We're very happy to announce that Casablanca Stock Exchange listed MICRODATA S.A. joined the SENSIBLE Alliance today as the Alliance's first member in the EMEA region.Since 1991, MICRODATA helps its customers benefit from innovating technologies with a complete portfolio of infrastructure-related solutions and best-in-class services provided by the company's 10 technical centers (all Dell EMC, HP and Lenovo Certified) located across the Moroccan kingdom. Virtualization, advanced cloud computing and secured mobility are among today's main subjects, which paves the way towards the ICT community's holy grail, namely the Software-Defined Datacenter. This is especially important as the activities of MICRODATA's main customers - major banks and financial institutions, telecom operators... - require scalable and flexible operation with 24/7 availability. Helping the Moroccan government with the modernization of its information systems is also one of MICRODATA's company-wide projects, for a better and faster transition to modern public services.In this context, LEXISTEMS' Sensible Solutions are just a perfect addition to MICRODATA's offering. They bring in the added value of meaning-based data and voice technologies, allow sensitive information to be protected from GAFAMs predation and contribute to more environmentally responsible AI applications, from modeling to inference. The opportunities to build great things together are countless. We're starting now.

Since 2004, the ESWC (Extended Semantic Web Conference) has become a major venue for discussing the latest scientific results and technology innovations around semantic technologies. The goal of the community is to create knowledge and services in which content's semantics is made explicit and linked to other content and services. This network of information-based functionalities weaves together virtually unlimited sources of human knowledge. An by making knowledge algorithmically processable, it allows intelligent behaviour by machines and matching between users needs and information.In other words, one of LEXISTEMS' core commitments: A more human digital world by bridging the gap between people and data.In the paper, Thomas and co-author Fabian M. Suchanek (a full professor at Télécom Paris University in France) explore ways to use advances in neural network research in order to improve the automated correction of constraint violations. In particular, the suggested system makes use of graph content, literal embeddings and features extracted from Web pages to improve its performance, with experimental evaluation on Wikidata showing significant improvements over baselines. Bravo Thomas and Fabian, on behalf of all the engineering team here at LEXISTEMS.

In addition to making great technological strides forward, LEXISTEMS announced very solid financial results for the past year, despite a high degree of global business slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Revenues have grown 145% year-over-year, from 2019 revenues that already marked a 50% increase compared to 2018. Gross margin is up 50%, a remarkable achievement, with Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) up 20%.One of the most interesting metrics for a startup like LEXISTEMS is the net earnings. At a slightly above industry average 12% this year, the "bottom line" would reach way beyond 20% without the significant investments we decided to make in compute resources and R&I efforts. On the one hand, as a proudly GAFAMs-free AI innovator, we're committed to having our own infrastructure end-to-end for engineering and production, which guarantees total security for both our customers' data assets and our own intellectual property. On the other hand, with an ambitious roadmap for the next 5 years, we dedicated an exceptional percentage of our resources to finalizing core technologies that will give birth to truly disruptive business-oriented solutions from market and usage standpoints.In conclusion, these cool numbers prove that growth did not impact LEXISTEMS' notorious agility, which we owe first and foremost to a unique team of world-class engineers and business people on 4 continents. Considering the promising debut of LEXISTEMS' SENSIBLE Alliance and the upcoming fruition of a number of ongoing R&I + R&D efforts, the horizon ahead of us has never seemed brighter. A great Thank you for everyone's energy.

With its slogan - "Banking as a driver of economic growth 2021" - La Convención Bancaria número 84 clearly shows its intention: to continue fostering the digital transformation of Mexico's banking industry towards world-class efficiency and profitability, for the benefit of every Mexican. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Convention had a virtual edition where prominent industry players had spacious 3D booths with upcale decoration and contemporary furniture. 2,500 attendees attended - way more than expected - which demonstrates again how dynamic the finance community is in this beautiful country.As a major supplier of banking solutions all over Mexico, SYMETRY SA de CV, one of the most recent Members of LEXISTEMS' SENSIBLE Alliance, was there with an impressive portfolio of cutting-edge solutions for most if not all of the banking value chain. Among these, LEXISTEMS' technologies were this year clearly exhibited, among which SensibleData for the search, connection and analysis of data by meaning, the officially forthcoming SensiblePrivacy (for customer data anonymization and the enforcement of data privacy regulations by meaning), as well as the also officially forthcoming SensibleSpeech, a very high performance and 100% GAFAMs-free speech recognition system that can be totally device-embedded (as in no network required). Symetry and LEXISTEMS will do great things together. More coming up.

