“Antonio, I think you were too hasty in joining a multinational, you had a long way to go on your own”. – This was the phrase that inspired me to write this post, which has been shared firstly with our internal team and now publicly.
If you are a follower of our firm, you like the content we publish or you are simply aware of the press releases that have been released, you will be aware that we have recently taken the big step to become part of the Techedge Group.
This decision has been very carefully considered since the beginning of this year 2021 by Axazure’s management and we have taken the plunge because we are at that point of business maturity to be able to take this step and continue to grow with order and rigor. With a very accurate forecast to end this 2021 close to 5M turnover and providing very interesting operating numbers year after year, many people wonder why?
The truth is that this type of publication is not very common in the business world, but I am not a fan of the common, so I will explain through different points, the reasons that have led us to join hands with this great company:
1. Ensure the creation, attraction and retention of technological talent.
I have always been a staunch defender of human resources, I consider them to be vital and I cannot understand any other vision than to take care of them. Axazure has an exceptional human team, not only personally (they are good people and also very fun), but for me the key to our success is that they are true artists in their jobs. I think we were all aware that if the lack of talent in the technology channel was already significant, the bubble that has been building up for the last 2 years is starting to give us a lot of respect and the only way to combat it is 2 ways, creating new talent and knowing how to attract/retain the most senior talent.
To create schools, Techedge as a technology partner is in the same situation as the industry (it does not find people easily) and has great experience in carrying out initiatives to generate new talent that is working very well. At Axazure we will be happy to be sponges to learn how they do it, as training is still very important in our DNA.
In relation to attracting/retaining more senior talent, my honors always go to any entrepreneur trying to create a business from scratch, but at this point of labor madness in the digital transformation, the smallest ones can be the most disadvantaged. The demand for experienced profiles is so high that it is no longer enough to have a salary in line with the market, nor flexibility, nor teleworking, nor social benefits, nor conciliation… this is a “must”, now it is time to talk about a career plan, to talk about internationalization options, to be able to offer job changes for multi-technology, to actively participate in the sustainability of the planet, to have a corporate social responsibility with criteria… and these are points that when you are starting up, logically cannot be offered or guaranteed due to the size of the company itself.
I am very lucky to have friends in my work and if they used to receive offers, you can imagine what happened when the news of the integration with Techedge was released. As my grandmother used to say, “when the sea is troubled, the fishermen win”, but my job has been and continues to be to be at the helm of this ship and to demonstrate that this has been carried out for the common benefit of all of us so that we can all continue to grow. Although uncertainty is legitimate, the path is shown by walking and that is how it will be.
2 We have understood each other
Beyond the legal complexity of this type of operation, I am once again impressed by the people behind the orchestra. From the first moment we started conversations, the treatment we perceived was natural, without posturing, with clarity on both sides and, of course, decisive for there to be a connection.
After convincing the Spanish management team, we decided to request a meeting with the Italian management team, and very kindly spent a nice day in Milan getting to know each other better. It was decisive to meet them in person, and we all left in love with the vision and passion transmitted by the Group’s top manager, with very clear ideas and exciting objectives to achieve together.
3 Service excellence and complementarity
It was important to find a partner who cared about the quality of the service and who allowed us some leeway to continue working in the way we consider most efficient. Techedge is a recognized figure within the SAP market, with extensive experience within the Customer Experience world with both SAP and Salesforce and more technical equipment related to AZURE and Data Analytics if we are talking about Microsoft. For us, FIT is perfect because we see the absolute complementarity in their projects and ours, providing an additional plus to all of them as is the Low Code – Power Platform. The recurrence and loyalty of both Techedge and Axazure customers are clear consequences of the fact that the service beyond the implementation is also important, demonstrating that the projects are well executed.
4 Internationalisation
We have our feet on the ground and will continue to grow our market in Spain, but obviously the options ahead for our 50 people to spearhead new geographic locations are obvious. Latin America and the US are very attractive markets for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform and we have the reach to get the practice off the ground. Obviously it will all be voluntary opportunities, but the fact that we can have them for the team to freely apply, allows us to bring new experiences into their lives and of course growth in their careers.
5 Sustainability
Some may think this point is just filler, but I think we may all have children, nieces, nephews, cousins… and we need to take seriously what is happening to the planet. From Techedge, we loved the business line they have developed called ESGeo, a cloud application that helps companies streamline the entire sustainability reporting process, from collecting and validating non-financial data, to calculating KPIs and creating reports and financial statements.
The main objective is to offer a platform capable of transforming ESG-related risks (environmental, social and governance) into value and opportunities, allowing organisations to have an innovative tool specifically designed to manage the entire value chain of environmental, social and governance factors. The key to all this is to be able to offer dashboards, alerts and detailed reports to facilitate a transparent disclosure process along these lines, which Axazure will of course implement as we are able to do so.
And for all these factors, including the risk that part of Axazure’s management has experienced first hand in our past with the disappearance of companies in the sector just after scaling the business from 5M to 10M, the decision was unanimous:
#AxazureRocks, now better than ever, powered by Techedge.
About the Author: Antonio Gilabert
