Cash is king – Lease, Sale & Lease Back
Sustainable IT – Remarketing
Sustainable IT – ICS
War for Talent – Employee Choice
War for Talent – IT Staffing
Recruiting skilled (ICT) people is a structural challenge for our customers today.

Thank you Mick Brekoo for sharing your expertise and for guiding us through the IT Staffing related questions:

How can we support customers with our IT Staffing solutions?
What do our stakeholders expect?
What is the difference between project sourcing and managed staffing?
In which domains of expertise can we deliver support?
Who are our customers today?
You can find the answers to all these questions in the presentation attached.

See you all in January 2023 for the next Sales Bootcamp.

In the meantime, we count on you to reach out to customers and prospects and spot opportunities.

Graag informeren we jullie over de missies die we samen als prioritair gedefinieerd hebben:
 Verbinding maken met en tussen de medewerkers en teams, en dit zowel bij BISIEconocom als tussen BISIEconocom en Econocom
 Stroomlijnen van portfolio, procurement, logistics en delivery om de rentabiliteit op korte termijn te verhogen
 Uitwerken van een nieuwe organisatiestructuur
 Ontwikkelen van langetermijnvisie

Bart blikt terug op jarenlange ervaring in Operations en IT Management rollen in de ICT sector. Daarnaast heeft hij ook een “track record” inzake key account management en P&L management in diverse KMO omgevingen.
Zijn expertise en dynamisme zullen ons helpen om onze diverse uitdagingen doelgericht aan te pakken en zo klantentevredenheid te garanderen. Dankzij zijn leiderschap in het aansturen van
multidisciplinaire teams in een digitale wereld in volle mutatie zijn we ervan overtuigd BISIEconocom versneld terug op het groeispoor te kunnen plaatsen.

Bart is gelukkig getrouwd, vader van 4 kinderen, woonachtig in het Antwerpse, en is tijdens het weekend te vinden in concertzalen of naast het korfbalveld.
Ik nodig jullie uit om Bart warm te verwelkomen en hem – samen
met mij – veel succes te wensen in zijn nieuwe rol.

Christophe Vanmalleghem
Chief Commercial Officer
Econocom Belux

Jean-Louis Bouchard, Econocom’s founder and chairman, said, ‘After Alter Way’s six fruitful years in our group, I’m delighted about its merger with Smile, which creates a new way for us to partner with each other. Econocom’s model of satellites has once again proved its worth in helping cutting-edge firms develop through support from our group’s expertise and client portfolio.’

Véronique Torner and Philippe Montargès, co-founders and chairs of Alter Way, added, ‘After an exciting entrepreneurial journey in the Econocom galaxy, which helped us successfully develop our Build for Run plan and grow quickly, we’re proud to help create Europe’s future champion in open source and in responsible digital technology alongside Marc Palazon (CEO of Smile) and his talented senior management team.’

The operation will take effect in the coming weeks once the final administrative formalities are completed.

Carolien Van Gelder joined Econocom in January 2021 as recruitment officer. She takes us along in her story as a network builder.

“It is important to connect with people, both with the client and with the candidate. It is this network that allows you to have a win-win situation.” 

Tell me about yourself?
I started in January 2021. It is different to start working from home, but at first you must learn to understand the applications, and after some time you get the hang of it, and it goes more smoothly. I also think that good cooperation in a team overall is necessary, so that the needs of the clients are properly translated to the recruiter. And that you start to develop a network and can react more quickly.

What is your experience in the recruitment field? Did you have any other relevant experience?
I had some experience as a recruiter, although not with IT profiles. This is new for me, since the start of this year. At the beginning, I received some explanation from colleagues, Julie and Marie, and we also have a little file that describes the jobs and profiles well.

The IT sector is very broad, with many programs, but I am beginning to understand which programs come under which category. However, the expertise you acquire in this field is certainly beneficial, particularly if you are involved in discussions. This is also important and very interesting for me; it is something I like to read and share about as much as possible.

Is there a common thread among the clients you have won?
The common thread is that with these 3 clients we were able to switch very quickly, both for the Acerta story, Makro and for UzA, which was done instantaneously. Our network also played an important role; we had the candidates already in our network. Matching is important, because we come with a specific request Another positive note is that all three clients already have employees from Econocom working for them at present.

Can you tell me more about the 3 clients?
Acerta: is a client from IT staffing, where we primarily provide managed staffing and ensure continuity of service. There, we have placed a service desk support. Here, we can guarantee that quality is maintained by providing a back-up service desk in case of an absence.

With UZA, there is a close relationship, and they always notify us if they need assistance. We have placed a service desk support there.

Makro also has a great deal of confidence in Econocom. They expect Econocom to choose the right person. The Belgian retail shops will be equipped with an online checking system which will be rolled out by one of our on-site technicians.

What is the recruitment process?
I start by introducing Econocom to the candidate, making a general introduction, screening for matching; to find out if the candidate fits with the client, the period, the location and languages.
This is followed by a debriefing with Hilde Thonnon. The final interview is with Hilde and the candidate.

I think it’s an exchange with one another. Since Hilde knows her customers really well and can translate this to me very effectively, I gradually get to know them better.

We are moving towards a situation where we build up our professional network based on profiles rather than on clients. Recruiters’ networking continues to be built upon this trend.

What is the customer’s need?
The client needs the right candidate, a good matching at a good rate. Being a recruiter, it is necessary to find candidates fast, meet them rapidly, react to them generally very quickly.

One thing that could certainly be helpful here is to make a real connection with people: with the client as well as the candidate. This kind of connection makes it possible to have a win-win situation.

What are the challenges you are facing today?
In the recruitment team we are working at the moment, to respond as efficiently as possible, as fast as possible, and to keep this process running; the processing part is a challenge.

