Who is Thierry Giupponi?
I started working in accounting at 21 years old and then I got hired by reuters for network monitoring on some Unix and Linux systems. I trained in various areas of IT (networks, infrastructure, IoT, security) and started different mandates as a system and network administrator. Then I moved into the world of ERP where I was project manager and team leader.
I managed the project of the 1st alarm reception center to obtain the EN-50518 standard in Switzerland. (EN 50518 defines the construction, the technological, operational and organisational requirements for alarm receiving centres)
In my private life, I’m a sport fan (I had a good level in soccer when I was younger). I play tennis, love sking, and love watching NFL, NHL even if it’s not easy to watch from Switzerland.
Tell us more about your role in SIR?
I’m the CTO of SIR (a human security company). I manage the IT department as well as the alarm receiving center department. I have 2 great teams and we have done a lot of great projects (IoT, Ip Migration, Security System, etc.) since 5 years now. One part of my job consists of developing, researching, innovating new solutions to help and support our operational agents in the field.
The world of security has evolved a lot in recent years and continues to change due to technological developments in particular. Many companies have been created in the field and having a technological advance allows them to stand out from the competition. I don’t know how it works in the USA, but in Switzerland private security companies are an important
support for law enforcement.
What is the most difficult part of your job? But the most rewarding one?
Maybe to keep up to date with new technologies in my field of activity everyday and always be one step ahead to make the right decisions. We must remain focused on aspect of information and data security and in the same way have enough elements to help optimize our operational mode and react and intervene quickly in the event of need.
It’s interesting to understand how other countries work because environment, politics, laws are not the same but finally we have to work with the same tools, hardware. This is where understanding the different strategies and sharing exprience is important, but always difficult. That’s also what makes the challenge of this job, discover new things, ideas, systems…and when is comes to new technology no day is similar.
Is there anything that you would change about your professional path?
It’s true that I never really asked myself this question. Proof that I don’t think so. But when I was younger my dream was to be a pilot and live and work in USA. I quickly dropped this project because I had the opportunity to enter the exciting world of IT that I did not leave anymore. I also quickly had the opportunity to lead teams.
I was thus able to evolve in this field while keeping the technical proximity.
What’s your key strategy for the development of your company?
Small is beautiful! That is the strategy. Doing a good job and keeping a high level of quality for our customers are two of the reasons we don’t want to grow a lot.
We really want to be near and take care of our customers. It is our strength and we do not want to change it. It’s why we put our efforts to develop our company by optimizing our services and tools in the field.
Every year there are a lot of new security companies and they don’t have our business experience of over 40 years. Still, they often come with a different approach and we must be aware of this.
What do you think about the next period of time, keeping in mind the pandemic and the new business climate? How will your industry be affected?
Maybe we will get into the habit of traveling less and continuing to communicate through video conferences…it will be interesting to see how certain technologies, such as holograms or some others, will evolve.
In our area of business I don’t think there will be big changes the next 2 years. It is clear that the evolutions are a bit on hold and evolve less quickly than usual. I think we will quickly resume the same pace as before.
But on the other hand the situation will open up new opportunities and new players will appear on the market changes in laws could also lead to certain changes such as for example the freer use of drones, robots. It will unfortunately not be immediately.
Please name a few technologies which have the greatest impact on your business.
A lot but the ones that come to mind are Iot, securtiy, drones, robots, deep learning. The world of security is evolving as rapidly as new technologies appear and new technologies are evolving and modifying security directly or indirectly.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
My cell phone is my book. I love to read articles rather than books if we talk about technologies on the other hand for the management aspects I find very interesting to read about different visions and experiences. But to be honest, what I prefer is a good TV report on sport, world, environment, Tech.
Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order to discuss their involvement, what challenges they have had in the past and what they are looking forward to in the future. This sequence aims to present a series of experiences, recent developments, changes and downsides in terms of their business areas, as well as their goals, values, career history, the high-impact success outcomes and achievements.
