EXO PLATFORM produces a collaborative working software suite designed for businesses, based on an innovative web portal solution that enables virtualisation of the work space using an advanced WebOS interface. To offer an alternative to Microsoft SharePoint, our solution needed to be economical and integrated, and therefore Open-Source, explains Benjamin Mestrallet, CEO . The SME, which has branches in Ukraine, Vietnam and Tunisia and employs 95 staff throughout the world, has an emblematic history. In 2002, while a student at ENSEI RB (graduate school of information and communication technologies), Benjamin Mestrallet's thesis came to the attention of the US Department of Defense, via the website theserverside.org, and Benjamin was asked to deploy his solution as an Internet portal of the armed forces in Iraq. After that, in 2003 I decided to set up the company. The first products were on the market by 2005, adds Benjamin Mestrallet.

The company has offices in Vannes, Nantes, Grenoble, Marseille and Paris. The advantage of the Paris Region is that our key clients are based here, indicated Benjamin. We are also involved in numerous projects in the Region. We are members of the OW2 Consortium, set up by INRIA (French national computer science research institute), Bull and France Telecom. We are also involved in the Cap Digital Paris-Region cluster's SEBASTIAN project, which aims to create a virtual digital production studio between Paris and San Francisco. In 2009, the company will continue its growth and hopes to establish a branch in the USA.