Founded in 1994 with 100% Mexican capital, SYMETRY SA de CV is a leading Mexican company with a high degree of specialization in the commercialization, development, integration and support of solutions for the banking, financial services, retail, education and government industries. SYMETRY's contribution to the financial industry in Mexico ranges from the massive implementation of barcodes that shaped the automation of service payments, the safe and efficient reading of checks, the implementation of mobile terminals, the successful implementation of automatic payment processes, the first independent check digitization and clearing systems in the Americas, and the creation of new security factors in the operation of bank windows and remote treasuries.For all parties involved, the arrival of SYMETRY within LEXISTEMS' SENSIBLE Alliance means manyfold benefits. The addition of the Mexican market to the Alliance's global reach - as well as the reciprocal addition of other Latin America markets to SYMETRY's - is further strengthened by the addition of SYMETRY's vertical R&I and R&D resources to ours. That is a textbook case of win-win partnership. In the name of all Members within the Alliance, we warmly welcome SYMETRY among us.

As part of LEXISTEMS' SENSIBLE Alliance, The LEXISTEMS University is the place - most often virtual even though LEXISTEMS is a registered training center - where LEXISTEMS delivers flexible training to our Allies worldwide. Training is available across LEXISTEMS' portfolio of solutions and technologies, as well as on broader related topics, to help Alliance companies and their personnel acquire a certified expertise in areas that align to their business and personal objectives. Managers, engineers and salespeople can complete different combinations of training programs while or prior to Alliance status progressing, which benefits everyone.And today is a great day: the University's first 30 trainees received their first Certificates of Achievement, for a global Pre-sales Support course that was full of practical experiments and interactive exchanges. The LEXISTEMS University's Certificates come within their LEXISTEMS blue glass frame. They're adorned by an embossed golden seal, officialized by a unique number and will be published online so that recipients can prove their level of certification.A more technical syllabus is currently being prepared in alignment with LEXISTEMS' roadmap of forthcoming solutions releases, which will help Alliance Members better prepare for the integration and distribution of these new technologies within their own products and among their customer base. Stay tuned for more and if you don't know about the SENSIBLE Alliance yet, now is a good time to check it out!

LEXISTEMS LLC was officially incorporated today, in Newark, DE. For LEXISTEMS and our partners in the SENSIBLE Alliance, this is an important step forward. In addition to marking a decisive milestone in our international development, our corporate presence in the USA enables us to provide pre-sales and technical assistance to our partners in the Americas (from Canada to Patagonia...) with more locality and a reduced time difference. Fluidity and seamlessness continue to be our focus to bolster the Alliance's efficiency.

"As part of our societal reponsibility, sponsoring one of the most iconic Animal Protection Societies makes us all both proud and happy. Giving back some of the love we keep receiving is just who we are as people and an organization". Thus spoke Frederic Milliot, LEXISTEMS' Co-founder and CTO, when personally finalizing the agreement with the FBB.The Brigitte Bardot Foundation (La Fondation Brigitte Bardot) was launched by Bardot in Saint-Tropez, in 1986, where she auctioned her jewellery and other personal possessions to raise 3 million French francs for her campaigns and activities. In 1991, Bardot donated her Saint-Tropez property, La Madrague, to the foundation so as to raise the capital required to obtain a declaration of public utility. The declaration was granted in 1992 by the French government. In 1995, the Dalai Lama became an honorary member of the foundation. It now counts around 100,000 other members and is regularly associated with other famous organizations such as Paul Watson's Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in operations of endangedered species preservation around the globe.

