Introduce yourself

Hello, my name is Eric Boileau. I run IT Link Solutions, which is the R&D design office and software publishing department of the IT Link Group.

What is your background?

I first worked for 10 years in international groups in the telecommunications and mobile telephony sector, before joining IT Link in 2010, as Technical Director.

At the time, what were the challenges?

When I joined the Group, our main client was beginning to restructure and massify its partnerships and subcontracting. In a few months, IT Link had to demonstrate its technical know-how and its ability to organize activities in highly structured Service Centers.

The other challenge when I arrived was to bring together our historical activities around embedded technology on the one hand and scientific platforms on the other hand, to address the emerging market for IOT and connected systems, which is now at the heart of our positioning.

Can you tell us more about the Design Office?

We are organized in Linker Teams, agile teams that bring together, in a technological field, all the skills necessary to carry out a project: architects, product owners, project managers, developers.

Each Linker Team has a complete expertise that allows it to be autonomous on its projects.

In recent years, we have designed, built and deployed several complex connected systems in critical areas.

How are these systems developed?

In some cases, we have a fairly precise technical roadmap defined by a customer. This is the case, for example, of a crisis management platform and a national flood and flood surveillance system.

In other cases, we address a functional need without defining the technical solution. And that leads us to propose a new solution, which can become a product and then be marketed.

This is the case, for example, with Astao, which now protects several thousand SNCF agents against attacks. This is also the case with the HeroDot system, which makes it possible to measure traffic on public transport in real time.

For you, what will the connected systems of tomorrow look like?

I think that in the years to come, equipment and services will continue to interconnect, with increasing complexity.

The simplified image of the Internet of Things, with sensors scattered around the city and buildings and connected to data exploitation platforms, is evolving towards more complex patterns. Tomorrow's systems combine equipment, user interfaces, AI, the power of the Cloud and connect all these elements to provide new services.

Cybersecurity is still critical but new challenges are emerging around eco-design and respect for the individual in an increasingly connected world.

It is up to us to master this growing complexity in order to offer the right solutions and invent the connected systems of tomorrow.