GFI acquires Application Services division of Computacenter Belgium

GFI BeLux pursues strategy to strengthen its market position in the area of collaboration

Leuven/Wavre/Ghent/Luxembourg, 20 September 2010
GFI, the European IT services group with a Belgium-based competence center for e-process solutions, announces the acquisition of the Application Services division of Computacenter Belgium. The division’s principal task is to provide support for the IBM Lotus platform. GFI will take over the staff with its expertise as well as the clients. After concluding a partnership with Open Source provider Liferay, this is the second step taken by GFI within a short period with a view to strengthening its market position in the area of collaboration.

Contact

Contact communications office GFI:
Bert Bouserie at Luna
Phone: +32 2 658 02
Mobile: +32 488 40 44 77
bert@luna.be
www.luna.be

Contact communications office Computacenter:
Davy Vandevinne at Outsource Communications
Phone: +32 2 541 00 15
Mobile: +32 495 68 17 66
davy.vandevinne@outsource.be
www.outsource.be

Largest Lotus expert group in the BeLux

GFI, with its 100 Lotus clients and more than 170,000 seats in the BeLux, is today the largest expert group of Lotus professionals in the BeLux. With the take-over of the Lotus activities of Computacenter Belgium, the company is adding some 40 new clients to its portfolio. The acquisition also means that collaboration clients of Computacenter Belgium can henceforth count on the know-how and support of a European collaboration specialist. GFI BeLux is also taking over the staff of Computacenter’s Lotus division.

Pascal Meyers, CEO of GFI Benelux: “Increasing numbers of firms are wondering today how they should move forward with their current collaboration platform: upgrade, migrate to a ‘standard’ solution or use cloud computing solutions for certain aspects? We seek to assist companies with these questions, both in breadth (advice on the strategy to be followed) and in depth (implementing collaboration projects in various technologies). How? By combining our Lotus expertise with (international) project management and a product vendor-independent vision of the future of the collaboration market. An offer which is unique in Belgium.”

Lieven Bergmans, Managing Director of Computacenter Belgium & the Netherlands: “Computacenter’s international strategy is built around infrastructure services and solutions. For our Lotus activities it seemed advisable to go in search of a strategic partner with a strong focus on application services. We found that partner in GFI. They are in a position to continue to guarantee the high quality of our application services.”

Growth ambitions in the collaboration market

The take-over fits within the ambitions of GFI BeLux to become the largest specialized integrator in the collaboration market – as well in advice and implementation as in running the platforms. Meyers explains: “The collaboration market consists for us – besides the increasingly popular cloud computing solutions – of 3 major technology providers: Open Source, IBM and Microsoft. GFI will continue to expand its portfolio of collaboration services and products around these 3 technologies and cloud computing. Today’s takeover follows upon our partnership with Open Source provider Liferay as the second – but not last – logical step in our strategy to strengthen our position in the collaboration market.”

About GFI

GFI is a European IT services provider, founded in France. The company is active in 5 specialized areas: consulting, application services, enterprise solutions, infrastructure services and business software. The group is present in 10 countries, employs about 10,000 people and operates 11 competence centers, 2 software factories and 3 off-shore centers. Its turnover was 663.6 million euro’s as at 31/12/2009. In Belgium the company has offices in Haasrode-Leuven, Wavre and Ghent, with some 150 employees.

For more information: www.gfi.be

About Computacenter

Computacenter is one of Europe’s leading providers of IT infrastructure services. The company helps clients optimise their IT infrastructure by offering a wide range of services. Computacenter provides advice on IT strategy, implements the most appropriate technology from a broad range of products by leading vendors, and manages all or part of the technological infrastructure on the client’s behalf. At each level, Computacenter assists its clients in lowering costs and maximizing IT investments. To this end, Computacenter can draw upon its own extensive European network and on a worldwide network of international partners.

For more information: www.computacenter.be

To schedule an interview with Pascal Meyers, CEO of GFI, please contact Bert Bouserie at Luna:
02 658 02 93 or bert@luna.be

To schedule an interview with Lieven Bergmans, Managing Director Computacenter Belgium & the Netherlands, please contact Davy Vandevinne at Outsource Communications:
02 541 00 15 or davy.vandevinne@outsource.be