More technically speaking, Autoforms allows a company to model and deploy its business processes using J2EE standards but without having to handle complex application architectures, hence not requiring any advanced Java development knowledge.

Our market, which mainly consists of medium to large enterprises, compels us to supply development and maintenance services in parallel to maximize our potential. We also provide business consulting to help our customers launch e-business projects.

B : What had led you to start your company ? How long have you been on the market?
R.N : We are two founding partners: Marc Salem and myself. We both have an entrepreneurial background and years of experience in software development and consulting.

In 2002, Accenture asked us to develop an E-business project for one of its largest clients in the Middle-East. We then suggested the concept of Autoforms, which would allow us to accelerate the development process and respond efficiently to time and volume constraints. We had the concept in mind long before, however the opportunity to develop it had not materialized until then.

In 2004, three French partners joined the company to consolidate our presence on the European scene and develop its potential. Michel Danon (President ElementN France) was Worldwide Director of Banking Services for General Electric Information Services, and also Vice President of BroadVision Inc. Michel Safi was a consultant at Price Waterhouse Coopers and had successively held the post of director of sales at BroadVision and Egg plc in France. Renaud Houri was GM of BroadVision, France.

B : Who is your competition and what is your advantage ?
R.N : The Business Process Management (BPM) sector, in which we belong, is quite fragmented: most of the players control a chunk of the market which is quite small, compared to the size of the pie as a whole. That’s why even if our competitors are numerous; they pose little threat when considered individually.

Efforts for standardization and consolidation in the market are underway, however the array of products still present diverse functions and attributes. With Autoforms, we are creating a niche at the crossroad of BPM, content management and RAD. By trying to combine those three distinct fields across all E-Business projects, we allow companies to significantly reduce their initial development cost while ensuring optimal reactivity to changes, hence low maintenance cost. Thanks to these attributes, Autoforms has emerged as a pragmatic product, which is comparatively more focused on the actual needs of the client, which translates into higher ROI than competitive products.

To this day, ElementN is still in its start-up phase. Our size does not yet allow us to compete with market leaders. However, our strength stems from our relations. Thanks to our database we have consolidated our presence in the market and we are actively pursuing bigger markets.

B : What are your main markets? Who are your main customers?
R.N : We are present in the Arab Gulf, in France and in Europe in general. We mainly target telecommunications companies, industrial companies and banks. Our client list includes MTC-Vodafone, MTC-Touch, Saudi Telecom, Accenture, Telecom Italia, SACEM, Zajil Telecom, Aramco.

B : How do you assign roles between your local company and the French one?
R.N : Our headquarters are in France. While development takes place in Lebanon, which is at the same time our regional office for the Middle-East.

B : How do you foresee the mid-term and long-term development of your company?
R.N : We are positioned in a sector that has yet to reach its maturity stage. We would like to pursue an innovative development of our product while consolidating our position in fast E-business applications development.

The year 2005 will be a turning point in our European expansion. We are now working on a significant number of large accounts and strategic alliances. We are even considering establishing a development center in Sophia-Antipolis to replace that of Beirut, which will remain our regional office.

B : What is inciting you to settle in the South of France ?
R.N : My reasons are numerous. In a society like ours, we don’t enjoy optimal working conditions: bureaucracy is slow, telecommunication cost high and the cost of living expensive. We are experiencing difficulties in recruiting senior development engineers, which is leading us to look abroad; knowing that the environment in Lebanon is not quite attractive to foreigners. When one is here on a short vacation, one enjoys the stay thanks to the active nightlife, beaches and ski resorts. But when you settle on a permanent basis, you experience certain difficulties such as the lack of cultural activities namely in theater, museums and art centers.

We have to mention that public administration is not making our job easy, knowing that we are creating jobs locally, that we’re bringing our expertise to the table and that almost all our revenues are generated from the export of our know-how.

B : What have incited you to settle in Berytech ?
R.N : We have opted to settle in Lebanon thanks to its geographic proximity to the Arab Gulf and to Europe. Settling in Berytech came as a natural decision, in direct relation to the function of the pole which is ICT, as well as to the optimal hosting conditions it offers. We also had a personal relationship with the management of Berytech dating back to our university years at the Engineering faculty of USJ.

Yann Rotil
Beirut, February 3, 2005