Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. Won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? Won’t say a hero, because… he’s a Champion! And that’s Ludo Saas from Damovo, our Extreme Dude in Luxembourg!
Hello Ludovic! How are you these days? Got any personal life hacks to make the long months of home office a little bit more… pleasant? 😉
Hi there! I am great, glad you’re asking. Hope everyone at Extreme are good as well!
In my case, I would say the ability to go back to the office from time to time really goes a long way toward keeping a healthy balance. Ordering pizza with my family also helps to focus on something else and break the daily routine. 😉
I like to live and think in systematic ways, though. To that end, I have planned my mornings around the visit to the bakery across the street where I order my take-away coffee and croissant. It helps to keep some bit of social interaction during the lockdown and support local business at the same time. Not very helpful for losing weight, though. 😅
How is the La Moselle river this time of year?
You want to wait a bit for the real spring and the sun to show up to enjoy some nice, long walks along the riverbank. And if you’re lucky to find a place at a terrace, you can enjoy an ice cream and a glass of rosé in front of the river and the German border. Just don’t forget to bring your sunglasses! 😎
We’re asking this because we know for a fact that you’re quite a traveler, moving between France, Germany and Luxembourg throughout your career. Which place do you have the fondest memories of?
Just a bit of a traveler, I think. Let’s just say I have pushed myself during my studies to keep looking for other ways to live and think. I was born in Strasbourg, France, and studied in Colmar and Troyes, also France. I took the internships as an opportunity to move around and open up to others.
My most vivid memory would have to be during my internship in Munich, Germany. Waking up at 5:00 AM to accompany my wife to the airport so she could get back to Lincoln, UK. Dark and snowy night. Minus 25 degrees. Studies were a lot of fun back then but I would never forget how tough it was to be so far away from my loved ones.
You were probably told this a few times in your life, but with a last name like that, you could easily advertise services… 😉 Yet you’ve racked up quite a career as a solutions architects. And for the past 8 months, you’ve been working as a presales specialist at Damovo. Tell us about this journey!
Right, I have come up with a few jokes throughout my years in IT. Goes a bit like this: "If my grandfather had copyrighted his last name, I wouldn't be in the Presales, I would be the company shareholder!" The version of the joke varied a bit, but you get the gist of it. 😄
Funny enough, I somehow managed to keep the same office, the very same desk and generally the same colleagues during my Presales journey through Unify, Atos and now Damovo, despite that all things around have been changing and twisting around, from branding through shareholders to the management.
Ludovic Saas, our Extreme Champion from Damovo Luxembourg!
What would you consider your single greatest achievement?
Fulfilling a child's dream is what I can think of a great achievement. As far as I remember, I have always wanted three things in my life: become a graduated engineer, start a family, become a property owner. Now that I’ve accomplished all of them, I am struggling a little bit to define my new goals and dreams. The thirties crisis, perhaps? 😉
Did Extreme “find” you at Damovo or did you discover Extreme yourself, when working as the solutions architect in Atos or Unify? Tell us about your Champion “origin” story and how it all came to be!
Here goes a little story. When the managing director of Unify recruited me back in 2013, he asked, “Do you know this vendor, Extreme Networks?”. I replied that I had never heard of it and asked what they were selling. You see, back in my early graduate years, I was quite shocked to learn that Cisco even had competitors...
What I’m trying to say here is that mega corporations invest heavily in the young generation of engineers, gaining the overall mindshare of future professionals. That’s perfectly fine, but we need to understand that those who enter the job market, sometimes come with a biased knowledge of the industry. It’s a way to create a fan base. But I guess this is changing too, take Extreme Academy Live for example!
With an area of 2,586 square kilometers (998 square miles), Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in Europe. But what about its networking market? What can you tell us about it and the position Extreme holds in it?
You could literally compare Luxembourg to a village. You know, a village where the neighbors from across the street are spying on each other from behind their curtains. 😄 But jokes aside, I would say that the local society and companies based in the country tend to be rather conservative. They do not like surprises, they are demanding and they do like to inquire their neighbors about their solutions.
In Luxembourg, Extreme Networks is very much seen as a challenger to the almighty Cisco's installed base. Customers like to benchmark Cisco against other vendors to make the price of their beloved solution drop, which brings us back to the previous question. Also with the big local players who all have heavily invested in the Cisco LAN, WAN, WLAN, and Voice portfolio, they are competing hard for every point of margin, especially in large RFPs.
You want to wait for the real spring and the sun to show up to enjoy some nice, long walks along the riverbank.
Damovo’s tagline is “Big enough to deliver, small enough to care”. And what is your personal secret to running a great account?
Being able to create a positive and trusting relationship between people, in my humble opinion, is a must-have to be able to sell. That kind of relationship is important for all the people involved in the value chain of our industry: vendor, distributor, integrator and customer, and is a prerequisite to a sustainable environment. Everyone involved shall have a mutual understanding of each other’s challenges and needs because at the end of the day, we are all humans, trying to solve an issue, drive a change or benefit from an innovation happening within the value chain.
What is your favorite Extreme solution? Do you think there’s a single one that “opens” most doors?
I think that the Extreme Cloud Appliance turned out to be quite a success. The solution is able to deliver monitoring, supervision, and insights into the customer’s LAN and WLAN infrastructure. The Appliance is comprehensive and can be bought on perpetual licensing. And it’s an on-premises solutions, which is quite a crucial factor for more conservative companies.
Do you feel like a champion sometimes? 🙂
When I was younger and fearless, I tended to feel like a champion every day, like nothing could ever stop me. Have to say, times have changed, and so did I. I became much more grounded, but I still enjoy my Champion title at home. Especially when I get a hug from my little girl!