Ground lion joins AXI group

Blog: Groudlion

AXI strengthens it’s position as an innovative IT-partner with acquisition of LoQutus and Ground lion

Belgian-Dutch IT service provider AXI grows with the acquisition of LoQutus and Ground lion. This acquisition is a logical step in AXI’s strategy to strengthen it’s position within Belgium and The Netherlands.

LoQutus and Ground lion are based in Sint-Denijs-Westrem, close by Ghent, and were a part of the Möbius Group. The fast-growing IT consulting firm, LoQutus, was founded in 2002 by Joachim Vanden Brande and in 2004 it joined the business consultants of Möbius Business Redesign.

The local market knows LoQutus as a pioneer in guiding organizations that face a strategic and operational digital transformation. Its 60 consultants are experts within enterprise integration, smart process, analytics & insights, and information management.

Ground lion was developed from within LoQutus. As a spin-off of LoQutus, founded in 2014, this young start-up helps knowledge workers with its solution: The Ground lion platform for adaptive case management. This innovative solution, based on the CMMN-standard for process modeling, helps organizations to streamline and manage their complex & knowledge-intensive processes.

This acquisition combines forces and offers potential for growth

‘Having LoQutus and Ground lion join the AXI group fits our growth ambitions’, says Paul Peeters, CEO at AXI. ‘By combining our strengths we can expand our offering towards customers of AXI, LoQutus, and Ground lion with highly qualitative products and IT services. This allows us to expand our footprint in core sectors of AXI: government, healthcare, retail, and TSI (technology, services & engineering).’

“We are happy to leverage the Microsoft expertise of LoQutus for all our customers. The same goes for Ground lion’s case management expertise.”

Ambitious plans ahead

Joachim Vanden Brande, ceo at LoQutus and Ground lion, stays on after the acquisition. He acknowledges that the foundations of a strong group will help both companies to realize their ambitious targets. ‘The level of innovation is very high within LoQutus and Ground lion. Through the AXI group we gain access to a much larger customer base.’

“The support of the AXI group will allow us to optimize the operations of our organizations. Furthermore we’ve strengthened our offering with integrated technology services and infrastructure solutions, allowing us to offer our customers complete end-to-end solutions.”

Respecting the culture at LoQutus, Ground lion, and AXI

‘We welcome the employees of LoQutus and Ground lion within AXI group’, claims Paul Peeters. ‘During our first meetings we could clearly see that the approach of both companies fits nicely with AXI’s focus on customer intimacy. For us it was very important to make sure that the company culture at LoQutus and Ground lion fits within AXI groep. LoQutus and Ground lion will continue to operate from their headquarters in Sint-Denijs-Westrem near Ghent. This opens up new possibilities for AXI group to actively start recruiting in this region.’

About AXI

IT service provider AXI is a well-known player in the Belgian and Dutch market. They offer innovative software solutions, cloud- and IT services to governmental organizations, healthcare, retail, and companies from several other industries. In 2017 Indufin, an investment company, entered the picture. This kick-started the new growth strategy at AXI. Earlier in 2018 AXI acquired e-vote specialist, Elegio. This Wallonia-based start-up specializes in electronic signature, e-voting, cryptography, authentication, and anonymization technologies.

About LoQutus

IT Consultancy LoQutus, headquartered near Ghent, guides companies through digital transformation. With more than 45 experts they focus on simplifying & optimizing business processes. Using the latest technologies they makes sure that companies become digital leaders, and end-users have an optimal user experience.

About Ground lion

Ground lion is a start-up that offers enterprise software. They offer an adaptive case management (ACM) solution to manage complex processes in public & private sectors. The main benefit of the Ground lion platform lies in streamlining the collaboration between knowledge workers, improving overall process effectiveness and customer service levels. Gartner recognized Ground lion as a cool vendor in 2015.