After 6 years of existence, the Be a Boss contest is one of France's reference events regarding women's entrepreneurship: 5 regional legs and a final in Paris in which women CEOs of all industries participate, not only tech startups. As an organization, Be a Boss' objective is triple: to boost entrepreneurship ambition among women, to identify the next big regional and national things, and to promote the most promising companies through awards and support programs.This year, among a turnover of more than 1,000 contenders, LEXISTEMS CEO Marie Granier was invited to compete, starting with France's Western Region round that took place in Nantes. After a series of keynotes and a semi-final featuring the seven best pitches, Marie was declared cowinner with Gabrielle Rodier, CEO of Switch Up, an innovative Business Mobility platform. Granier defended the case of data processing by meaning - LEXISTEMS' core technology - which earned her a majority (maybe all?) of the jurors' vote. Cowinning is part of the contest organization: each region sends two representatives to the final that will take place some day in Paris, depending on the COVID-19 situation. LEXISTEMS was also awarded 30 k€ in national advertising space and a premium access to BPI financing programs. Thanks, Be a Boss!

How to make an organization's data and documents assets a sustainable source of profits, enhanced agility, competitive performance and customer satisfaction? How to make that automatic and non-disruptive from a processes standpoint? And how to make that cost-effective in a context of data deluge? This multi-dimensional objective, the very one faced by most businesses large and small, is the topic of a white paper published jointly by NetApp®, LEXISTEMS and APY Groupe.Short and insightful, this is a sort of position paper. It defends the idea that, if chosen well, today's most advanced technologies - hard and soft - easily combine into simple, practical solutions that reveal and unleash the full power of data. The secret? Smart AI at all relevant levels. Optimized data access and delivery (across all kinds of architectures) plus meaning-based understanding of users queries and data content equals organizational empowerment. The demand may be challenging, the answer is both logical and straightforward.The white paper is free to download (no form to fill, no annoying follow-up) in English and, for those lucky enough to read such a great language, in French as well. Happy reading!

While Vegas' Golden Knights unexpectedly lost 3-4 to Pittsburgh's Penguins in a much attended NHL home game, CES 2020 was the occasion for LEXISTEMS to demonstrate SensibleTV's new unique features to Altice Group, Orange, Comcast, Netflix, Disney and other major players in the M&E industry.In addition to meaning-based, conversational AI-models in 6 languages (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish), which gives LEXISTEMS solutions the ability to *really* understand people the way they speak, SensibleTV also showed off its fully GDPR-compliant unified interface (at the color and branding of a fictional telco) for TV programs, VOD contents and additional telco services. Full context management, total compatibility with Amazon's and Google's assistants, the possibility to offload part of the AI inference on the devices (STBs, TVs, etc.) as well as the ability to deploy and scale the solution entirely on a telco's infrastructure proved the most recurrent show stoppers. Be ready for SensibleTV in your home very soon...

It is not unusual for Leyton, the international consultancy specialized in government funding and support for innovation, to invite high potential customers to privilege events. But this time the occasion was very special: Leyton (the racing boat) was taking the start of the 2019 "Transat Jacques Vabre" from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia, and Leyton (the Board of Directors) had chartered a yacht to cheer and support their famous skippers - Sam Goodchild and Fabien Delahaye - off the virtual start line already high at sea.In addition to an exclusive tour of the 12.2m, 300m² sail area racer prior to the big day, the weekend was the occasion for Leyton and LEXISTEMS to strenghten their relationship, in a networking environment where the business press was also in large representation. LEXISTEMS CEO Marie Granier (and spouse) spent a lot of time with institutional representatives and media directors, which paves to way to more awareness about LEXISTEMS' foreseeable bright future.We decided to wait for the end of the race to release this news. Smart move: Leyton ended second in the Class 40 category, in 18 days and 0 hours, just 8 hours after Crédit Mutuel but with several speed record matches along the way in a constant sail to sail pressure. Un grand Bravo to Goodchild, Delahaye and Leyton!

