After more than 20 years working in IT, the majority with big vendors like Microsoft or, more recently, Amazon Web Services, Filipe Pais joined LuxProvide in March 2023. “If you ask me how to define myself, I would probably tell you that I'm a builder,” says Pais. “That’s been a constant throughout my career. I like to grab exciting projects where I can have an impact.”

That was one of the attractions of LuxProvide. As a resident of the grand duchy, Pais saw an opportunity to build something and bring value to the local ecosystem. The other major influence on Pais’s decision to join LuxProvide was his strong belief that data and data-driven processes are the future today. “More insights help us to understand the past, act on the present and extrapolate our impact in the future leveraging better and faster decisions. This is probably one of the biggest investments in technology Luxembourg has ever made,” Pais says. Using the MeluXina supercomputer infrastructure, LuxProvide’s priority is to provide a data platform that can offer differentiated services to the local ecosystem. “It will help local actors to accelerate their digital transformation journey, to innovate and to differentiate themselves from the competition.”

Being a relatively new institution, LuxProvide is rather different to the more traditional public sector organisations. “We have lot of technical people that come from research and academia. And that is good, because you see a lot of brain power,” Pais explains. “If we talk about the business, we have a big ambition, we have the agility and flexibility of a start-up and our DNA it totally focused on making a positive impact on our customers.”

Extend reach capacity

LuxProvide’s primary focus right now is on the sectors that are relevant to the Luxembourg economy. These include space, healthcare and FinTech but also industry and environmental services. Targeting these industries requires not only technical expertise and capacity but also business knowledge, Pais explains. So he is seeking partnerships with companies that can provide the business experience, the expertise and the network that will help LuxProvide differentiate their approach and bring value to their customer.

In addition, partnerships will help Luxprovide to extend what Pais calls its reach capacity. “So basically, it's not one plus one equals two, it’s one plus one equals three, because you are you are adding another layer on your capacity to reach the market.”

With his extensive experience in the field, Pais says that the company is in the process of finding partners that it believes can support its ambitions. “The next step is to prove that this will be a win-win partnership that will add value to their organisation, as well as to the end users.”

LuxProvide has already concluded one partnership with French data science outfit Advestis and Pais says that others are in the pipeline. “We are matching our capabilities, expertise and knowledge to understand how our alliances will bring value to all the parties involved in a project.”

There are distinct advantages that LuxProvide can offer in terms of security and capacity. “We are ISO certified in terms of security and our infrastructure can ensure data sovereignty. We are a European company, based in Luxembourg. And that is important for a lot of customers because they may have sensitive or regulated data, or data with a lot of intellectual property that they need to ensure will be manipulated by a partner they can trust.” In addition, the MeluXina supercomputer’s best-in-class technical capacity is among the top one in Europe. “And we have the expertise, a lot of people with knowhow, on supercomputing and data analytics and artificial intelligence that other players cannot provide easily. This is a local and direct approach.”

Proof that the strategy is on the right track came last autumn, when LuxProvide was named Business Partner of the Year at the Luxembourg ICT awards. “ The beauty if this company is that we are genuinely focused on adding value to the client's business and creating an impact on the local ecosystem. If we do everything with that goal in mind, for our end customers and partners, I am sure more awards will come.”