BRUSSELS Software Cluster
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BRUSSELS SOFTWARE CLU STER EDITION 2012 ERP BI ERP HRM CRM SCM CMS WSM An initiative of BPM GIS DMS Tour & Taxis Avenue du Port 86c B 211 B-1000 Brussels Phone +32 2 422 00 20 Fax +32 2 422 00 43 [email protected] www.bea.irisnet.be russels IN B ftware CLUSTER SO CLUSTER With the support of BRUSSELS SOftWare CLUster EDITION 2012 The software industry is at the centre of product innovation, affects organisations, leisure activities and daily life. In Brussels, the software market has become a dynamic network of innovative companies, start-ups and research centers. This brochure gives an overview of the software vendors based in the Brussels-Capital Region as well as the academic key players and the support organizations involved in the software sector. Are you looking for a partner or have a project in the Brussels area do not hesitate to contact directly the companies, the universities, the institutions or us: The Brussels Enterprise Agency (BEA) Stéphanie Robin Phone: +32 2 800 08 45 Fax: +32 2 422 00 43 E-mail: [email protected] SOFTWARE IN BRUSSELS 1 CONTENTS Software Industry In The Brussels-Capital Region 4 Index Of The Companies 7 Profiles Of Software Vendors 11 Software Technologies In The Research Area Landscape 95 Software Industries Brussels Support Organizations 107 Index By Function 119 SOFTWARE IN BRUSSELS 3 SoftWare INDustrY IN THE BRUssELS-CAPITAL REGION HE BRUSSELS-CAPITAL REGION with its central loca- have increased of 11% which is relatively more than tion in Europe has an intensive economic activ- in the two other regions. ity (Brussels produces about 20% of the Belgian The Brussels regional government strongly sup- gross national product). The Region has about ports the ICT sector in Brussels, and the region’s one million inhabitants (about 9% of the popula- Contract for Economy and Employment designates tion of Belgium) of whom approximately 40% are the ICT sector as one of the three key innovative non-Belgians. Even though Brussels has a total sectors in Brussels. surface area of 162 km² (about 0.5 % of the total As indicated in the Regional Plan for Innovation, the area of Belgium) and about one-third of Belgium’s ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) global ICT activities is concentrated in the region. business unit of the Brussels Enterprise Agency Brussels-based ICT companies have a proven track has been requested by the Brussels Region to set record of delivering state-of-the-art solutions that up and manage clusters in order to increase syner- are commercial winners and a particular success gies between the different ICT players. with applications for niche markets. The ICT sector A global, coherent ICT policy focused on training in Brussels is significantly growing with the pres- ICT professionals through the creation of the ICT ence of large ICT multinationals as well as many reference centre “Evoliris”, the strengthening of small high tech companies. As Capital of Europe, financial aid and reduction of taxes (elimination of Brussels offers real business opportunities to its the PC tax), accompany these actions. ICT companies. The dynamism of the ICT sector in Brussels also results from a proactive approach The Software Industry developed by the Region in order to support innova- The software industry is composed of all the com- tion, competitiveness and employment. panies that develop and market software. In gen- eral, it includes software production and software The ICT Sector in Belgium and distribution but may also incorporate software ser- the Brussels-Capital Region vices such as consulting, documentation, training ICT companies significantly contribute to a coun- and maintenance. Software product firms earn at try’s economy, either directly or indirectly. They least 60 to 80 % of their revenues from developing lead to the creation of jobs and increases in pro- software, licensing it for sale and receiving main- ductivity, added value and exports. As such, in tenance fees for updating that software. Belgium the ICT sector’s contribution to growth is The software industry is divided in two big catego- estimated at 20%. About one third of this percent- ries: systems and application software. Systems age is generated in the Brussels Region, which has software includes operating systems (bios, desktop unique growth potential thanks to the high concen- environment), network and database management, tration of ICT companies and its central location devices drivers, development tools (text editors, in Belgium. debuggers, compilers, etc), programming lan- The ICT sector in Brussels is clearly growing. guages, and other systems software. Application According to Agoria, the ICT sector in Brussels software comprises general business productivity