Same show, 12 months later! One year ago, IBC 2018 saw LEXISTEMS introduce SensibleTV^®, the ultimate vocal interface to search, find and consume TV programs, VOD contents and additional services in true natural language, in several languages. Compared to existing solutions, the leap in performance, simplicity and user empowerment was noticed by the industry, leading to a number of partnerships among worldwide telcos, content providers and middleware designers.A wealth of world's premiere functionalitiesThis year, SensibleTV strengthens its technological advance with 3x more powerful AI models enabling the Graal in user interfaces: full context management and similarity inferences. Let's say you ask SensibleTV a simple question like "Find me the best family flicks with dogs this weekend". You get them instantly, aggregated from your VOD services like Netflix and the channels in your TV plan. Now say "and with cats or bees but not horses". Tada! You get new results, instantly refined, just matching your wishes. Of course, this applies to any kind of program features like actors (or directors, musicians, etc.), channels or services, broadcast time, and so on.Another example of SensibleTV's new superpowers is similarity inference. This serves instant results for queries like "I wanna see the best series like Friends that take place in New-York City". In conjunction with context management, change your mind and ask "or in Los Angeles" then "and like Law and Order". Voilà: you've got what you wanted. It's as simple as that, whatever the language used among those supported by SensibleTV, because SensibleTV works by meaning - not by keywords like its competition does.Fruitful demosThis was demonstrated on Sagemcom's elegant booth with Sagemcom's brand new devices and STBs, in both far-field (ambiant listening) and near-field (user-triggered listening from the remote) modes. Other demonstrations included implementations with or without already installed vocal assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, as well as a prototype SensibleTV mobile app to pilot TV/VOD devices and services from your phone. Which, logically, led to new marks of interest among other majors in the industry, some of whom are currently becoming new LEXISTEMS partners...

Getting the EC's Seal of Excellence is no small feat in itself, but getting it upon initial proposal of a project is something quite rare, especially for a startup. LEXISTEMS is accordingly very proud to receive it for its SensibleTV solution (TV and VOD by Meaning), which is thereby deemed Excellent from both technology and market standpoints, and therefore ready for large-scale commercial deployment all over Europe and beyond.But what exactly is the Seal of Excellence? The Commission presents it as a quality label awarded to the best projects submitted to the EU's "H2020" Research and Innovation programme, in order to help funding bodies take advantage of the programme's highly competitive, 360° Evaluation process. The Seal of Excellence shows political commitment by displaying the signature of the Commissioners. It is digitally sealed against fraud, as is the evaluation summary report.In other words, the Commission recognizes the value of LEXISTEMS SensibleTV and validates the benefits it brings to services and contents providers (Telcos, VOD services...) as well as their end users. In addition to protecting data privacy by design - which is unique on the market - SensibleTV brings real-life understanding to devices, assistants and applications, and therefore true user empowerment in a home entertainment context. That's because SensibleTV is based on LEXISTEMS' Sensible.ai^® technology, which processes data by meaning. Compared to GAFAMs' solutions, which are all based on keywords, SensibleTV is a quantum leap in performance and ease of use, kind of like switching directly from 3G to 5G.

On April 8, 2019, the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on AI presented its Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, following the publication of the Guidelines' first draft in December 2018 on which more than 500 comments were received through an open consultation.Now that the time has come for practicality, LEXISTEMS has been selected by the AI HLEG to participate in shaping the Guidelines' Trustworthy AI Assessment List, and more specifically to help define its application to the Telecommunications & Media sector.This is both a significant institutional recognition and an important cause to defend for LEXISTEMS, whose mission, as publisher of the Sensible.ai^® technology (Data by Meaning), includes a fundamental ethics dimension.In all its products derived from the Sensible.ai technology, LEXISTEMS promotes total data security and privacy by design. In effect, LEXISTEMS solutions, among which SensibleData^® and SensibleTV^®, rely on controllable components and do not hijack users or contents data. At all. They allow customers to run applications on their own premises / infrastructure, thereby preventing any code or data excursion to remote clouds of foreign, national interest-based jurisdiction.Far from just being a market positioning motto, this unique "Ethics by Design" approach carries numerous engineering and industrial requirements. These are precisely what LEXISTEMS intends to submit to the HLEG so that everyone in Europe, and possibly beyond, can rest assured that their everyday AIs are fully respectful of applicable laws and ethical values.