PARTNER TESTIMONIAL

1- Could you briefly introduce yourself: who are you? What is your job ? How long have you been working for ATN Groupe?

 

« I am Patrice Pontarollo, founder and chairman of ATN companies, and have been for 27 years.  »

​

​

​

2- Could you introduce us to ATN Groupe? 

​

"Our adventure began at the dawn of the great Internet revolution. Driven by the conviction of the potential of this then emerging technology and its opportunities, I committed myself to working alongside our customers in this unprecedented digital transformation.

I set up ATN (Agence des Technologies Nouvelles) in Grenoble in 1997, launching it as a full-fledged consultancy and services agency to put digital telecommunications and the Internet at the service of the region's small and medium-sized businesses.

Very quickly, we were confronted with security issues. With the rise of the Internet, the first cyber threats appeared. ATN immediately innovated by designing and developing solutions to optimise Internet access for small and medium-sized businesses, and integrating the first cybersecurity solutions.

​

Customer demands have evolved rapidly, and we've grown by adapting to these changes in a process of continuous innovation to bring the great technological waves to the region's SMEs and SMIs, so that today we have a complete offering, in terms of services, but also in terms of customer products.

All this has obviously been built up over time: first the telecoms, then the servers, then the workstations, and finally all the infrastructure that depends on them. 

To respond to these developments, and to the differing demands of customers, I have launched a number of specialised entities over the years, now grouped together under ATN GROUPE Resadia.

​

In particular, there is the project aspect, which has always been handled by ATN GROUPE and still is. There is also the distribution aspect, which has been taken over by ATN Stores, because it involves other processes, another activity and other types of advice. Then there's the consulting side, which has been segmented so that we can concentrate on pre-sales and audits. Then there's the outsourcing aspect, with a Data Centre operated by ATN Hosting, which enabled us to develop an outsourcing offering even before the arrival of the cloud. Today, ATN Hosting is a division of the company that handles our entire multi-cloud offering and associated services.

​

And finally, 2 years ago we launched our brand new exclusive AaaS service, 'Administrator as a Service', an innovative approach to strengthening the IT teams of SMEs and optimising their infrastructures. We mobilise our team of systems engineers and our network and operations technicians to put their expertise at the service of our customers to guarantee the smooth running of their infrastructures: the administration, operation and support of their IT installations.

​

Organised as a 'one-stop shop' for our customers, we are now a benchmark IT agency: a benchmark for our customers, a benchmark also because we have well-established references, and finally, a benchmark given our approvals and certifications with suppliers. 

The idea at ATN GROUPE is to be an innovative multiservice hub for our customers, with a dominant focus on innovation, because we have always looked for ways to make progress in order to integrate, control and disseminate it to our customers so that they can become more productive, more comfortable and more at ease.

​

As a trusted, local partner, ATN Groupe Resadia is now organised as a resource centre serving SMEs and start-ups in our areas of excellence: infrastructure, multi-cloud, cybersecurity, collaborative working, IT for Green and Green IT. We combine the skills of our 5 complementary areas of expertise to offer packaged solutions and customised services tailored to each of our customers, supporting them at every stage of their projects. 

Today, our main area of development is the Hybrid Cloud. We have expertise in both Cloud and On-Premise, as well as in combining One-Premise with Cloud aspects. 

The second area in which we specialise is cybersecurity. Start-ups, SMEs and ETIs have become the preferred target of cybercriminals. ATN GROUPE provides them with end-to-end support to guarantee solid protection tailored to their organisation.

The third area concerns the deployment of collaborative tools within small and medium-sized enterprises, with a complete range of solutions to guarantee security and cost control.

​

Finally, we have taken the measure of contemporary issues such as the energy and digital transition, governance, the impact on society, the environment and the economy, as well as reducing carbon emissions and corporate sobriety. ATN GROUPE is firmly committed to a sustainable future by promoting Green IT recycling and reconditioning solutions, as well as the IT for Green approach. As a CSR partner to its customers, ATN Groupe mobilises a dynamic ecosystem of start-ups and innovative companies that share common values: technological progress, Green IT, performance and excellence.

We currently employ around twenty people at ATN GROUPE, half of whom are certified engineers and technicians.

​

We are also partners and members of the management committee of the RESADIA group. RESADIA is one of the largest, if not the largest, network of independent partners. We are all independents, ready to work together at national level or on larger markets.

​

To sum up in a few words, ATN GROUPE is today a benchmark IT agency, based in Meylan. We have the resources and a strong ecosystem to enable us to respond effectively to our customers' various requirements."

​

​

​

​

3- Who are your clients?

​

"Our customer ecosystem is made up mainly of SMEs (with a large majority of large SMEs), a number of local authorities, as well as associations and start-ups, whose development we have the pleasure of participating in.

​

It's a very special clientele, but it's also a very interesting one, because there's no 'legacy' as we say: so we can immediately start working on modern, flexible, secure architectures, just the way we like them!"

 

​

​

​

4- What is the added value for your offer?

 

"I usually say with a smile that we have no competitors. We really try to differentiate ourselves, so much so that we have few if any direct competitors. 

First of all, we have a human-scale approach, which sets us apart from the heavy industrial model of many other companies. We have put in place a real approach based on proximity, trust, personalisation and listening. 

​

Our suppliers and customers often tell us that we're always a step ahead of the rest of the market.

We like to seek out emerging technologies that work, and spend time taming them so that they arrive in a fully functional state at our customers' premises. That's another thing that sets us apart from the rest of the market, this constant curiosity and desire to seek out new things rather than sticking with things that are already well established.

​

We don't define ourselves at all as a maintenance company (although we do offer support services), we don't wait for our customers to ask us for changes, but we are proactive in our proposals, always looking for the best return on investment, the greatest comfort and the best value for money for our customers.

In my opinion, these are the most important elements of differentiation, the ones that have enabled ATN Groupe to survive for 27 years, where many of its competitors have not. 

​

It's really in our DNA at ATN GROUPE: to never get too comfortable, and to make sure that we stay that little bit ahead of the market, while sticking to solid, formal and proven practices and processes.

We also work a great deal with the leaders in our market: we are Microsoft certified, we certify with the various security systems such as Stormshield, and so on. 

​

So our added value is not so much in creating something new, but in creating innovative services and support, while at the same time implementing market innovations."

​

​

​

​

5- Do you have any case study to share with us?

​

"We have a lot of customers, but we don't talk about them very much. In fact, we work with SMEs, and even if I say that we have no competitors, there are still some who look at what we do, and 'help themselves' to our technology and our ideas.

​

For this reason, I won't name any customers explicitly. However, I can tell you a bit about some of the clients we work with! 

For example, we've been working with some of our customers since ATN's inception, so we've been cooperating with them for many years. We started working with them on a particular theme or issue (for example, the Internet and routers), and today we work with them on all their issues, i.e. their servers, their customers, security, purchasing, support, etc. We've also worked with them on a number of other issues.

For other customers, we only work on a specific subject: the Cloud, collaboration or distribution.

Very often, we start a collaboration with an audit, and then make proposals on the architecture and processes. In this way, step by step, we succeed in building our customers' confidence so that we can provide them with the one-stop shop I was talking about earlier.

​

Our teams are then proactive in offering our customers the solutions best suited to their needs."