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![]() CCI Mag (Avril 2012) p.13 (lecture en ligne) CCI Mag (Avril 2012) p.13 (PNG) CCI Mag (Avril 2012) p.13 (PDF) |

La jeune société se positionne sur le terrain de la modélisation, de la gestion et de l’optimisation de processus. Si ce profil ne semble guère original, il le devient davantage si l’on considère ce qui fait la spécificité de la solution ModaTech.
A savoir: la saisie, modalisation graphique et restitution en temps réel des processus et une orientation stratégique vers des applications à forte valeur ajoutée. Modalisa Technology se donne essentiellement trois cibles, pour ses débuts: les processus de laboratoires, le secteur du marketing (mobile) et le monde de la finance et des assurances.
La logistique ou l’industrie ne sont pas négligés non plus. Un contrat a ainsi été passé avec EVS pour une rationalisation de ses processus en environnement de tests.
La solution ModaTech, installée chez le client ou fournie en BPO, tourne sur des systèmes classiques (mainframe, PC…). S’y ajoutent des modules pour mobiles, nanopuces ou systèmes RFID pour la saisie et la restitution de données collectées au départ de ces équipements mobiles ou embarqués.
Ces terminaux et capteurs en tous genres constituent l’un des terrains de recherche spécifiques sur lesquels se concentre la société. “Le défi est d’interagir avec différents marqueurs de traçabilité et d’intégrer ces identifiants spécifiques, via traduction de formats, dans les processus de gestion”, souligne Tony Ciccarella, co-fondateur de la société.
La solution Modalisa Technology s’appuie sur des travaux de recherche menés depuis plus de 7 ans à l’Institut Montefiore de l’ULg, portant sur des algorithmes évolués et des méthodologies de développement (CMMI, notamment). Une collaboration a récemment été initiée avec un département de recherche de l’université d’Harvard spécialisé dans l’extraction d’ADN dans le cadre du traitement du cancer.
“Des doctorants de plusieurs pays procèdent à des analyses de chaînes spécifiques d’ADN mais leur collaboration manque d’efficacité. Le traçage des échantillons, envoyés dans plusieurs pays, n’est pas standardisé. Il s’agit donc de normaliser les processus, d’effectuer un suivi temps réel des analyses et de leurs transferts”, explique Frédéric Maréchal, l’autre co-fondateur. “A l’avenir, nous multiplierons ces collaborations avec des universités et centres de recherche, français notamment”.
Une augmentation de capital (en cours) devrait permettre d’engager 3 personnes et de financer des équipements permettant de pousser plus loin la R&D dans des domaines tels le RFID.
Passeport
- Dénomination: Modalisa Technology
- Siège: Angleur (Liège)
- Année de création: 2011
- Effectifs: 2 personnes
- Financement: fonds propres (levée de fonds privés et publics en cours: 10 millions)
www.modalisa-technology.com
This book demonstrates service-oriented architecture (SOA) as a concrete discipline rather than a hopeful collection of cloud charts. Built upon the author’s firsthand experience rolling out a SOA at a major corporation, SOA in Practice explains how SOA can simplify the creation and maintenance of large-scale applications. Whether your project involves a large set of Web Services-based components, or connects legacy applications to modern business processes, this book clarifies how — and whether — SOA fits your needs.
This book isn’t an introduction to object-oriented technology or design. Many books already do a good job of that…this isn’t an advanced treatise either. It’s a book of design patterns that describe simple and elegant solutions to specific problems in object-oriented software design….Once you understand the design patterns and have had an « Aha! » (and not just a « Huh? » experience with them, you won’t ever think about object-oriented design in the same way. You’ll have insights that can make your own designs more flexible, modular, reusable, and understandable–which is why you’re interested in object-oriented technology in the first place, right?
If you’ve read a Head First book, you know what to expect–a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory, Head First Design Patterns will load patterns into your brain in a way that sticks. In a way that lets you put them to work immediately. In a way that makes you better at solving software design problems, and better at speaking the language of patterns with others on your team.
Formally endorsed by senior members of Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, BEA, Sun, Intel, HP, and SAP, this acclaimed book provides a thorough exploration of service-orientation and service engineering and also includes a concise overview of SOA and service-oriented computing from an industry perspective.
