12 Oct 2020 BBES Group: birth of a European data protection giant
Since last June, Europe has had a new data protection giant: the BBES Group, an alliance between ESBD (France), Blackbridge (Italy), BlueFinch (Netherlands) and Systematik (Germany). With greater strike force, it will enable the four companies to offer better service to their customers at a more competitive price.
by IT Nation
When you’re doing the same job and you already know each other well, why not join forces? In short, the heads of ESBD (France), Blackbridge (Italy), BlueFinch (Netherlands) and Systematik (Germany) said that at the end of 2019. “We’ve been in regular contact for a while, and the idea of creating a new structure together came to light in December,” says Richard Verkraik, CEO of BlueFinch and BBES Group. The aim is to create a major player in Europe, with 500 clients in 16 countries. Thanks to our new strike force, we will be able to improve in terms of purchases, sales, marketing, but also technical support. »
A seat in Schiphol
BBES Group is now headquartered in Schiphol, Amsterdam’s international airport, but the group’s various founding entities will initially retain their offices and customers. “However, in our dealings with some international companies, it may be interesting to let BBES Group deal with the customer, to gain more clout,” says Bernhard Battran, CEO of Systematik. We should know that our business – data protection – is becoming more and more international. Some projects involve working with several countries and, in this case, having more employees, multilingual people, can be valuable. »
Still considering itself as invested in a niche sector, BBES Group is still one of the most important European players in the sector. “This should allow us to increase our customer base, first in Europe and, why not, secondly, outside Europe,” says Verkraik. Having said that, we will first have to structure this new collaboration, especially in terms of technical support, the organization of the sale, etc.”
Many benefits for the customer
If the interest of this alliance for different companies is clear, what about the customers? “Customers will benefit from our expanded scope because, as integrators, we will have more clout compared to solution vendors,” said Jacques Besnard, CEO of ESBD. Given the number of customers we serve, sellers will have a best interest in paying more attention to our queries. In addition, in terms of price, we will also be able, for the same reason, to obtain rates that are more competitive for our customers than if they had to ask the seller for their product online. »
In addition, each of the four companies forming BBES has its own expertise in very different industries. This common know-how will enable many different industries to advise on the best solutions to secure their data.
The Covid-19, rather an opportunity
It is quite remarkable that the Covid has not hindered the motivation of these four companies to work together. Expected in December, the project came to fruition in the first months of 2020. “Obviously, we had to rethink the way we planned to get together,” says Marco Volpe, CEO of Blackbridge. Our meetings that were planned in Milan were organized online. But that didn’t stop the project from succeeding. »
Jacques Besnard even sees an opportunity in this delicate period. “While it has always been thought that working remotely is an obstacle, it is now clear that it is possible to collaborate in this way. But it is more crucial than ever to allow people in all sectors to both work remotely and share data securely. So our role has also become more important. It’s enough to set BBES Group on the road to success!