What does Rank 1 do?
Peter Vindevogel: Since the beginning, we have offered IT consulting services. In doing so, we built a strong foundation in the early years. If a company needs reinforcement for its own IT team, Rank 1 assists them with experienced consultants who know their field. Rank 1 looks for the ideal mix between the needs of a company and the phase in the career of a consultant. The collaboration must be an added value for both.
In addition, we provide professional services in IT. The customer outsources part of the tasks to us. It is a very different collaboration model that the well-known managed services. Launching this service was a crucial step in our growth. The demand for it turned out to be high.
Raf De Backer: In managed services, you take over everything; the client places responsibilities with the provider and they are strictly defined in contracts. Our professional services model is a co-sourcing model with the customer. We carefully agree on who does what. Flexible and pragmatic collaboration characterizes us.
Professional services we offer mainly for SMEs and midmarket clients. Consulting focuses on enterprise customers. Today we are growing in both branches.
How does Rank 1 make a difference?
Peter: It is the combination of those two services that is fairly unique and innovative. It has benefits for the client as well as for the consultant.
Raf: We employ two types of people. For consulting, we have in-house experts who specialize in a single domain or technology. Our professional services branch employs generalist profiles who can be widely deployed with various customers, in both small and large companies. Consulting assignments often last a long time, and it is a nice change for these experts to help out with a professional services client. For our SME customers, the know-how of such a top expert is very welcome. It only has advantages. Moreover, our consultants make each other stronger.
Peter: Bodyshopping we don't do. In that, we are different. Many Belgian companies post purely with a focus on profit, whereas we start from our consultants. Is the assignment with the client an opportunity for them? Can they grow there, by taking the next step in their career or obtaining a certificate?
What are the milestones of the past decade?
Peter: Launching professional services was crucial. In the beginning, with professional services, we focused mainly on small businesses. In 2020, we started in the midmarket business. That gave us significant growth. That was also a milestone, as was our regional operation.
Raf: Two years ago we anchored ourselves regionally, with an office in Genk. With Rank 1 Euregio, we serve Wallonia, Limburg and the border area with the Netherlands. In time, we want to extend this set-up to other regions.
In IT, competition in the job market is high. Why does Rank 1 manage to attract and retain talent?
Peter: We try to take our people to the next level as quickly as possible. Their knowledge grows quickly because we supervise them intensively, offer them the right projects and encourage them to obtain certificates. Knowledge is the key in this business.
Raf: People appreciate that. That's why there is little turnover. We set the bar high. Not everyone can meet it. We choose quality, not quantity. Finding talent is not easy. We really look for a cultural fit. If there is one, people stay with us for a long time. Because this is so important to us, Peter and I are always involved in job interviews.
How would you describe that cultural fit?
Peter: It's hard to put into words. We sense whether someone fits with us. This phrase sums it up, "We do what we say, and we say what we do. No empty promises. We keep our word. When candidates come to us, we often hear that their previous employers didn't keep promises. That's frustrating. We keep our agreements, with the client and the consultants.
Open communication is essential. We also deliver difficult messages honestly, straightforwardly, transparently. You have to be able to deal with that. There is an open, flat structure. There are no team leads to report to. If there is something on your mind, just step into my office. One happy family, so to speak.
How do customers find their way to Rank 1?
Raf: Word of mouth is important to us. We grow organically thanks to satisfied customers, without using the sales cannon heavily. At our start, referrals through Gumption and the Gumption companies were important.
Peter: We solve IT problems. You can never control everything on a technical level. But our customers know we don't shy away from problems. It's not easy to make your name as a start-up. But now, ten years later, we can say we have succeeded. Our vendors, customers, job applicants: they know Rank 1. We have a foothold, even with the larger companies.
Do you see an evolution in the problems customers are knocking on the door with?
Raf: Actually, no, because at Rank 1 we solve classic IT problems. Rather, we are a classic integrator: we monitor clients' core processes and we guide them with digital transformation processes. Of course, we keep up with the latest technologies and innovations in our field. For other questions, outside our focus areas, we can also count on our partners and fellow companies in the Gumption ecosystem.
Peter: While the complexity has increased, the customer demand has remained the same: make sure our IT is running on wheels so we can focus on our business. That's not to say we don't think forward. Our customers tell us that this is where we make the difference. Not all IT integrators do that.
Raf: We have many customers in the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers are concerned with tangible things. For them, we offer the most added value with our pragmatic and flexible approach.
What does Gumption mean for Rank 1?
Peter: Gumption gave us credibility and clout from the start. That has accelerated our growth. There is a great philosophy behind the cocreation principle, and we have already successfully put it into practice a few times by working together with the other companies for clients.
Raf: The better we know each other within the group, the more successful we can be together. With 800 people, that's not obvious. There is definitely an opportunity there.
What entrepreneurial lessons have you learned over the past decade?
Peter: Had I looked into a crystal ball ten years ago, I would have immediately signed for our results today. An entrepreneurial journey involves trial and error. Raf and I have been in the business for a long time. We have seen a lot, and our experience saves us from making mistakes. Making a mistake is okay, but you can't lose track. We are happy with our current course and we are still learning every day.
Raf: By staying true to our values, we have grown into the reliable, successful player we are today. Opportunism is wasted on us. If a task goes against our values, we don't do it. Saying no is part of it.
Peter: Again, it comes down to what I said earlier, "We do what we say, and we say what we do. That will continue to be our guiding principle for the next 10 years.
What are the ambitions for that next decade?
Raf: We may further expand our regional operation in East and West Flanders. We also expect further growth from the midmarket segment.
Peter: Companies with fifty to five hundred employees are interesting customers for us because they have IT issues in which we make a difference. The larger, often international companies work with service teams from other countries. That seems cheaper, but they don't deliver the same quality. Our Flemish SMEs understand this and prefer to pay for more security. IT is an essential part of their operations. They need people close by to solve important problems smoothly. Stable and reliable: that's us.
Can you quantify that predetermined growth?
Raf: We'd rather not. We want to grow healthy: healthy for our organization and consultants. We do that by monitoring quality and keeping clients happy. We proved that over the past decade. A knowledge company must not burn out its talent. If you grow too fast, you risk that. We want to avoid that at all costs.
Peter: Gumption, as an umbrella organization, never set targets in the past, and as a start-up gave us all the freedom to explore and conduct the business we believed in. That has paid off. We guard our sound foundation. It does not prevent us from exploring new avenues. Our ambition is certainly not stilled. We continue on the same momentum.