elderly people with restricted mobility to live safely in a medical environment in the M2M ZigBee project. The project was led by Steria and was the result of close collaboration between Orange Business Services, France Télécom R&D and Steria. The project drew on Steria expertise in telecommunications, networks, security and supervision and, according to award bestowers, “reinforced its position as a reference player in mobility technologies.”

The kernel offers a framework for developing integrated applications and enabling fixed and mobile devices to communicate with each other within the ZigBee network. It also allows the network to interconnect with standard information systems and telecommunications networks via an IP network. Steria activity and breakthroughs have attracted some attention lately, with particular buzz surrounding the company philosophy of “Machine-to-Machine,” described as “the association of information and communication technologies with intelligent and communicative devices for the purpose of equipping the latter with the means to interact with the information system of an organisation or company without human intervention.”

Steria contributed to the White Paper on Machine-to-Machine technology published by France Télécom and Syntec Informatique. Machine-to-machine, goes company dogma, is already used in situations such as traffic information, breakdown services and mobile phone top-ups via cash machines or the internet. M2M can also apply, they say, “to a whole host of business sectors,” including transport, banking, utilities and healthcare industries. A “reference player” in the machine-to-machine world, Steria provides consulting, systems integration and managed services. In rolling out applications, Steria acts as integrator. Among Steria clientele are PSA Peugeot-Citröen, the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, British Airlines and Aéroports de Paris.