Digital sector

 

A high added value services platform

For more than 10 years, digital infrastructures have been available at Castres-Mazamet. They have been a major factor in local economic, educational and research development.

Digital resources:

  • A metropolitan optical fiber network (metropolitan network card window), a real backbone for the transmission of telecommunications in the region
  • A digital platform with a teleport (teleport card window) with dual operations (data center and GIX Global Internet Exchange), a convergence point for the network that links the agglomeration to worldwide networks. A platform that provides significant added value, very high speed services (2 Mbps up to multiples of 2.5 Giga) for the worlds of research, training and major groups like Pierre Fabre, or smaller regional companies. It complies with quality, confidentiality and very high availability requirements. This platform allows digital companies, and all other players who want to deploy high performance, innovative services, to do so in very competitive technical and economic conditions. These benefits lead to growth, greater rapidity and optimal security for information flows. SAEM Intermediasud

A major player, SAEM INTERMEDIASUD:

INTERMEDIASUD’s services:

  • High speed infrastructure management: a metropolitan optical fiber network available for leasing by operators, companies and public authorities seeking to deploy high speed services.
  • Telecom hotel management: hosting capacity in secure clean rooms (teleport) and technical rooms (PoP), working areas for operators, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and ASPs (Application Service Providers), seeking to deploy their services throughout the metropolitan network.
  • Internet management: LIR-accredited (Local Internet Registry) by the RIPE NCC (European IP Network Coordination Center) in Amsterdam, INTERMEDIASUD is active in Internet management in Europe, as well as the management of IP flows on its regional zone of influence.
  • Telecom broker : specific expertise in new generation networks and brokerage operations for telecom solutions to meet its clients needs.

High level education in information technology:

  • IT and IS engineering program for the health sector (ISIS)
  • Technological services and communication network university institute (IUT SERECOM)
  • Ecole Supérieure d’Audiovisuel (ESAV)

Front-line industrial players:


In the words of an expert, Thierry BARDY,
Director of SAEM INTERMEDIASUD

                                        

1. Background: could you say a few words about the pioneering digital project in Castres-Mazamet?

The project was based on an observation: in 1996, the digital economy was born with the arrival of the Internet.
Regional players, conscious of this growing revolution, wondered how to best take advantage of it and looked elsewhere (in the United States, Canada and Sweden), to see what was happening in terms of access to new generation networks, as these countries were deregulated earlier than France (January 1, 1998 in France, thanks to a European directive). These players (the City of Castres, the Urban District of Castres-Mazamet at the time, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Castres-Mazamet, and the Pierre Fabre Group) were convinced that new technologies would have a major impact and conducted a technical, financial and regulatory feasibility study in order to create a high speed network.
This conviction was well-founded: optical fibers presented a challenge (they already constituted a trend in Japan and amongst major operators). But banking on optical fibers was not enough. Equipment allowing for implementation at the end clients was required.
A shared technological platform, the Teleport, saw the light and was used to the advantage of operators and service providers. The objective was to contribute to public interest and the competitiveness of the region with an estimated investment of 24 million francs at the time.
The SAEM INTERMEDIASUD was founded in order to manage the investments and bring together the public players (today, the Urban Agglomeration of Castres-Mazamet, as well as other towns) and private players (the Pierre Fabre Group, Caisse des Dépôts et des Consignations, the Banque Populaire), and positioned itself as a manager and marketer of services and a buried high speed network. The SAEM status (a “mixed” private/public company) of the PPP (public/private partnership) type was selected as the municipalities did not have an adequate legal status to manage this type of project and could not delegate it; they therefore had to dedicate local planning and economic development to the general public interest and therefore create a private company to manage contracts and create partnerships with a political dimension at the heart of this structure. The objective of the SAEM is therefore based on a subtle balance between an economic and a political dimension. Today, urban planning is part of a relatively relevant project as it promotes fundamental neutrality, protects the general interest of all of the parties involved and opens the way towards a broadened ownership.

2. There are references to a digital platform and service offers for companies: what services do you offer companies? To what kind of companies? What is the benefit of this service offer for the region?

