Partnership between Agoria and Proximus NXT yields extra benefits through co-creation
When it comes to ICT use, Agoria plays a pioneering role as a sector federation for the technology industry in Belgium. The federation understands that as an organization you can never have all the necessary expertise in-house and it is therefore building a strong partnership with Proximus NXT. And that is no coincidence. Both partners are convinced that, in ICT, people are central. As an involved stakeholder, Agoria's HR department recognizes the added value of the partnership.
Agoria brings together more than 2,100 companies from the manufacturing, digital, and telecom sectors, 70% of which are SMEs. This makes it the largest party within the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (VBO). Like Proximus NXT, Agoria strives to connect everyone inspired by technology to help businesses grow and shape a sustainable future.
Preferred ecosystem partner
Agoria has around two hundred employees in five offices. "Eleven of those employees are working within ICT today," says CIO Bart Van Nynatten. "In addition, we have for a long time contracted dozens of external ICT specialists. We wanted to reduce that large number." That is why Agoria went in search of an ICT partner who could identify with the specific context of a sector federation, who could understand and support Agoria's long-term objectives, and who had broad in-house expertise. "I am convinced of the added value we can get from working with one preferred partner for ICT. But of course, they need to have a sufficiently large and high-quality ecosystem. This is clearly the case with Proximus NXT."
As a sector federation in technology, Agoria has a lot of ICT resources in-house. “Given our exemplary role, we are more or less obliged to have those for ourselves and our members. We are therefore in a luxury position,” Bart admits. “Of course, you also have to manage and support all those resources optimally.” For this, Agoria increasingly relies on Proximus NXT, with whom it worked on the development of a managed services model for workplace and cloud, among other things. “Together we also built a security operations center that provides 24/7 monitoring,” says Stephan Van Dyck, Cybersecurity Officer at Proximus NXT.
Meanwhile, the partnership with Proximus NXT goes much further, beyond the purely operational level. In addition to taking over part of the ICT management, Proximus NXT has long been thinking about possible future ICT developments at Agoria. “Our partnership is aimed at helping Agoria create its roadmap for digitalization, especially in the field of data and AI,” says Ann Eyckmans, Account Manager at Proximus NXT. “In the long term, this will allow Agoria to offer its members hyper-personalized services and to communicate proactively with them,” explains Steven De Lausnay, IoT, Data & Analytics Domain Lead at Codit, a subsidiary of Proximus NXT.
People take center stage
"No matter how important ICT is for Agoria's business, ultimately it is the people who are central," emphasizes Sovanna Hem, Human Capital Business Partner at Agoria. "And those people are both the members and the employees of our organization. So, I look at our business more from an HR perspective: how experienced are our employees and our members in the digital transformation? How are they coping with all these new technological challenges?"
Sovanna himself was closely involved in the design of the workplace managed services model, together with Proximus NXT. In the meantime, the service manager at Proximus NXT takes care of the complete on- and offboarding of the end users at Agoria; and it is no coincidence that this is a process initiated by the HR department. In doing so, the organization emphasizes that a managed services model is only successful if it is supported by the entire organization.
Combined strategic thinking
Bart: "For us it's a no-brainer to work as much as possible with a focus on the future. This is the only way we can successfully help our members prepare for new challenges. We were looking for an external party with the necessary expertise to be able to quickly switch within a number of niche activities that are characteristic of our organization."
These niche activities are based on four pillars of digital transformation specific to Agoria. The first is "member centricity" or the aim to put the members at the center of their work and activities as much as possible. The second pillar, "Data & AI", fits in perfectly with this. As a data-driven organization, Agoria wants to offer its members a hyper-personalized service in the long term. To do this, it must first work on a 360-degree view of those members. The hybrid workplace and operational efficiency are the third and fourth pillars.
Bart: "Today, Proximus NXT has evolved into a partner that goes beyond assisting us operationally with technological expertise. Ann and her account team also join us in thinking strategically. This makes it easier for us to anticipate certain trends or events and act proactively on them, also in the interests of our members."