Understanding Enterprise SOA gives technologists and business people an invaluable and until now missing integrated picture of the issues and their interdependencies. You will learn how to think in a big way, moving confidently between technology- and business-level concerns. Written in a comfortable, mentoring style by two industry insiders, the book draws conclusions from actual experiences of real companies in diverse industries, from manufacturing to genome research. It cuts through vendor hype and shows you what it really takes to get SOA to work. Intended for both business people and technologists, the book reviews core SOA technologies and uncovers the critical human factors involved in deploying them. You will see how enterprise SOA changes the terrain of EAI, B2B commerce, business process management, « real time » operations, and enterprise software development in general.
An emphasis on application-layer paradigms and application programming interfaces, encourages a lively, hands-on experience with protocols and networking concepts. KEY TOPICS: Computer Networks and the Internet; Application Layer; Transport Layer; Network Layer; Link Layer and LANs; Wireless and Mobile Networks; Multimedia Networking; Security in Computer Networks; Network Management; New discussions of VPN, IPsec, VLAN and updated technology treatment. MARKET: A useful reference for computer networking professionals.
Hitchhikers do not travel a fixed path. They intentionally wander so they can learn and grow along the way. Embarking on the lean journey is similar, there are many roads on which to wander and no single one is right for all. « The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road » reveals the most critical lessons learned over the authors’ combined 30-plus years of exploring the lean highways. One of the book’s lessons from the road is you need to pay attention to where you are and where you are going, just as you do when driving a car. Lean leaders add value by changing things, moving them forward, and producing different results than the day before. To lead, you must go beyond creating a vision. You must develop the vehicle that will deliver it. « The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean » is the vehicle that will help you move beyond the tools and take lean to a self-sustaining and continuously improving level. The book’s 10 chapters cover lean principles and thinking, lean leadership moves, the roadmap for lean transformation, common pitfalls of lean journeys, building an operating system, lean accounting, lean material management, lean in service organizations, and how individuals can apply lean to improve themselves.
The tricky part to agile software development is that there is no manual telling you exactly how to do it. You have to experiment and continuously adapt the process until it suits your specific situation. This book aims to give you a head start by providing a detailed down-to-earth account of how one Swedish company implemented Scrum and XP with a team of approximately 40 people and how they continuously improved their process over a year’s time. Under the leadership of Henrik Kniberg they experimented with different team sizes, different sprint lengths, different ways of defining « done », different formats for product backlogs and sprint backlogs, different testing strategies, different ways of doing demos, different ways of synchronizing multiple Scrum teams, etc. They also experimented with XP practices – different ways of doing continuous build, pair programming, test driven development, etc, and how to combine this with Scrum.
WSL is an incubator created in 1999. It is focused on technologic start-up firms whose technologies are most of the time the result of spatial R&D projects. The incubator’s mission is to support young entrepreneurs coming mainly from Walloon universities in creating their company, to help to get it going and to accompany the project during its first years of growth so as to contribute to increase the number of high tech firms in Wallonia. WSL is considered a pioneering organisation in Europe, as it was at its creation the first ‘space related’ incubator in Europe. The incubator was created in the form of a private limited company with a cleared capital of €7.5 million. In 2006, given the continual growth of its overwhelming success, the Walloon Region increased funding by €2.5 million. Its main stockholder, the Walloon Region, is associated with Spinventure, a venture capital fund created by the University of Liege and a public institutional fund (Meusinvest).
WSL’s objective is to solicit and anchor new high-tech enterprises in Wallonia.
WSL is co-funder of ESINET (European Network of Space Incubators) and leader of the NAVOBS project, a support measure to boost the business prospects of GMES and telecom satellites through focused and innovative RTD work involving SMEs.
At the end of 2005, the NBIA (the American National Business Incubation Association) chose WSL to be the first reference incubator outside the United States. It received the « Best Incubator in Europe » award in 2007 from the Science Alliance. Through this new program, NBIA recognizes incubators that are especially capable at helping non-domestic companies enter the incubator’s domestic market. 27 start ups launched up to now with more than 160 jobs created and 15M turnover.
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EVS Group EVS Group designs, develops and markets professional digital equipment for Television (EVS Broadcast) and Cinema (XDC). The Group employs over 256 persons (in 2009) for broadcast equipment in 11 countries and sells its products to professionals of the video and audio sectors in more than 90 countries. EVS is a public company traded on Euronext Brussels: EVS, ISIN: BE0003820371.
