Econocom

Econocom Group SE is a European business-to-business (B2B) provider of digital services^[2] founded in 1974^[3] by former Chairman of Informatiques Inter Ecoles Jean-Louis Bouchard,^[4] initially known as Europe Computer Systèmes (ECS).

Jean-Louis Bouchard founded the group in 1974 under the name of Europe Computer Systèmes (ECS)^[5] in France. Twelve years later, in 1986, he sold his stake in ECS France to Société Générale but bought back all the foreign subsidiaries and merged them with Econocom, an American SMB he had recently taken over. The subsidiaries and group were renamed "Econocom". That same year, Econocom Belgium was listed on the secondary market of the Brussels stock exchange. Econocom Distribution acquired Asystel Belgium in 1993, which made them the leading IT distributor in the Benelux region.

Econocom was listed on the primary market^[6] of the Brussels stock exchange in 1996. Four years later, Econocom was listed on the secondary market^[7] of the Paris stock exchange. The group diversified by setting up Econocom Telecom.^[8] That same year, they made an offer for Infopoint.^[9] In 2001, the group had employed 2000 people.^[10]

In 2002, they acquired Comdisco-Promodata^[11] in France (administrative and financial IT asset management), followed two years later by the acquisition of Signal Service^[12] France. In 2005, the group concentrated its business in 5 European^[13] 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, they branched into telecoms by acquiring Avenir Telecom's business division.^[14] The next year, they expanded their telecoms division and acquired the Carphone Warehouse^[15] France's "Business" division. The group doubled its sales force in Italy by acquiring Tecnolease,^[16] an Italian IT leasing company. They acquired Databail,^[17] 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,^[18] and Jean-Louis Bouchard bought back the company he set up over thirty-five years before and merged it with Econocom.

They launched "7 Remote Services^[19]" in 2010, a service designed to assist companies in migrating their IT estate to Microsoft’s latest operating system.

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.^[20] A graduate of ESCP who began her career as an Account Manager at IBM, Véronique joined the management board, chaired by Jean-Louis Bouchard, along with Jean-Philippe Roesch^[21] and Bruno Lemaistre.^[22]

Econocom continued its expansion in the virtualisation sector by acquiring Ermestel in 2012,^[23] a pioneer in the Spanish market, and acquired a stake in Centix,^[24] a Belgian company specialising in cloud computing. The same year they acquired Tactem,^[25] a provider of telecom expense management. They also acquired France Systèmes,^[26] France's leading Apple reseller in the education and research sector, and enhanced its IT security offering by buying Cap Synergy,^[27] a French systems integrator specialising in network and IT system security.

In 2013, Econocom bought out French systems integrator Exaprobe, thus expanding its security, network and communications division, worth €30 million in revenue at the time.^[28] And they announced their new strategic plan MUTATION 2013 – 2017.^[29] On 12 September, Econocom finalised the acquisition of a majority stake in Osiatis, a major 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.^[30] In October, Jean-Maurice Fritsch and Bruno Grossi, co-chairmen of the Osiatis Management Board, joined the Econocom Executive Board.^[31] The Econocom Group unveiled its new visual identity and adopted a new branding system.^[32] In November, Econocom made a public offer on Osiatis. On 22 November, Econocom finalised the acquisition of the entire share capital of Osiatis.^[33]

Georges Croix and Econocom joined forces in 2014 to create Digital Dimension, a cloud and digital services provider.^[34]

Econocom continued its involvement in EdTech in 2017 by investing in the venture capital firm Educapital.^[35] Econocom and Microsoft announced a partnership to distribute Hololens on the European market^[36]

Robert Bouchard took over as CEO of the Econocom Group in 2018,^[37] and Louise Beveridge joined Econocom as Head of Brand.^[38] Econocom acquired a majority stake in Altabox, a Spanish "leader in the development of omnichannel marketing strategies"^[39] Econocom presented e-vigilante, its new robot for monitoring industrial sites.^[40]

• Econocom logo (1985)
• Econocom logo (1999)
• Econocom logo (2003)
• Econocom logo (2007)
• Econocom logo (2011)
• Econocom logo (2013)

Econocom had 8,597 employees as of December 31, 2024.^[41] It has 40 years’ experience and has 7.0 million digital assets managed. At the end of 2012, the group established itself in the "smart solutions"^[42] market by setting up a research and development programme with Istituto Superiore Mario Boella in Turin, Italy.

The group's three areas of business are:

• Technology management & financing
• IT & Telecom Services
• Products and Solutions

Econocom has operations in 20 countries. In 2013,^[43] the group's main markets were:

• Northern and Eastern Europe: 10% of total revenue
• France: 51% of total revenue
• Benelux: 19% of total revenue
• Southern Europe: 20% of total revenue