hired actually 20.000 people, which accounts 5 % of (ERP, CRM, SCM, etc) and home use applications, jobs in the private sector and the job opportunities cross-industry and vertical market applications 4 SOFTWARE IN BRUSSELS and other application. This category of software 34% of all new business software purchases will be allows end users to accomplish specific tasks. consumed via SaaS, and SaaS delivery will consti- According to Gartner, the global business software tute about 14.5% of worldwide software spending market will surpass $267 billion in 2011. The soft- across all primary markets. ware industry is projected for continued growth in 2012, with revenue forecast to reach $288 billion. The Software Industry The United States holds 44% of the market, Europe in the Brussels-Capital Region 36% and Asia 20%. According to a recent study of Datamonitor, There are currently three major’s trends that are Belgium software market accounts for 3 % of the transforming the software industry: Cloud com- European software market. The study also reveals puting, mobile devices, and the consumerisation that in 2014, the Belgian software market is fore- of technology. These new trends will involve great cast to have a value of $3,310.6 million, an increase change, great opportunity, and great challenge. of 23.5% since 2009. The impact of these transformations will gener- The software development and production sector ate greater collaboration between the different IT is identified by Agoria, the Belgian trade associa- stakeholders: software, hardware, IT services, and tion of the technology industry, as one of the main telcos. growing sectors in Brussels. “It is in this sector The Cloud Computing is a general term for any- that companies have the most potential for de- thing that involves delivering hosted services over velopment, not only nationally but in particular the internet. These services are broadly divided into internationally”. 3 categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Due to the importance of the software industry in Platform-as-a- Service (PaaS) and Software-as- Brussels, the Brussels Enterprise Agency has cre- a-Service (SaaS). More particularly, SaaS is a ated the cluster Software in Brussels. This network software delivery method that provides access to gathers more than 80 companies producing and software and its functions remotely as a web-based commercializing their own packaged or internet- service. This method will become increasingly pop- based software in the Brussels-Capital Region. An ular in the longer-term for its ability to simplify de- overview of these companies is presented through ployment and reduce customer acquisition costs. this catalogue. In 2011, the cluster has generated Another advantage of SaaS is to allow developers a total turnover of approximately €450 million and to support many customers with a single version has represented about 1.800 employees. Recently, of a product. the cluster has launched its new website: www. A recent International Data Corporation (IDC) study softwareinBrussels.be in which can be found infor- shows that the Software as a Service (SaaS) market mation over the cluster activities and the software had worldwide revenues of $13.1 billion in 2009. industry. IDC forecasts the market to reach $40.5 billion by Brussels companies are doing more than just fol- 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate lowing the international trend of the SaaS model. of 25.3%. By 2012, IDC expects that less than 15% In fact, Brussels has real pioneer companies in of net-new software firms coming to market will the field. This model continues to grow since it ship a packaged product (on CD). By 2014, about represents more than 60% of the Brussels-based SOFTWARE IN BRUSSELS 5 software editors. Software production activities issued by the Institute for research and innovation in Brussels are distributed as follows: Finance, (Innoviris). Financial and promotional support accounting & administration (17%), Customer for exports can also be obtained from Brussels- Relationship Management (16%), Business intelli- Export, thanks in particular to the assistance of its gence (BI)/Semantic (12%), Content & collaborative ICT specialist. Brussels has the Brussels Regional management (10%), Industrial & manufacturing Informatics Center (BRIC), which is responsi- (10%), are the most represented sub-categories in ble for the IT development of the region’s public which Brussels companies are active. authorities. The Brussels Region created the Brussels Brussels, an ideal place for developing Enterprise Agency (BEA) (www.abe.irisnet.be) innovative IT projects whose mission is to be the “leading public con- Counting on a high concentration of ICT and re- tact entity” for entrepreneurs, start-ups, compa- search