EVS Broadcast is the world leader for Live TV Production Digital Disk Recorders and Related Software Applications, especially in the field of sports. The company’s dedicated hardware and software suite offer a complete production platform: live slow motion (LSM), high speed slow motion, replay only, clips generation, quick clips editing, real-time SD/HD video files transfer, time delay, multi-camera recording, metadata association, graphics storage and play-out, digital transmission, multi-format ingest and play-back, audio record & edit, webcasting, mobile phone clipping. Main software applications like the « IP Director® » are running on the dedicated robust and flexible hardware the « XT[2]® Platform ». The world’s leading broadcasters, such as NBC, BSkyB, FOX, RTL, NHK, CANAL+, ABC, ESPN, TF1, CCTV, PBS, CBS, BBC, ZDF, TVE and many others use EVS’ solutions.
EVS 47,20% affiliate XDC is pioneering Digital Cinema Logistics and Play-out and operates between the movies distributors and exhibitors. XDC has installed more than 280 digital screens throughout the world in China, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, the United States, France, Belgium, etc.
Net sales break down by product family as follows:
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Europe/Africa/Middle East (53.3%), Americas (25.2%) and Asia/Pacific (21.5%).
For more information, refer to www.evs-global.com
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Once thought to be the answer to deployment options for just the SMB market, early cloud adopters proved otherwise. Stereotypes about industry, size of company, geographies, and roles no longer hold back adoption. Cloud adoption at all 4 layers of the cloud passed the tipping points in 2010 as a key business and technology strategy . For 2011, we can expect users to: see Figure 1.
General Trends Reflect Natural Maturation Of The Cloud Market

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Many IT departments try to implement ITIL configuration management without giving much thought to the staffing of the configuration management service. Like any IT task, configuration management requires skilled people with standardized processes, but this aspect is often overlooked in the rush to find the perfect CMDB tool.
What makes for the most effective configuration management team? The answer will depend somewhat on the size of the IT environment. The essential roles, however, are the same whether one expert plays three or four roles or volume dictates that one role requires two or three people. There are lots of creative ways to deploy these roles across an organization, but here are the essential roles you should consider when embarking on a configuration management service.
Note: This entry originally appeared in TechRepublic’s IT Leadership blog. It’s also available as a PDF download.
You need one strong technical leader who can be counted on as the expert in configuration management.
You do have configuration management requirements, don’t you? This person will help you determine all the requirements needed to configure the environment.
This may be more important at the onset, but Version 3 of ITIL calls for continuous process improvement.
Configuration management is all about gathering, controlling, and accessing information; of course you need a DBA.
Someone will need to create training materials and instruct all of your IT staff in how to access and support configuration management.
Every CMDB is built from data stored across many sources. The integrator role supervises the reconciliation rules that bring those sources together.
Eventually, your entire IT staff will depend on information in the CMDB, and thus on the availability of the tools.
This role specifically focuses on helping make configuration data intelligible to the rest of the IT organization. The key task here is to make sure relationships between configuration items are well defined, helpful, and accurate.
Because the CMDB is a database, many users will want to create custom queries and specialized reports. Someone who understands the data deeply will help make this possible.
ITIL rightly points out that the best practice in configuration management is to constantly verify data and audit the database.
Not many organizations are large enough to have a dedicated 10-member team for configuration management, but anyone serious about building an effective configuration management service should consider who will accomplish these 10 key functions.
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Any initiative to develop new technical product is based on an external business need. As Project Managers we must understand the big picture. What is goal of business, and how can the technical expertise can add value to that goal.
Get involved early in the process of the project inception. Even if the question of needing resources hasn’t been decided I try to participate in the initial meetings in order to get a better perspective of the business need. Plus I can usually add value by pointing out ways certain tasks can be accomplished with greater efficiency or the resources we have on hand and the best way to utilize them. Yes it makes more work for me but allows me to have a clear Vision of the business goal which I can communicate to the team, leading to better results.
While I agree that too much planning can be a negative aspect, too often I have seen the « Let’s just do it attitude », this always leads to unclear goals and projects that run into problems in all key areas.
While I encourage open communication amongst all the staff members, in the end anything that could have an impact on the project, any item that is considered a formal decision must be written down, and put in the appropriate place (project documentation, issue logs…). If you don’t have a formal process for documenting meetings, at least circulate an e-mail to all participants with key points from the meeting.
When people know that they can approach you, without reprisal, not only will that ensure that they will bring up any problems as soon as they are spotted, thus avoiding costly problems later on. But they will also feel free to come to you with new ideas that could lead to unexpected benefits to your project.
There are many issues and problems that will arise on a project. Budget, scope, time, quality, and especially human resources. I have seen too many people on a project (even PM’s) while acknowledging an issue, still ignored it because of it’s complexity or lack of time. Even if you cannot resolve the issue immediately it’s important to document it and discuss it with your team. Don’t let it get forgotten otherwise it will come up again and you will be caught unprepared.