And of course, in the beginning building up a network was a challenge because I was starting from zero.

Hi everyone,

Please join us in welcoming Chamberry to the recruitment team of IT staffing at Econocom.

Chamberry joined us on the 19^th of April as recruiter specialist on the recruitment team, reporting to Marie Capelle. Chamberry will be responsible for attracting and matching the right IT profiles with Econocom and its clients.

After finishing his PR studies at ULB and setting the first steps into the world of sales and recruitment in an exclusive sports club in Brussels, he later switched to the consultancy sector. Now he is fully dedicated to recruitment.
“Ultimately being a good recruiter means listening to the needs of the candidates.”

• Spend his student time with a professional career in athletics, training with the Borlée brothers.
• Won a golden medal for being the fastest sprinter in Belgium between 2013 and 2015 on the 100m.
• His favourite ways to relax after a workday are running, swimming, and playing the piano. At the weekend, he usually goes out and enjoys a night out with his friends. He is also known to be an excellent communicator and a team-oriented person.

We are excited to see how Chamberry will use his experiences and winner’s mindset to help our company grow and extend both our network and market position.

You can reach Chamberry at chamberry.muaka@econocom.com

How is the relationship with the client?
AGC Belgium is a long-standing client of Econocom. In March of this year, the client approached us with a direct request for a full-time IT specialist, without publishing the request on the client’s platform.

Could you share more on how you went about your business with this client?
For this client, we already had some other projects in the past, which led to a relationship based on trust. This was a sort of dream situation to our team; we strive more towards this kind of contacts. We knew from the beginning that there were no competitors, which created some confidence for us as well.

The client had not prepared a comprehensive job description when it contacted Diana. This gave her the freedom to create a profile description and job specification, based on AGC’s company objectives.

This involved some improvisation, but it is also very important to have a proper understanding about what the customer is looking for and requires for this project. After the description of the profile, we start searching for the right candidate, first internally via the recruitment manager. If we do not find a suitable candidate, we continue our search through recruitment. Julie has then actively been looking into finding a suitable candidate. For Julie, it is crucial to make a proposal that matches what the customer and Econocom are looking for at that same time.

This is how we matched Alice to AGC. She already had gained experience using collaboration tools in her previous job. Alice’s experience really appealed to the client, and she also has a good profile that matches our client’s requirements. We now have a clear understanding of which profiles are passing through AGC and how we can connect them to find a perfect match.

First, Julie had an interview with Alice, then Diana came into the conversation to provide further details about the customer, after which the candidate was proposed to the customer. Of course, this was the ideal situation for the team, where the client starts searching for candidates with a profile and outsources this process to us.

The interview with Alice was very pleasant and the customer soon agreed to work with her.
This is where we were fortunate, because some of the introduced candidates are matching and some might not be matching with the client.  It was soon clear that the customer was confident of Alice’s capabilities, because at the end of the interview it was already decided that Alice was suitable for the profile. Usually we only get a final decision after the interview, whereas here the client didn’t go looking for other profiles. The customer was convinced that he had the right candidate in front of him. We can say that the search was concluded very quickly: it was approximately 1-month from first contact to Alice getting started.

How do you build your relationship with the customers? 
In this case, it was all about expanding the trust that we already had with the client, continuing to draw upon the information we have about the customer; their environment and past requests helps to determine the best match for this customer. 

Being honest with the customer is key, as is resolving issues and setting up priorities for the customer’s best interest. Monitoring at close range on projects builds engagement as does asking about other concerns of the customer and monitoring budgets to determine which price range we are in.

Who stays in touch with the candidate? 
Julie is the candidate’s first point of contact until she is recruited and after that, her job is done, and then the competence manager comes in and checks whether the candidate is satisfied. When Alice is employed, Diana will check whether all went well or not.

What role will Alice fulfil at AGC?
Alice will give support to the end users of AGC, where the domain name of the company is going to change. She will assist the users within the framework of this project. In particular, she will be providing user support: by phone, or remotely by taking over control. At first, users will be able to come to her with their laptops; after a period, when she has enough information about the client, she can switch to teleworking.

Why did the candidate choose Econocom?
Alice indicated early on that she had a good feeling about working at Econocom, which was the key factor in her decision. She informed Julie that she had a former co-worker who had started working at Econocom in 2020 and who had also worked with her at the European Commission, where he had been responsible for the helpdesk. This former colleague has left a good reference to Alice about Econocom, which is why she gave us the time and the trust to help her with a new job.

Can you say the company has grown accustomed to the services of Econocom?
The client knows our services well, and that creates a sense of loyalty. For instance, we have recently had a new application of a project in which AGC would like to make use of our services. The request was made when they were searching for a candidate for their last project.

This shows once again that clients are only human, and that if things go well, they will not be changing their ways or looking to competitors for their services.

What are the future perspectives for Econocom and AGC?
As a trusted client, AGC is familiar with all 3 main branches of Econocom. Currently, the client has opted to continue using the leasing and services activities, which it consistently relies upon. The lease contract for PCs and laptops comes to its end and the fleet must be replaced.

The renewal of the park demands extra resources in order to implement and provide support, and for this the client once again counts on a partnership with Econocom. We are currently examining how we can work together within the team to address this matter. We begin by consulting the competence manager, who looks for someone in-house or checks if there is somebody available at a client who could do the job for some days and who we can recruit. If we can’t find someone internally, then Julie moves to external recruitment from partners or freelance. We are looking forward to matchmaking the right candidates to AGC soon.

TAKEAWAY 1: Be authentic and create an human connection with your customers.
TAKEAWAY 2: Employees that are experts and passionate about their work achieve shared team goals.
TAKEAWAY 3: Teamwork and collaboration are essential for a successful business.