Little differences, big margins

AV Magazine

Understanding the complexity and subtlety of the Netherlands and Belgium markets can pay dividends,

You know what the funniest thing about Europe is? It’s the little differences. That’s apparent in the Benelux where neighbours Belgium and the Netherlands may be geographically small but they deserve to be approached in a very different way, not least because of the language, which also differs within the Flemish and French speaking regions of Belgium.

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“The Dutch and Belgians have a different b2b culture, ways of working, communication, marketing and content strategy,” says Ricoh’s NL sales manager, Bas Jonkers. “I’ve learned that you must use a different approach for NL/BE to be successful.”

“Work culture is extremely different in each country and the personal approach one can have in both regions is very different as well,” agrees David Klein, regional sales manager for Crestron.

“Compared to many other countries in Europe this region is quite traditional, especially Belgium,” says Myriam Calaber, sales director, Europe and Mediterranean, Exterity.

Educational needs
Others too note Belgium’s conservative tendencies. “The Belgium people are more polite in terms of communication,” remarks Barry Saarberg, Ricoh’s international business development manager. “The Dutch are more direct and more to the point. Sometimes foreign people will find this hard to deal with. But even within a country there are a lot of differences where we can see that people from the southern part of the Netherlands are more like Belgians. It’s important to know that most of the people are more willing to do business with local companies since they speak the same language and invest in their region.”

From a technology perspective, the Netherlands seems keener to adopt new solutions. The education market is indicative. With over 180,000 classrooms and a market penetration of greater than 80 per cent, “it is clearly one of the most mature markets in the world,” says Martin Vine, head of sales, Nordics and Benelux, Promethean. “The Dutch market was also one of the first to start migrating to interactive flat panel display (IFPD) technology, which started back in 2012.”

He elaborates: “In the early days the Dutch education market was described as fragmented. Individual schools or small regions tended to drive the purchasing decisions. These buying patterns have shifted in recent times as we have seen the consolidation of procurement which has led to much larger tenders. That said, unlike many other countries throughout the world, the tender specification places greater emphasis on performance and quality over price.”

That aside, the one common denominator which exists across Benelux is the importance of software. “Buyers recognise that the true value of an IFPD doesn’t lie exclusively in the hardware,” says Vine. “To make a real impact on teaching and learning the accompanying software and its functionality needs to specifically meet the needs of schools today and have localised content readily available.”

Danny Neijs, head of sales, BenQ (Benelux), supports this. “In the Netherlands, the market has invested highly in education and due to the service economy, there is a huge demand for digital solutions. In Belgium, there’s lower investment in education although the projector business is still growing. There has been an increase in the b2b market in Belgium which creates great potential for AV growth.”

Neijs predicts a growing request for laser projectors, wireless meeting room solutions and signage displays in both territories in the year ahead.

“In the Netherlands we expect further growth for interactive touch solutions. In the longer term, the Belgian market will also start to adopt IFPs.”

Regarding the Belgian region, Promethean has seen different trends between the Flemish and the French speaking Wallonia market with adoption of IFPDs quicker in the Flemish region. Overall it says the Belgian market has a much lower penetration for interactive technologies than the Dutch, which it believes more likely due to economic rather than technological factors.

Marc Pannebakker, marketing director at Intronics, Atlona’s Benelux partner, corroborates: “At the start of a project in Belgium we experience a higher focus on price than in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is more demanding on features.”

Randstad and Brussels
Unsurprisingly, the main AV business in Belgium can be found in Brussels, the de facto capital of the EU, which has the highest density of corporate firms. Belgium is also one of the highest ranked countries when it comes to traffic jams so a lot of organisations are looking for ways their employees can work remotely and avoid travelling, observes Tom Dehouck, director of digital transformation for Ricoh.

“Even though Belgians acknowledge this problem we are still quite conservative when it comes to this new way of working and collaborating.”

BenQ and others report the biggest investments in the Randstad in the Netherlands, an area where the country’s four largest cities are situated. More and more multinationals are setting up in Amsterdam as a precursor to Brexit, report several of AV’s correspondents.

“Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly gravitating to each other to work together on projects, and clustered just outside the Randstad,” says Saarberg. “They facilitate their employees with state-of-the-art buildings mostly within a short distance of public transport. These companies are first in line when adopting new technologies and are also spending more on AV than other industries.”

Cities such as Eindhoven and Den Bosch, outside the Randstad are also active. “Also, Den Haag where most of the government offices and large international institutions are based,” says Saarberg. “There’s a huge demand for office space in the big cities, therefore pricing per sq m2 is increasing at the moment. The Randstad is particularly expensive in terms of office space but also for parking, and because of this there’s a movement to other regions such as Eindhoven or even further to the South.”

When it comes to specific verticals and technology in demand, Klein points to luxury yacht building as a market where the Dutch are particularly strong. “The highest quality yachts are built there, and of course they feature a lot of Crestron technology.”

Exterity’s Calaber is looking to the refurb of stadia ahead of UEFA competitions. It recently outfitted PSV Eindoven’s stadium from coaxial to IP. “Whereas in Germany or France there’s a high demand for end-to-end IPTV solutions from the head end to the screen, demand is not as strong in the Benelux.” In part this is because of the strong presence of local cable operators, she suggests.

Crestron highlights most AV activity from the wireless presenting vertical, combined with UC and increasing demand for room scheduling solutions.

Klein adds: “The Belgium market has an increasing need for AV solutions that are simple, scalable and affordable. We are looking at more small installations and fewer big/complex integrations. Outcome-based models are the future as we head more towards IT business models.”

Overall, the Benelux is “open to adopt new technologies and as a result, the market is steadily growing and highly competitive,” says Neijs. Pannebakker deems the climate “positive and offering opportunities for future investment in AV solutions.”

National elections in Belgium this May make it a little difficult to predict the impact on AV business, but both country’s economies are steady to growing and likely to see an uptick past April if the Brexit dividend goes in their favour.