Econocom
Econocom Group SE is a European business-to-business provider of digital services founded in 1974 by former Chairman of Informatiques Inter Ecoles Jean-Louis Bouchard, initially known as Europe Computer Systèmes.
History
Inception and early years
Jean-Louis Bouchard founded the group in France under the name of Europe Computer Systèmes in 1974. Twelve years later, in 1986, he sold his stake in ECS France to Société Générale but bought back all of the foreign subsidiaries and merged them with Econocom, an American company he had recently acquired. The subsidiaries and group were renamed to Econocom. That same year, Econocom Belgium was listed on the secondary market of the Brussels Stock Exchange. Econocom Distribution acquired Asystel Belgium in 1993, adding IT distribution operations in the Benelux region.International expansion
Econocom was listed on the primary market of the Brussels Stock Exchange in 1996. Four years later, Econocom was listed on the secondary market of the Paris Stock Exchange. The group created Econocom Telecom. That same year, it made an offer for Infopoint. In 2001, the group employed 2,000 people.In 2002, it acquired Comdisco-Promodata in France, followed two years later by the acquisition of Signal Service France. In 2005, the group operated in 5 European countries: Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy. Econocom later sold off its Swiss subsidiary and closed its financing operations in the United States.
In 2006, it entered into telecommunications by acquiring Avenir Telecom's business division. The next year, Econocom expanded its telecoms division after it acquired the business division of Carphone Warehouse France. The group doubled its sales force in Italy by acquiring Tecnolease, an Italian IT leasing company. It acquired Databail, a French IT infrastructure funding company in 2008. They opened a nearshore remote service facility in Rabat, Morocco the next year, which employed 300 multilingual staff.
Société Générale sold ECS in October 2010, and Jean-Louis Bouchard bought back the company he founded over thirty-five years before and merged it with Econocom.
Econocom launched "7 Remote Services" in 2010, a service to support companies in migrating their IT estate to Microsoft’s operating systems.
In 2011 Véronique di Benedetto, former Deputy Managing Director of ECS, was appointed Deputy Managing Director of the new group and managing director of Econocom France. A graduate of ESCP who began her career as an Account Manager at IBM, Véronique joined the management board, chaired by Jean-Louis Bouchard, Jean-Philippe Roesch, and Bruno Lemaistre.
Econocom continued its expansion in the virtualisation sector by acquiring Ermestel in 2012, an early provider in the Spanish market, and acquired a stake in Centix, a Belgian company specializing in cloud computing. The same year they acquired Tactem, a provider of telecom expense management. They also acquired France Systèmes, a French Apple reseller in the education and research sector, and added to its IT security offering by buying Cap Synergy, a French systems integrator specializing in network and IT system security.
In 2013, Econocom bought out French systems integrator Exaprobe, expanding its security, network, and communications division, worth €30 million in revenue at the time while also announcing their new strategic plan MUTATION 2013 – 2017. On 12 September, Econocom finalized the acquisition of a majority stake in Osiatis, an infrastructure service provider and related applications specialist. This transaction resulted in the creation of a new digital service company, with over 8,000 employees in 20 countries and total revenue of around €2 billion. In October, Jean-Maurice Fritsch and Bruno Grossi, co-chairmen of the Osiatis Management Board, joined the Econocom Executive Board. In a press release, Econocom unveiled its new visual identity and adopted a new branding system. In November, Econocom made a public offer on Osiatis. On 22 November, Econocom finalised the acquisition of the entire share capital of Osiatis.
On 6 January 2014, Georges Croix and Econocom founded Digital Dimension, a cloud and digital services provider.
Econocom continued its involvement in EdTech in 2017 by investing in the venture capital firm Educapital. Econocom and Microsoft announced a partnership to distribute HoloLens for the European market
Robert Bouchard took over as CEO of the Econocom Group in 2018, and Louise Beveridge joined Econocom as Head of Brand. Econocom acquired a majority stake in Altabox, a Spanish company specializing in the development of omnichannel marketing strategies. Econocom presented e-vigilante, its new robot for monitoring industrial sites.
Today
Econocom had 8,597 employees as of December 31, 2024. With 40 years of industry experience, the group manages 7 million digital assets. It expanded into the "smart solutions" sector in late 2012 by launching a joint research and development program with Istituto Superiore Mario Boella in Turin, Italy.Business sectors
The group's three areas of business are:- Technology management & financing
- IT & Telecom Services
- Products and Solutions