Lionel Rigaud, CEO of TRIMANE, Speaks to The Silicon Review: ‘We Aim to Simplify Data Intelligence Techniques, Models, and the Use of Machine Learning Algorithms for Businesses’

The Silicon Review

“We would like to give every person access to the strength of information (domestic information, OpenData, etc.), regardless of the technical background of a person.”

Business Intelligence (BI) plays a crucial role in organizations' success and longevity in today's data-driven world. Effectively leveraging BI will empower businesses and organizations with increased actionable data, provide great insights into industry trends, and facilitate a more strategically geared decision-making.

TRIMANE is one such company that facilitates access to information. A service company on a human scale, TRIMANE provides the tools and resources to its customers to enable them to make the right decisions at the right time.

The company’s turnover exceeded 10 million euros in 2019.

TRIMANE was founded in 2005 and is based in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines.

Interview Excerpt: Lionel Rigaud

Q. What is your story? And how did TRIMANE come to the fore?

My first job after my graduation as an engineer was in a consultancy company specialized in the data processing. Decision support systems started to be implemented in several companies during this period. Thus, I worked on those systems from their early days on. I also started teaching business intelligence techniques in a French engineering school.

Eventually, I found out that people with a real proficiency in business intelligence were scarce. People often called themselves BI experts as soon as they had skills in a tool, even though they lacked the BI methods. Moreover, BI systems were costly and pretty complicated.

This gave me the impulse to create a company specialized in business intelligence. The purpose of this company was:

To harbor real BI experts, and be able to set up tailor-made BI systems,
Design a BI system that is easy to use, operate, and affordable for small companies.

Q. How uniquely does TRIMANE serve its customers, given the BI and Big Data field is highly competitive?

TRIMANE stands out among its peers, thanks to its overall expertise in data intelligence, both from the technical as well as the business point of view. We are able to assist our clients' in all the stages of the life cycle of a project. Besides, we are also able to highlight the business cases where the data intelligence project will have the most rewards.

Another factor that differentiates us from the competition is our research facilities, where we test new features in the big data landscape in collaboration with French universities. We evaluate the potential of these features that affect the current business processes.

Q. 'Let's facilitate access to information!' Would you like to elaborate on this a bit more?

This motto is TRIMANE’s core philosophy. The value information (then data) delivers to the customers has always been a crucial aspect of business operations. However, it has always been a challenge to obtain qualified data and make the most of it. Our purpose is to assist our customers in obtaining this qualified data. To do this, we usually have to assist our clients in different fields : define the most beneficial business case, ensure change management, implement a data intelligence project, and modify existing processes or organizations. What matters to us is that our customers get this access to information and have the ability to enhance their value. Thus, we adapt to our customers’ size and tailor our projects so that each company can access their data. We even have a research project named BI4people with French universities. We would like to give every person access to the strength of information (domestic information, OpenData, etc.), regardless of the technical background of a person. In essence, we aim to simplify data intelligence techniques, models, and/or the use of machine learning algorithms for businesses.

Q. You must be decisive and persistent to succeed in this field. What strategies do you have in place to stay ahead of the curve?

Our strategy is based upon three vital keys:

Hiring Criteria: These criteria ensure that our consultants will adapt to changes in the sector. We only hire people who understand the fundamentals of data intelligence, bring global proficiency in data intelligence, and apply that proficiency by using specific tools. We don't hire professionals who are only experts in tools but those who are data intelligence experts.

Vendor's Partnership: We develop partnerships with the key players in this field, which will help us to test the new software and new ideas. Thus, we are able to recommend what is best for our customers.

Our Research Facility: It allows us to test new features in the data intelligence landscape, as cited above. Every consultant will work for a certain period of time in this lab. This work period ensures that our people remain at the forefront of what is done in the field.

Delineate a short overview of the services your company offers.

We enable clients to design the digital and data intelligence strategy and assist their management boards in deploying these strategies. Our experts specify optimal business cases and assist clients in designing optimal big data architecture by helping them choose from different onsite and cloud architecture vendors. We can work with clients who seek support for everything from devising a strategy to implementing it, or with clients who only need support for deploying a specific tool.

We are also an approved training organization.

Q. What new endeavors is your company currently undertaking?

We recently joined The Blockchain Group, a global umbrella organization of engineers and entrepreneurs with an end mission to create a blockchain-powered ecosystem that allows businesses to harness the power of decentralized energy through its various divisions. TRIMANE will handle all the data in the different blockchain projects to enhance their value. This merger not only allows us to benefit from synergies between complementary companies, but it is also a unique opportunity to share our expert visions in our respective fields in a constantly evolving advanced technological context. Thus, we will provide a complete and integrated data processing offer to respond to regulatory, traceability, economic, and ecological issues.

Q. About your plans, where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

We aim to be in the top 10 European data intelligence companies, and to double our market size in the next three years, either by internal recruitment of expert consultants or by creating subsidiaries.

The Driving Force Behind the Triumph of TRIMANE

Lionel Rigaud serves as the Chief Executive Officer of TRIMANE. With a diploma (engineering) from Sup’Aero, he began his career within a consultancy company specialized in decision support systems. He then joined another consultancy company, specializing in data intelligence, technology consulting, and information systems, where he worked for seven years until he held the position of Chief Technical Officer. Alongside this extensive IT consulting and services experience, Mr. Rigaud has solid teaching experience, with more than 20 years of teaching in data intelligence in various French engineering schools.

Lionel used his expertise in fields as varied as they are complementary (technical, teaching, management) to create consultancy, training, and research activities.