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Sopra Steria

Sopra Steria: The Major French Software Consulting Service Company.

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Sopra Steria Group is a France-based software consulting service company, with its service offices established in different parts of the world. With 50 plus years of experience, Sopra Steria has been offering its in-depth knowledge to companies that require software solutions for their growth. The company follows the motto of “Delivering Transformation Together” and has been making means of IT to offer its customers the best possible services. It is known for its IT consulting and management service along with its banking and HR software solutions.

A Brief Introduction

Sopra Steria is a management consulting and software solution firm that deals in three major categories; Sopra Steria Consulting, Sopra Banking Software, and Sopra HR software. The company has clients all over the world and has established dedicated offices in different parts of the globe to assist its international clients better. As of 2020, the recorded company revenue was €4.262 billion. The total number of employees working globally for the company is 46,000. The company’s headquarter is located in Paris, France.

The Foundational Story of Sopra Steria

Sopra Steria is a resultant of the merger of two big IT companies, Sopra and Steria. The merger took place in 2014, before that, Sopra was an independent IT service company founded in 1968. On the other hand, Steria also came into being in 1969, a year after Sopra.

After its inception in 1972, Sopra came with its first banking platform. Eventually, the platform became very popular and helped Sopra make its name in the IT service industry. In 1986, the company won a contract from the French Ministry of the Interior for another major IT project. In 1990, the company was listed on the Paris stock exchange. In the next ten years, Sopra started to expand to other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Italy, and Spain. During the same time, Sopra introduced its new and powerful management software known as EVOLAN suite.

Sopra Steria
Image Source: consultancy.uk

Starting from 2000, the company went on to acquire some of the consulting firms based in different countries to expand its operations. These firms include names like Orga Consultants, Inforsud Ingénierie, Viewlocity, Cyclone Commerce, and Tumbleweed Communications, etc. In 2005, Sopra established its various centers in Europe and India. In the year 2014, Sopra partnered with La Banque Postale to build a new revamped banking software.

The Back History of Steria

Steria as mentioned before was founded a year after Sopra. The company introduced its first software a text processing system in 1973, to enable Agence France-Presse to computerize its all operations. By the year 1981, the company had launched some other software as well including Minitel. With Steria’s automation project, the company entered into the transport and mobility industry in 1987.

In 1994, Steria created a banking system for the French banks to carry out interbank payments. The company entered the Indian market after it acquired the IIS Infotech based in Delhi in 1997. In 1999, Steria went public on the Paris stock exchange. The year 2000 onwards were great for the company as it acquired a few major consulting businesses in France, including Experian, Tecsi, Equip. Its international acquisitions of that time include Mummert Consulting, Newell & Budge, Xansa, and PROFit. Steria, in 2007, won the biggest national project from the French Ministry of Finance.

The Merger

On 8 April 2014, Sopra and Steria announced that they have come together to form the Sopra Steria Group. The two announced that both have joined their hands as they intend to become the European leader in digital services. The merger was completed on 31 December 2014. The deal was the exchange of one Sopra share for four Steria shares, and the group ultimately was called the Sopra Steria Group.

The CEO: Vincent Paris

Vincent Paris is serving as the CEO of Sopra Steria Group. He has a long history with the Sopra Group, as he joined the Sopra Group in 1987, soon after he graduated from the prestigious École Polytechnique. Since then, Paris has served the company in several different leadership positions. Before becoming the CEO of Sopra Steria Group, he handled the important posts of Director of French operations and Deputy CEO of Sopra. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the company for the past ten years.

ROHM

ROHM: The Resistor Pioneer and Leader of the Semiconductor Industry.

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ROHM is a well-known semiconductor industry leader with its roots in Japan. The company started its journey by registering its first patent for a breakthrough utility model called a ‘parallel lead-type fixed resistor’ in 1958, and today it is credited for hundreds of such patents. The company has covered a huge gap so far, and presently, it is one of the major manufacturers and marketers of semiconductor products. Today, the company is expanded to most of the major countries in the world, and as of 2017, 21,308 employees are working for the company globally.

