Flowing in the Tree

A Story by Alexandre Rollier.

Movements related to human activity represent the sap of the infrastructure that we have built for ourselves over time and in which we continue to evolve. 

License Plate Recognition (LPR) is an area very few think about or even see, but has been blooming around us as a – if not the- tool to shape the future of what we call “hospitality management” on a much larger scale: cities, countries, and above. 

Therefore, the sky is -quite literally- the limit for its future applications… And if you do not know, now you know.

In such a specific context nowadays, with time accelerating, not only do we need a way to watch over traffic movements and habits within the population to adjust how we can build and organize our cities and local communities better, but also to reduce pollution, to improve overall security, and quality of life itself. 

A surprise, to be sure but a welcome one, especially with my hotel management background. In hindsight, it does make total sense, though I must admit I was not expecting to work and have fun in such a field earlier in my career. 

Gratefully growing around a sane environment at SURVISION, originally a French pioneer Tech company in the LPR field, now also based in the United States, and tackling these wide hospitality questions with a “bigger-picture” perspective, I was asked to come back on my integration process and experience within my first weeks as a testimony for future recruits.

Right from the start, I was welcomed on Monday morning by CEO Jacques JOUANNAIS, had my coffee, and started diving in. The week was intense but fascinating. Meeting with the Sales Director, initiation to the CRM system, types of clients, direct competition and macro environment, probabilities to win markets, Sales cycles, my upcoming missions, panoramic review of our markets (Tolling, Parking, Access Control, Law Enforcement, Security, Border Customs, Smart Cities) and attended the monthly Sales meeting. 

The next day I met with Technical Support Manager, went through returns, quality issues, testing, how we take care of customers and update them in the repair process, using a supervision tool (CST) to watch over installed cameras in real-time, how to create a customer profile in our tailor-made internal interface “MySurvision” allowing them to access tech information (cameras integration, hardware, firmware updates, etc.).

The afternoon was spent with the Project Manager, we went through evolutive maintenance (which allows our customers to enjoy regular updates done to our firmware), Proof of Concept, advanced studies, Research & Development coordination, massive deployment, and related administrative challenges.

Wednesday was a bit more specific with the Parking market Sales Manager, with whom we analyzed the environment, technological evolution within this market, upcoming challenges, pricing strategies, and shipping policies. In the afternoon, I met the Production Manager and teams, learned a bit more about the differences between infrared and white light in the LPR process, and I even started building cameras and totems with the team, testing, and packing everything before shipping.

Thursday was fully dedicated to our Quality Management System, meeting again with our CEO and went through everything regarding the ISO 9001 norm and internal processes. The marketing value of it, the importance of finding structural solutions when a challenge pops up, some basic Plan-Do-Check-Act management to apply regularly, much more advanced SWOT and PESTEL analysis, and lots of reading.

On Friday morning, I met our Research & Development Manager and learned (or tried to understand as best as I could in some cases, to be honest) the most complex concepts I had ever heard in my professional career, especially regarding how we apply Artificial Intelligence in our technology, algorithms, software development, convolution layers, new generation neurons, our VSS system (how we set up our cameras), etc.

I always had a huge respect for such pioneering visions, and it was one of the best things I have been a part of, especially since I learned that I was going to travel to the city of Angers, France, a few days later where our R&D engineers and some of the founding members of SURVISION are based.

In the afternoon, we scheduled two meetings with the United States and business development team. Long story short, we went through our “Biz Dev” strategy, some more management tools, non-disclosure agreements, and our current big projects (Airports and Law Enforcement mostly).

A week later, I finally met with our pioneers in Angers. The experience was unique. For some reason, the rhythm when we go outside of Paris is totally different. To some extent, it reminded me a bit of visiting my grandparents when I was younger (if you read this, no offense, guys!). People take the time to live, bring fruits from their own gardens to share with the team, talk about life, or just enjoy the silence around the table. What I witnessed on this day was basically a bunch of brilliant engineers, some older and experienced, passing the torch to a new generation, brainstorming, and building stuff you would not (or hardly) understand in a garage-like office. 

I instantly had flashbacks of stereotypes from Silicon Valley but with an incomparable French je-ne-sais-quoi. This is where everything we do comes from, guys pushing it as far as they can, trying, breaking things, trying again, re-ordering devices and some pieces that cannot be found (unless you know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone…), working calmly, passionate about their craft, finding solutions, a hundred problems at a time. We heard a lot these last years about « French Tech » and I was lucky enough during my old college days to work with similar people on side projects, it was probably the most charming example I have seen ever since.

When I came back to Paris and started to have more responsibilities and insights about our activities as time went by, I observed going around town, saw our products on so many occasions, and realized the beauty of this long chain a simple idea goes through before becoming operational on such a huge scale. The importance of transferring knowledge and each set of skills taking its part along the way until I close a deal with a customer, and the final users – all of us – have our lives suddenly smoother. 

The truth is, it is much easier to sell a top-of-the-art, functional, and much-needed piece of technology once its use becomes obvious and natural than conceiving and building it. In the words of our CEO: 

“You do not come up with technology and seek what do it with it… You choose a problem and then build the technology to solve it”

It is very clear these pioneers are the seed to help our lives grow better, but in the end, only together can we purposefully make it move.