An opportunity for Gate.31 to travel to Wavre, in Walloon Brabant, for an exclusive meeting with Marc Ansoult, founder and CEO of Exquando.
Located on the first floor of a small building, Exquando’s neighbour (and client) is pharmaceutical giant GSK. But here the welcome is more of a family affair. As soon as we arrive, we are greeted by ‘Oscar’, the house dog and company mascot. The tone is set. Welcome to Exquando!
Exquando is a Belgian company specialising in the management of project and organisational documentation. It aims to be independent of software vendors.
Can you briefly describe Exquando’s expertise?
We are very active in the management of technical documentation within large companies that are developing their infrastructures. For example, we work for GSK, UCB, Elia, Imec, Fluxys, etc. Within these companies, our contacts are mainly engineering directors and project managers. We also work for construction companies such as BESIX and design offices such as Sweco and RealDev. We have an international presence, including in Guinea with Equans!
With the experience we have gained, we have broadened our skills and now work for SMEs, local authorities, and inter-municipal organizations, taking on all types of document management projects.
We are also active in the field of archiving. In a consortium with other companies in the sector, we manage the archives of the European institutions.
In what context and at what stage does Exquando come into play?
The constant flow of technological innovation is disrupting the established ways of managing information within organizations. People adapt as best they can to all these innovations, until one day a threshold is crossed, and someone sounds the alarm.
That’s when the Exquando team steps in to rethink the way we collaborate, communicate, and manage documents.
And since we’re talking about collaboration, the Exquando team makes sure to broaden the discussion by inviting everyone involved in the information system!
How do you see the road you’ve travelled?
The company’s journey is first and foremost that of a team, of all the people who have shared the Exquando adventure over these first 15 years.
As for me, I’ve recently decided to change my role within the company, from that of an expert to that of a coach. I now let my teams manage projects and client relationships.
Commercially, Exquando has been and continues to be a success. This year we have once again achieved double-digit growth. That bodes well for the future!
Can you name some of the success stories that have marked these first 15 years?
One of our greatest successes is certainly the fact that our first customer is still with us (smile), as are our first two employees. This shows that we know how to build long-term relationships of trust with our customers and employees.
I’d also like to mention our recent ISO 9001 certification. Far from being a restrictive process, we have implemented it as a way of empowering ourselves and driving continuous improvement. And this strengthens our confidence in the future of the company.
What are the new challenges for Exquando in the coming years?
Like many other SMEs, our first challenge will be to recruit, train and retain talent! To this end, we have set up an in-house academy, because the jobs at Exquando can’t (always) be learned in school…
Another challenge, of course, is the advent of generative AI, which is shaking up the document management business. Many organizations have set up data management and governance teams thinking that document chaos was an intractable problem. Today, with generative AI making it easier to extract information and automatically classify documents, things have changed. It’s an exciting challenge and a new chapter for the Exquando teams!
Thanks to AI, we will be able to make the most of the « digital mass » accumulated on file servers over the last 30 years. Marc Ansoult.
What can we wish for the Exquando teams in the coming years?
At Exquando we have built a team of men and women with different profiles and backgrounds. This diversity is and must remain our DNA! Our greatest wish is to develop this team while preserving our values.
Secondly, we need to develop our skills and adapt to new technologies – as we’ve just mentioned – to better satisfy our customers and remain THE reference in document management.