Establishment of ROHM

Initially, ROHM Semiconductors started as Toyo Electronics Industry Corporation, a small electronic parts manufacturing company, in 1958. The company was founded by Kenichiro Sato in Japan. Toyo Electronics was into manufacturing resistors, transistors, and other electronic equipment.

In 1962, ROHM started to manufacture the automatic resistor assembly machine in-house, and the next year, it started to market and develop metal-firm resistors. In 1966, the company was rebranded as ROHM Wako Co., Ltd. With the new name, the company started to manufacture transistors and switching diode, and by the end of the 60s, it also began to work on ICs. The company established its other divisions, including ROHM Apollo Co., Ltd., and ROHM Logistec Co., Ltd., to focus on the new technologies coming.

In 1970, ROHM became the first company in Japan to establish a subsidiary in the U.S. The company started its sales office and an IC design center in Silicon Valley. The said center became the place for the company where it was doing the research work and was developing the ICs. After this expansion, ROHM also entered Asian countries like South Korea, Hong Kong and established ROHM Electronics Asia Pte. Ltd. ROHM also began to invest in LEDs, square-plante chip resistors, rectifying diodes, and network resistors in the same decade.

ROHM
Image Source: upload.wikimedia.org

In 1981, the name of the company was officially changed from Toyo Electronics Industry Corporation to ROHM Co., Ltd. The company also published the “Asian Music”, where it recorded tapes of all volumes. In 1983, the company was listed on the Osaka Security Exchange for the first time. The arrival of Zener diodes and digital transistors in the mid-80s provided ROHM to explore new opportunities.

ROHM became the first company in the world to successfully complete its experiments using the laser diodes with MBE methodology, in 1984. The next year, the company developed its first 4-bit and 8-bit microcontrollers using original CPUs. In 1986, the company listed on the First Section of the Osaka Stock Exchange, and in 1989, it was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It also established the Research and Development Center in 1986. By this time, the company was working on new memory ICs, capacitors as well as liquid crystal process technology. It also established a manufacturing plant in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, the U.K., and Taiwan by the end of the decade.

Growth of the Company

In 1991, the company launched the ROHM Music Foundation. In the next two years, the company was making and marketing the large size LCD public displays and had obtained the ISO9001 certification. In 1995, ROHM partnered with Zycad Corporation of the United States to develop a 100,000 gate FPGA using flash technology. The company opened the VLSI Research Center in 1998. The same year, ROHM started to develop the Dual-Cell system EEPROM and highly reliable Schottky barrier diodes. In 1999, ROHM established its technology centers in Kyoto and Hong Kong. It also started to develop ICs for mobile phones in the same year.

In 2000, ROHM came with a revolutionary concept in system LSI design technology, named REAL SOCKET™, and established the Europe Technology Center. In 2003, the company brought a new platform design environment for the system LSI, naming it the REAL PLATFORM, and in 2006, the company developed the ultra-compact LED “PICOLEDTM. It introduced the world’s first IEEE802.1X-compatible baseband IC for wireless LAN applications in 2007.

In 2010, ROHM introduced the world’s first laser diode to control the beam direction. The next year, the company entered the Indian and the Brazilian markets. In 2012, ROHM was mass-producing the full SiC power modules, LDO regulators, the world’s smallest transistor package, and the industry’s first SiC MOS module with no Schottky barrier diode. In 2013, ROHM partnered with Intel to build a low power consumption power management IC to be used in Intel’s next-generation Atom™ processors.

In the next five years, ROHM developed the industry’s smallest transistors, the first Wi-SUN-compatible universal wireless communication module, the world’s first automotive LDO regulators, and the world’s first trench-type SiC MOSFET.

