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The Axians & Cisco partnership reflects more than three decades of collaboration built on trust, strategic alignment, and shared innovation. With the launch of the Cisco 360 Partner Program and accelerating opportunities in AI, secure networking, and managed services, the alliance continues to evolve in response to a rapidly transforming market.

What began as a national collaboration in France has evolved into a structured European partnership. Axians is extending its IT infrastructure services for a leading automotive supplier, supporting production sites with standardized, high-availability solutions across multiple countries.

As organisations look for more control over their cloud environments without sacrificing flexibility, many are rethinking how their infrastructure is managed. Increasingly, businesses want cloud environments that are scalable and automated, but also transparent, compliant and built on long-term partnerships.

One of Axians’ customers, a global manufacturer of specialty chemicals operating across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, was managing a highly distributed industrial network with limited operational visibility. Although their production sites were interconnected, insight into network behavior remains fragmented.

DERA, short for Document Extraction Retrieval Assistant, is an AI-powered solution that extracts structured data from documents such as invoices, contracts, or receipts. Its strength lies in its flexibility: it can identify document types and retrieve key information using simple natural-language instructions, without relying on rigid templates.

What slows organizations down isn’t a lack of information, but the effort needed to make sense of it across countless documents. Recognizing this challenge, Axians developed DERA to help its customers fundamentally transform how they interact with their data. The objective is simple: provide the right information to the right person in the right format, without manual effort.

For more than a decade, the idea of the “smart city” has generated excitement. Cities have deployed sensors, connected traffic systems, and experimented with digital platforms designed to improve efficiency and sustainability. Yet many initiatives remain stuck at the pilot stage.

Every day, millions of people across countries interact with digital systems without even noticing. They move through cities, access public services, communicate, work, and travel seamlessly. Behind these everyday moments, technology plays a critical role.

When you go home with a high-risk pregnancy in the middle of the afternoon, what should be your main concern? Resting. Following medical advice. Ensuring your baby is born healthy and safe. Not checking whether your medical leave certificate has properly integrated with social security systems, so you actually receive the support you are entitled to. The answer seems obvious. Yet, in many countries, it isn’t.

Cities are entering a new phase of evolution. For years, we have spoken about “smart cities” enhanced by sensors, data, and digital infrastructure. Today, that vision is no longer sufficient. We need a shift toward a more integrated model, one where cities orchestrate essential services and place citizens at the center, a transition I describe as “City-as-a-Service.”

As governments and institutions reflect on the future of public services of discussion and awareness around AI, one thing is clear: AI can make daily public services more efficient, fair, and accessible, but only if it is used carefully, ethically, and with humans firmly in the loop. Done right, it is a tool for public good. Done poorly, it risks scaling harm.

Through its close partnership with Microsoft, Axians leverages solutions and technologies such as Copilot, Copilot Studio, and AI Foundry. We support organizations in exploring AI opportunities and developing practical solutions.