- To meet its clients’ demands for customer centric innovation & digital transformation services, EY Belgium has announced its acquisition of VODW Brussels.
VODW is a frontrunner in customer-centric thinking and digital solutions, which works with leading firms across a number of sectors, in particular, telecoms, utilities and financial services. VODW, and its 16 professionals, will join EY Advisory’s practice as “EY VODW”, thus gaining opportunities for continued international growth within the EY organization.
VODW Brussels has one clear purpose: to help organizations understand their customers, accelerate growth and thrive in this fast-paced environment, fostered by an entrepreneurial mindset. “We don't offer advice from a distance. We work as entrepreneurs alongside our clients. This is part of our DNA”, says Simon Anthonis (Managing Partner VODW Brussels).
With an ambition to set the new standard for corporate innovation, and help clients pragmatically bridge the gap between idea and reality, VODW Brussels has a multidisciplinary team of experts that follow a set of proven methodologies to achieve best possible results.
VODW Brussels and its 16 employees will move to the offices of EY. Managing partner Simon Anthonis will join as a partner of EY VODW. Bruno Aelbrecht and Lawrence Landeloos, both members of the management team, will join as Director in EY VODW.
EY has plans to grow its global strategy consulting services, both organically and through continued acquisitions, and has progressed this rapidly already with a particular focus on its client’s digital transformation agenda. This acquisition follows others in related areas, such as VODW in the Netherlands and Krios Solutions (specialized in SAP advice and implementation).
Commenting on the acquisition, Patrick Rottiers, EY’s Belgian CEO says: “This acquisition is another strategic transaction for EY. We’re already achieving considerable organic growth in our Belgian advisory business - it grew 15% last year - but we are also committed to looking for opportunities for external growth, especially when we find firms with cutting-edge innovation and a really strong talent pool like VODW. As “EY VODW”, we will be able to significantly augment the services we provide to our clients in terms of customer driven innovation and digital transformation”.
EY VODW partner Simon Anthonis: “We are very pleased that we now operate under the wings of EY. Through the combination of our fast, creative and entrepreneurial culture, the complementary competencies that are available at EY and their integrated international network, we can continue to expand our borders at an accelerated pace and offer even more innovative solutions that optimize the experience of the consumer.”
The expertise of VODW will also be integrated within the wavespace innovation centre that EY launched in 2018 in Antwerp. The multi-functional concept of the wavespace encompasses a design studio, a showcase area, a lab/incubator and a facilitated workshop environment. In addition to collaborating with start-ups, EY wavespace™ Antwerp focuses also on providing clients a full range of services related to agile finance, supply chain logistics and cybersecurity.