The Founder: Kenichiro Sato

ROHM was founded by Kenichiro Sato in 1958 in Japan. Sato was born in Tokyo and completed his education at Ritsumeikan University. During his studies, he got to know about resistors and decided to start a resistor manufacturing company. So, he founded the company as Toyo Denki Seisakusho in Kyoto in 1958, while he was still a student.

Apart from making resistors and transistors, Sato was fond of music and was a trained pianist. He even established a music school in 1991 to promote classical music. Sato died at the age of 88 in 2020 after suffering from a long-going illness.

The CEO: Isao Matsumoto

Isao Matsumoto is the serving President and Chief Executive Officer of ROHM as of 2020. Matsumoto had joined the company in 1985 and has been working in different positions and roles for the past 35 years. Before becoming the CEO, he was working as the Director and the Managing Executive Officer of ROHM. He has also been a member of the ROHM board for past many years.

Vivo

Vivo: The Dominators of Global Affordable Smartphone Industry

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The smartphone is one of the most innovative discoveries of humankind. It won’t be wrong if we call a smartphone a mini-computer, as it can do almost everything a computer can do. Today, from entertainment to business and from connecting with people to studying online, everything is possible through this small and handy gadget. Though smartphones could only be a thing for the Rich, due the companies like Vivo, people from every category have been able to get their hands on them. The company is known for its feature-rich yet affordable smartphones and is one of the most loved smartphone manufacturing companies across the globe.

A Brief Introduction

Vivo is a Chinese Android smartphone manufacturing company that is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics and was founded by Shen Wei in 2009. It is the sister company of Oppo and OnePlus. The company’s headquarter is located in Dongguan, Guangdong, and it is one of the leading smartphone companies in the world that manufactures affordable to mid-range smartphones. Apart from smartphones, Vivo also is the mass producer of smartphone accessories, software, and online services. Vivo’s mobile applications are widely available on its dedicated V-Appstore, and its smartphones also run on the Funtouch OS.

The Back Story of Vivo

Vivo, as mentioned earlier, is a subsidiary of BBK electronics, which came into being with the emergence of smartphone technology around the world in 2009. The company continued to serve its Chinese audience for around 3-4 years of its founding, and in 2014, by entering Thailand for the first time, it started to expand overseas. The company offered innovative designs and features incorporated into its smartphones that made Vivo smartphones quite popular among its global audience in no time.

Vivo
Image Source: ohsem.me

By 2015, the company had reached major Asian countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam, etc. The same year, Vivo had sold 45 million units of smartphones worldwide, whereas it was producing 60 million pieces annually. In the year 2017, Vivo also started its expansion in the European countries starting from Russia.

Vivo is credited for bringing the first slimmest smartphone in 2014 and also for becoming the first smartphone company to incorporate a Hi-Fi chip into a smartphone (the Vivo X1) in 2012. The company also entered the U.S. market with the brand name BLU. In 2019, the company had become the second-best smartphone company in India. Apart from smartphone manufacturing, the company is also one of the sponsors of the Indian Premier League (IPL), UEFA, India’s Pro Kabaddi, and FIFA.

The Key People at Vivo

Shen Wei is credited as the founder of Vivo, who is also the disciple of the founder of BBK Electronics, Duan Yongping. From the time of the founding of Vivo, Wei has been serving the company as its CEO as well as the President. Before serving as the CEO of Vivo, Shen was working for BBK Electronics. According to Duan, it was never his plan to start a dedicated smartphone company, but after the demand for affordable smartphones started, BBK had to enter the competition. Today, BBK trades as the smartphone seller with its subsidiaries Vivo, Realme, OnePlus, and Oppo.

The Company Today

Vivo has its dedicated R&D centers established in Dongguan, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Nanjing, and around 3,000 engineers are working at those centers. Apart from that,  around 10,000 employees are serving the company globally and till now, Vivo is actively providing its services in over 100 countries. Vivo has continued to follow its ritual to introduce new smartphone models every year, such that it remains relevant in the changing smartphone market. The company with its innovation grown to become a leading name in the smartphone industry and is one major contributor to the growth of its parent company BBK Electronics, too.