Proximus NXT goes beyond assisting us operationally, but also join us in thinking strategically.
Bart Van Nynatten, CIO, Agoria
Trust as a starting point
Ann: "Such close cooperation is of course only possible if there is sufficient trust between both parties. That wasn't always the case when we began. But with our proactive approach and by actively listening to Agoria and talking to them in an open, transparent way, we have been able to systematically build that trust."
Sovanna: "From our side, the relationship of trust required the willingness to share our internal strategy with an external party and thus to demonstrate the necessary transparency. It was only in this way that Proximus NXT could contribute ideas about the domains - technological, but also others - in which it could play an active role."
Co-creation
Ann: "Our services at Agoria have been systematically expanded since the start of our collaboration in 2019. Today, they include license and purchase management for all devices, but also the implementation of part of the ICT management via managed services and steering of the ICT projects that support the four pillars of Agoria’s digital transformation."
Bart: "From the start, special attention was paid to security. Security events also occur after office hours. This is typical of an organization with knowledge workers. But we didn’t have enough people and resources in-house to track down and resolve those events. That’s why we asked Proximus NXT to provide a 24/7 monitoring service."
Stephan: "We took the initiative to develop this service ourselves in close collaboration with Agoria, by further developing our existing monitoring service tailored to Agoria. This is co-creation at its finest. Under the name 'Orbit', we can now offer it to other customers. By starting from Agoria's concrete needs, we have thus taken a very big step in security together."
Our security experts are on standby to deal quickly with incidents and breaches. This creates trust.
Stephan Van Dyck, Cybersecurity Officer, Proximus NXT
Move forward together
Bart: "Agoria has recently opted for additional protection via sovereign cloud. To build trust with and towards our members, we ensure the security of their data in all the services we provide."
Ann: "Sovereign cloud puts the members at the center. Our experts worked out a proof of concept for Agoria, which showed that sovereign cloud provides the federation with additional operational efficiency. At the same time, it allows Agoria to place even more emphasis on its members, precisely because the solution offers additional guarantees around the security of data, for and about those members. I invited the colleagues from Codit, who specialize in data-driven solutions, to the table."
Steven: "An AI project is a process that you create together, not something that starts and ends at a certain point. It is an ongoing story that continues to evolve. Sufficient trust, a good relationship with the customer, and the right people around the table: all the essentials to make such a project succeed."
Codit first mapped Agoria's needs around data analytics and generative AI. In collaboration with partner Microsoft, which shared existing usage scenarios for GenAI during a hackathon with Agoria, Codit also defined a number of usage scenarios.
Steven: "In the meantime, they have already selected two scenarios to develop, including a communication assistant. More generally, Agoria wants to use GenAI to better tailor the services to member behavior."
Bart: "The approach to this process is a good example of how we achieve much more through co-creation with our partnership than with a traditional project approach. Achieving a goal together is what it’s all about. In addition, the collaboration provides more impact. Thanks to the partnership with Proximus NXT, we now have access to a complete ICT ecosystem. The team that works for Agoria on ICT this way now has around fifty experts."
Company profile Agoria
The sector federation Agoria brings together almost 2,100 technology companies from the manufacturing, digital, and telecommunications sectors in Belgium, 70% of which are SMEs. This makes it the largest party within the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (VBO). Agoria has its own technology center, Sirris, which helps companies introduce new technologies into their products, processes, and business. The federation itself employs around 200 employees in offices in Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi, Ghent, and Liege.
Bart Van Nynatten, CIO, Agoria & SIRRIS
Sovanna Hem, Human Capital Business Partner, Agoria
Ann Eyckmans, Account Manager at Proximus NXT
Stephan Van Dyck, Cybersecurity Officer at Proximus NXT
Steven De Lausnay, IoT, Data & Analytics Domain Lead, Codit, a Proximus NXT company