I don’t say this lightly, but I have seen managers too often ignore problem employees due to fear of confrontation, or lack of understanding of the technical aspects of the employee’s job. I would always confront and hope to change the attitude of a problem employee, if there are problems at home perhaps they need more time to deal with their personal issues, or perhaps they have been asked to perform a task beyond their capabilities and need more training. But if after everything you have tried an employee is still underperforming or causing problems in the workplace then I have no problem in replacing him or her. Not only because the organization is not getting their money’s worth, but more devastating is the impact on the morale of the other employees.
Hard work and honesty cannot be faked, if you try to inspire others to achieve certain goals make sure that you willing to work with them and exhibit the same attitude. If you are not ready to do as such, the people around you will quickly loose respect for you, and managing them will become a much tougher job. Make sure you set realistic goals for you and your staff.
To many times I have come across where groups of different disciplines, Business Analysts, Developers and the QA / Test teams, are kept in silos with minimum cross communication. It’s far more beneficial if you get the entire team to participate in the full project life cycle. If you are dealing with large teams make sure that at least the lead people of each group are involved from planning to deployment. As an example I always make sure I have at least on QA-Test representative involved from the start, their input is often valuable and will result in better duration & effort estimates.
Make sure the project sponsors think carefully about the products, or deliverables required, before the project begins. Make sure you can develop a clear vision that can be shared with the entire team. Your scope should be well defined any changes introduced during the project should be documented and evaluated. If a change is introduced the impact should be communicated to the entire team including the project sponsors.
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The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published Tuesday a landmark paper entitled “Network architecture of the long-distance pathways in the macaque brain” (an open-access paper) by Dharmendra S. Modha (IBM Almaden) and Raghavendra Singh (IBM Research-India) with major implications for reverse-engineering the brain and developing a network of cognitive-computing chips.
“We have successfully uncovered and mapped the most comprehensive long-distance network of the Macaque monkey brain, which is essential for understanding the brain’s behavior, complexity, dynamics and computation,” Dr. Modha says. “We can now gain unprecedented insight into how information travels and is processed across the brain.
“We have collated a comprehensive, consistent, concise, coherent, and colossal network spanning the entire brain and grounded in anatomical tracing studies that is a stepping stone to both fundamental and applied research in neuroscience and cognitive computing.”
The scientists focused on the long-distance network of 383 brain regions and 6,602 long-distance brain connections that travel through the brain’s white matter, which are like the “interstate highways” between far-flung brain regions, he explained, while short-distance gray matter connections (based on neurons) constitute “local roads” within a brain region and its sub-structures.
Their research builds upon a publicly available database called Collation of Connectivity data on the Macaque brain (CoCoMac), which compiles anatomical tracing data from over 400 scientific reports from neuroanatomists published over the last half-century.
“We studied four times the number of brain regions and have compiled nearly three times the number of connections when compared to the largest previous endeavor,” he pointed out. “Our data may open up entirely new ways of analyzing, understanding, and, eventually, imitating the network architecture of the brain, which according to Marian C. Diamond and Arnold B. Scheibel is “the most complex mass of protoplasm on earth—perhaps even in our galaxy.”
The brain network they found contains a “tightly integrated core that might be at the heart of higher cognition and even consciousness … and may be a key to the age-old question of how the mind arises from the brain.” The core spans parts of premotor cortex, prefrontal cortex, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, thalamus, basal ganglia, cingulate cortex, insula, and visual cortex.
By ranking brain regions (similar to how search engines rank web pages), they found evidence that the prefrontal cortex, while physically located in the front of the brain, is a functionally central part of the brain that might act as an integrator and distributor of information. Think of it as a switchboard.
As they stated in the PNAS paper, “The network opens the door to the application of large-scale network-theoretic analysis that has been so successful in understanding the Internet, metabolic networks, protein interaction networks, various social networks, and in searching the world-wide web. The network will be an indispensable foundation for clinical, systems, cognitive, and computational neurosciences as well as cognitive computing.”
The findings will also help them design the routing architecture for a network of cognitive computing chips, they suggest.
The research was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Sciences Office, Program: Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics.
Dr. Modha presented the exciting findings of this study in a talk I attended at the Toward A Science Of Consciousness conference in Tucson in April, but he asked us to hold off on covering this until the formal paper appeared in a peer-reviewed journal.
A detailed Powerpoint slide show with voice narration (60 slides, ~52 minutes, ~50 MB) is downloadable here.
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