NortonLifeLock

NortonLifeLock – An American company well known for Cybersecurity Services.

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NortonLifeLock is a cybersecurity company that is empowering people by protecting their digital life. The company uses cutting-edge technology to build online security software to reduce the emerging rates of cyber threats. In 1982, Gary Hendrix founded the company which is now based in Arizona, US. NortonLifeLock is one of the Fortune 500 companies and in India, it has its presence in Pune, Chennai, and Bangalore. This year, NortonLifeLock made it into the Fast Company’s Annual List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Since the origin of the company started almost forty years from now, let’s have a look into it.

Establishing Symantec Corporation

When Gary Hendrix founded the company back in 1982 it was known as Symantec. He founded the company with help of a National Science Foundation grant and he hired several natural language processing researchers as a few of his first employees. Symantec started building projects related to artificial intelligence but a couple of years later they realized the database system they developed could not be ported from DEC minicomputers to the PC.

Since after two years of working Symantec was without any product, another software company called C&E software. After the acquisition, the merged companies decided to keep the brand name Symantec. A new product was developed combining the file management and word processing program of C&E along with an advanced natural language query system that was developed by Gary. The final product was named Q&A and it was rolled out in November 1985.

The sales of Q&A started very slowly but after a successful advertising campaign by the advertising agency Elliott/Dickens, the company started coming on the radar. Next, the company started cutting its expenses and focusing on revenue growth which enabled the company to break even. This was one of the breakthroughs of Symantec as the revenue started growing substantially after this event.

Growth of the Company

In 1985, a new division of Symantec was formed which was named Turner Hall Publishing. This division was established to publish third-party software and to diversify the revenue of Symantec. Soon the second product of the company was developed which was a 256k RAM initially released to increase the memory of Q&A. In 1987, the company completed its first merger by acquiring Breakthrough Software followed by acquiring Peter Norton Computing in 1990. Even today, the consumer antivirus and data management utilities of Symantec are still released under the name of Norton. During the time of the merger, Symantec has released Symantec Antivirus for Macintosh and Symantec Utilities for the Macintosh in the market.

NortonLifeLock
Image Source: channele2e.com

It was one year before acquiring Norton that the company started developing a DOS-based antivirus program because it thought the antivirus market was growing and a lot of new work was going on in this branch. The Norton antivirus was a big success as by the end of 1993 Norton product group revenues added up to 82% of total Symantec revenue. Though Symantec was also known for its development tools, the company exited that section of business due to strong new competitors gaining rapid market control.

Symantec in 21st Century

In the 21st century, Symantec’s share of the market increased dramatically as the company acquired Verisign’s Certificate Authority business. In 2013, Symantec went through a major corporate reorganization with the major goal of cost reduction and improving Symantec’s product line. In 2016, the company introduced a new product called the Symantec anomaly detection for automotive which was an ML-based software providing in-vehicle security analysis. The same year, the company intended to acquire LifeLock for $2.3 billion. A couple of years ago Broadcom announced that it would acquire Symantec for $10.7 billion. After the deal was closed the name of the company was changed to NortonLifeLock.

About the Founder

Gary Hendrix is a well-known American businessman who became largely famous after founding Symantec Corporation. Gary received his undergraduate education from the University of Texas and it was then he wrote several papers on robotics and planning. His quality work got him an opportunity to work at SRI international. After working at SRI for several years he left the company with a few of his colleagues to start a venture of their own. In the beginning, their first attempt was a total failure but eventually, Gary founded Symantec Corporation which is part of a bigger corporation today.

Tokyo Electron

Tokyo Electron: A 57-years old Japanese Semiconductor Company leading in Asia.

