On 30 May, the audiovisual offering was promoted in the media as the group’s fourth strategic business line. The multi-country operation (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain) generated extensive media coverage with over sixty articles on the subject, primarily in the financial and professional press.
In France, the news was repeated by many media outlets, largely specialist (IT Channel, Infodsi.com…) or financial (boursier.com, fortuneo.fr…) media. It was also very widely covered in Spain, with Bhalia.com quoting BIS|Econocom Chairman and CEO Jean Pierre Overbeek and Exaprobe CEO Jean-Pierre Chamillard, the drivers of the activity.
What was behind the decision to make the audiovisual offering a separate fourth business line? Jean-Pierre Overbeek first mentions the entities involved in this new business line. The group’s audiovisual capabilities are now deployed in the following entities: Exaprobe, expert in smart office technologies, cybersecurity and infrastructure and networking solutions and services; BIS|Econocom, expert in audiovisual solutions and services, unified communication and digital signage (or information distribution); Products & Solutions led by France, Spain and Italy.
He puts the subject into perspective: « Digital technology has reinvented interactions between colleagues and the hybrid working model has accelerated the need for professional technologies, especially to facilitate remote participation in meetings. Econocom’s new audiovisual business line meets those new requirements. More and more businesses and organizations are asking us about this area. » For the record, the activity already accounted for 350 million euros of annual revenue in 2022.
As BIS|Econocom’s Chairman and CEO explains, the Covid pandemic had a major impact on the market. Whereas staff used to go to the office to work and produce, now they also come to meet up. For 90% of meetings, a remote participant joins online, and therefore the platforms’ ergonomics must facilitate that use. In businesses, the trend is set to a marked drop in standard offices and sharp increase in convivial meeting and collaboration rooms.
Overall, the activity looks like a natural extension of the Econocom offering. Our ambition is to become a leader in this booming market throughout Europe, with clients that now include the Dutch government and major groups like ING, Unilever, EY, Danone, AstraZeneca, Siemens, Dassault Systems, Veolia, BNP Paribas or Saint-Gobain… and others set to join that prestigious list.