Castres-Mazamet's digital platform allows for access to the new generation, very high speed network (optical fibers). This is its foundation and core activity. This access is provided directly by INTERMEDIASUD or indirectly by operators. The word "company" must be understood in its broadest sense (including hospitals, town halls ...). The platform also allows for highly secure Internet access at the best value for money ratio possible. This is about an "immaterial economy" as opposed to the industrial economy. At times, 80% of the added value created is generated by immaterial services. For example, the manufacturing of a car requires, amongst other things, sheet metal, but also immaterial services (management of logistics, marketing …). Today, in a global context, the raw material of immaterial services is an IP (Internet Protocol), like coal and oil are raw materials for the industrial economy. These are virtual objects (the Internet) and this protocol allows for the existence of the Internet. The condition underlying access to raw materials requires the application of this protocol and therefore the most competitive Internet access possible (a criterion taken into account during the study and to determine the competitiveness of the service provided) in comparison to what is done elsewhere in France and in Europe. The importance of Internet access to manage production and the economy can be compared to a gas pipeline.
The digital platform is therefore a virtual infrastructure (Internet) that allows for a service offer linking the infrastructure and infostructure and constitutes an advantage for the region that can position itself as one of the best equipped and most competitive in France.

3. What is a GIX feature?

The GIX is an open management consortium (there is no supreme “high authority” to govern interconnections) that allows for the management of Internet access and the interconnection of the various players who own the network. The idea is to create interconnection points with the worldwide Internet network on a European scale (a “continental plate”) and a national scale (the “regional plate”).
The GIX is a place in which major and smaller players interconnect and barter (borrowing the network, for example). The major players (referred to as carriers) hold 80% of the networks, mainly Americans who have invested in the backbone (metropolitan networks). The GIX Global Internet Exchange may be seen as a worldwide Internet exchange forum. The teleport allows for access to the raw materials (IP) and hookups to the GIX.
In France, the GIX is located in Paris. The Castres-Mazamet teleport has an MIX (Metropolitan Internet Exchange) that links a local network to international networks. SAEM INTERMEDIASUD owns a local network (infrastructure), provides engineering and a local market place to fluidify exchanges between purchasers and providers.

4. After 10 years of development (services, infrastructures ...) leading to a service economy based on new technologies, which has grown in the region and "département", what is happening within the digital structure in Castres-Mazamet today? What actions could the Castres-Mazamet Technopole undertake in this direction? What could SAEM INTERMEDIA SUD contribute in this regard?

After 10 years, the Castres-Mazamet digital structure finally exists. It is important to reiterate that in terms of infrastructure and infostructure, the probability of creating something in this area was rather unlikely given the declining industrial environment (remember that the players had travelled to observe new generation networks in Silicon Valley, Toronto and Stockholm). Ten years later, the digital structure is finally a reality. Initially, it seemed easy to bury the optical fibers, but more difficult to convince others of the usefulness of optical fibers. (Toulouse still did not have optical fibers and the investment represented 24 million francs.) The implementation of the infostructure layer and the IP part were more difficult, as skills and approvals were needed, and especially the ability to process the first Internet flows. Indeed, optical fibers are not just an investment; they are something that is “built”, like credibility, and require time and the presence of a team of technicians. All of the components of a digital structure are in place: the infrastructure, a place for exchanges, a market place and added value. For example, the IBP project: a highly strategic project entrusted to INTERMEDIASUD thanks to the credibility it has established. The digital structure symbolizes the completion of a strategic and operational plan and has been certified as being in the public interest (information highways). The digital structure contributes to the development of the existing economy (Caplasser, CCL, Maurel for traditional activities), attracts new investors involved in immaterial goods and services, and is the only infrastructure of this type in the region.
As this installation is located in the heart of the Technopole, the digital structure represents a highly strategic element, in particular in the field of prospecting and services, from assistance to innovation (it accelerates innovation). The digital structure is a fabulous tool in a context of conquering new markets, an essential element for productivity, whether one manufactures cars, sells eggs or runs a new technology or computer company, as the networks run transversally through every type of activity.
The Technopole must expand over a broader geography than Castres-Mazamet and the digital structure must support this development in a context that covers at least the region, in particular in the context of competitiveness clusters.
The Castres-Mazamet Technopole manages a tool that can accelerate innovation and could therefore extend its geographic coverage and participate in the development of shared projects. The CISEC project should be mentioned, in which INTERMEDIASUD will play a crucial role that it will continue to play decisively in the project management phase.  The projects must be led based on a political will and economic discipline in order to reconcile profitability and the public interest. This profitability should allow for reinvestment into other projects.

5. “Castres-Mazamet, innovation in an industrial zone”.

Innovation in Castres-Mazamet is not just technological innovation or innovation in research. It also means innovation related to services and the transfer of technology to other traditional industrial sectors. Can you describe the example of Pierre BENNE (automation)?

BENNE SA is the first SME client to have seen the benefit of optical fibers in managing its two production units. BENNE SA is a traditional industrial environment (manufacturing of conveyers and coppersmithing, but has also fully adopted innovation and new technologies (laser cutting, network connections with its office). BENNE SA means innovation at the service of industrial production. 


Installation and facilities services for companies connected to the unique digital platform in the Midi-Pyrénées.