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Tokyo Electron Limited, mostly known as TEL was founded in 1963. The company then was established as Tokyo Electron Laboratories. Present day TEL is based on Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. The founder of the company is Tokuo Kubo. TEL currently serves Japan, China, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, North America, and Europe. Tokyo Electron Group has many subsidiaries which include TEL as well.

In the semiconductor industry, TEL is involved in producing Semiconductor Production Equipment (SPE) for thermal processing, photoresist development, wet surface preparation, material doping, wafer probing, etc. TEL invests a hefty amount in the research and development cell of the company. Some of the company’s leading technology and development centers are situated in Nirasaki, Sendai, Albany, etc. Let’s have a detailed look at the journey of TEL and milestones received in these 57 years.

The Early Age of Tokyo Electron

The company was founded in 1963 as Tokyo Electronic Laboratories with a capital amount of 5 million yen. It was established as an affiliate of the Tokyo Broadcasting System. At this time TEL dealt with the sales and delivery of diffusion furnaces, leak detectors, and IC production systems. After one year of its establishment, it started selling diffusion furnaces manufactured by Thermo Products Corp. In the following years, TEL came into partnership with Fairchild Semiconductor Corp, established Pan Electron Inc, and opened many new branches of the company.

Tokyo Electron
Image Source: tel.com

In the 1970s, many new subsidiaries of TEL were established like TEL Engineering Inc, TEL America, Tokyo Process Development Inc, etc. In 1973, TEL opened its first European office and in the following year, it received an award from Fairchild Semiconductor Corp as TEL expanded the sales of their IC testers. Till now the company was involved in the production and export of consumer electronic goods but in 1975 TEL withdrew from it. In 1978, the company was renamed Tokyo Electron Limited and established Japan’s first IC test center.

Growth and Expansion

The next decade started with TEL receiving the Noda Institute of Economic Research Excellence Management Award and getting listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In 1982, the company established Central Research Laboratory and a few new subsidiaries in Japan. From 1983 the company was in the number 4 position in Nikkei Excellent Companies Ranking for three consecutive years. After a year TEL was listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and by the end of the decade, it was among the top companies in terms of sales in the semiconductor industry.

In the next ten years, many more subsidiaries of the company were developed such as Tokyo Electron Device Ltd, Tokyo Electron Saga Ltd, etc. In 1994, the company shipped its first single-wafer CVD system. The company expanded its many subsidiaries in Massachusetts, Phoenix, Texas, Arizona, Israeli, etc. In 1999, TEL received the Annual Award for Excellence in Disclosure from Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Digital Era

With the advent of the digital era, TEL formulated its new corporate message as “People. Technology. Commitments. ” TEL acquired Supercritical Systems Inc and Timbre Technologies Inc in 2000 and 2001 respectively. In 2003, TEL received the Prime Minister’s award for its excellent contribution to Industry-Academia-Government collaboration. In 2008, TEL received the  Intellectual Property Achievement Award. Next year, the company entered a new sector of photovoltaic production business after acquiring Swiss Oerlikon Solar.

In 2011, Tokyo Electron Scholarship was launched at Peking University. The same year TEL was named as one of the world’s most sustainable companies. In 2014, the company’s single wafer cleaning system, CELLESTA won “Semiconductor of the year 2014.” In 2018, the company made it into the list of Top 100 Global Tech Leaders by Thomson Reuters. Last year, the company was recognized as “Most Honored Company” in the All-Japan Executive Team Rankings for five years in succession.

CEO of Tokyo Electron

Tetsuro Higashi has been working at Tokyo Electron for 42 years from 1977 to 2019. He contributed immensely in TEL and for his vivid contributions in both TEL and the semiconductor industry, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star Award in the 2020 Spring Conferment of Decorations. The position of Tetsuro Higashi in TEL was offered to Toshiki Kawai as he became the President and CEO of TEL in 2016.

Himax Technologies

Himax Technologies – A company gaining rapid momentum in the semiconductor industry.

