Interview to Felice Cassese

1) Tell us what your department deals with
I am head of the department which provides intelligence services.
Technically our business is to collect and analyze data to obtain information that can be use for decision-making, aimed at supporting the company’s management in strategic decisions.
The information is exclusively used to verify the fairness of a personal or professional relationship (existing or being finalized), to verify the compliance with the terms and rules of competition or to assest the observance of trademark rights.
AZ InfoCollection was founded over 40 years ago as a detective agency, my department is the result of this long experience in the field of specialized information providing that is nowadays part of the intelligence department.

2) Which aspects interest you most about your job?
My field is very special, I get in contact with different realities on a daily basis and it allows me to cultivate my interest in people and social relations.
We live in a society in which fragility and limits are demonized and even more often ignored. Today a successful man is the one who has no limits, my job makes me focus on these limits, to develop the sensibility to catch even the weakest signals of humans, to understand their real essence and consequently to be able to profile them.

3) What are the basic qualities to become a perfect man of intelligence?
Good listening skills and empathy are key factors, also a free mind from judgments to evaluate the situations objectively. In my department employees are chosen with care, professionalism and discretion are crucial, trust is the base of the relationship with our customers.

4) The AZ Group has a long history based on investigation activities, what is the key of success?
The technological development strategy was the key to success since the early years of the company. In an era in which investigations were made in the field and archived manually in the systems, AZ took the challenge of digitization by automating the storage of information. This was a great competitive advantage and AZ promptly became a player that can best meet the challenges of an increasingly digital market.
I joined the Group over 15 years ago and I have lived as a protagonist the path that has led us to be an example in the field of investigations.
I could sum up the company’s success over the years with these three words: professionalism, innovation and ambition. Thanks to these qualities, we got here.

5) How do you expect the intelligence market will change given the huge impact of new technologies?
With the dematerialisation of processes even crime intelligence activities are increasingly focused on digital reality.
Violation of industrial patents for example may be materialized by sending a simple email, subtracting money that in the past was done physically, it is now easily implemented by a PC.
All activities of “digital forensics”, for example the technical methodologies to reconstruct the contents of electronic media and data storage will increasingly become strategic for our industry.
Data Security & Data recovery will be the future of the intelligence market.
AZ InfoCollection is at the forefront in the integration of new technologies with the most modern bigdata management systems for both internal and external intelligence activities. This constant attention to new technologies allows my department to be a leader in the services offered to customers.