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The semiconductor industry is worth more than $450 billion in today’s market. With every passing day, the demand for the semiconductor industry reaches new heights as the demand for powerful and fast electronic gadgets increases. The semiconductor industry is the main provider of some key components for computers, smartphones, television, game consoles, cars, etc. So, if the demand increases or the market expands for the electronic companies it will positively affect the semiconductor industry as well.

One such semiconductor company that has been booming in recent years is Himax Technologies. It is one of the leading suppliers and fabless semiconductor manufacturers that supply across the globe. The company is based in the Tainan city of Taiwan. Founded in June 2001 by Biing-Seng Wu and Jordan Wu, the company has grown massively in recent years and has become one of the prime suppliers of display drivers and timing controllers that are used in a broad range of electronic devices.

A Brief Introduction

Himax Technologies is a company in the semiconductor industry that mainly focuses on providing solutions to display image processing technologies. The display driver ICs and the timing controllers that are produced by Himax are shipped worldwide for television, mobile phones, virtual reality (VR), digital cameras, tablets, etc production.

Himax Technologies
Image Source: himax.com.tw

This 20-years old company has around 2000 employees with foreign offices in China, Korea, Japan, and the US. With more than 3000 patents, Himax has established itself as a leading provider of display image processing solutions for worldwide customers (electronic brands). So, let’s have a look at the variety of solutions provided by Himax.

Solutions by Himax Technologies

Apart from display drivers and timing controllers, Himax Technologies also provides controllers for touch-sensor displays. Some of them are on-call Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) single-chip solutions, LED drivers, LCOS microdisplays for augmented reality (AR), etc.

For digital cameras, the company offers CMOS image sensors and wafer level optics which are also used in mobile phones and laptops. The sensors are also used in camera security systems in many companies. Some of the other major solutions offered by Himax are Monitor and Projector Scalars, Infinity Color Technologies, 3D Color Engine, MEMS Microdisplays, and Controllers ICs, etc.

Keeping up with time, Himax Technologies has recently joined hands with Edge Impulse to provide a better user experience by deploying machine learning (ML) models in Himax AI processors and Google Tensorflow Lite Microcontrollers framework. These products will operate at ultra-low power and Edge Impulse is helping Himax to simplify the creation of neural networks.

Sustainability in the Company

When it comes to a sustainable approach in business, Himax Technologies is on top of the semiconductor industry. Following the current trends and crises worldwide, Himax also uses an energy-saving and waste reduction approach in day-to-day operation. The company strongly believes in sustainable growth thus providing economic, social, and environmental benefits to its workforce. Himax emphasizes designing products in such a way that it reduces pollution and the product itself should operate in low energy. It also invests a major amount in R&D to develop more green products thus minimizing the impact on our environment.

The Founders: Biing-Seng Wu and Jordan Wu

Biing-Seng Wu completed his studies at National Cheng Kung University who worked in a few companies before founding Himax Himax Technologies. He served as the executive vice president of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp for four years and currently the Chairman of Himax. Jordan Wu, cofounder of Himax Technologies Ltd is currently serving as the CEO of the same.

Recent crisis in Himax

It will be wrong to say that the crisis is only limited to Himax. The origin of a small crisis in Himax has put the business of electronic brands around the world in jeopardy as well. As mentioned earlier, Himax Technologies produces display drivers and timing controllers as two of their major solutions. But in recent days especially from the onset of COVID-19, an understandable miscalculation has led to a shortage of display drivers in the entire semiconductor industry.

The demand is rising rapidly as the display drivers are used in laptops, cars, game consoles, television’s, smartphones, etc and there is no way Himax can meet the demand even after pushing its entire workforce to the fullest. And, due to this shortage, the price of display drivers and hence the electronics are rising sharply. Though the company is making huge profits, Jordan Wu mentioned in a statement that they are not able to meet the demands of the entire customer base and hence remain unsatisfied.