Ambassador for large companies Signpost Belgium: education provider

Signpost is a fast-growing technology group focused on the digitalization of European education. The organization is based on five legs: hardware (Signpost Belgium), software, connectivity, digital content and training. There is no shortage of ambition: as an ICT partner for European education, Signpost wants to become the market leader.

For the second year in a row, the champagne corks are popping at Signpost. The Lokeren company once again wins the Ambassador title at the large East Flemish Trends Gazellen. All signals indicate that Signpost will remain at the top of the rankings for a while, because in the middle of last year Signpost Hardware announced a four-year agreement with Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen. The contract includes the supply of laptops with service and represents an estimated value of 220 million euros. That is approximately the annual turnover of the entire group.

Underserved markets

The Signpost story started over ten years ago with laptops. “Laptops have become an indispensable part of the classroom. We sell, rent and lease the devices to the school or directly to the students. We personalize them all to suit each school,” says CEO Arne Vandendriessche. “A school can easily have a thousand students, but barely employs two IT specialists to maintain and repair all those devices, in addition to the other work that those people have to do. We profile ourselves as the provider of education. Every day we have more than seventy technicians on the road to provide assistance.”

Signpost Hardware has grown organically in Flanders. But the ambition extends much further than the home market. The company already has a strong foothold in the Netherlands and is now focusing mainly on countries that are lagging behind in the digitalization of education. “In France, Spain, the United Kingdom and especially Wallonia (90% of students do not yet have a laptop), digitalization is still in its infancy. The potential there is enormous. With the acquisition of Campus PDI, we became active in Spain two years ago. We will announce a Spanish takeover in a few weeks and will have more than 50,000 student devices there. We recently also started in the United Kingdom,” says Arne Vandendriessche.

Vandendriessche is a bit of a jack of all trades. Not only is he a thoroughbred entrepreneur, until two years ago he was also alderman for Economy, Energy and Sport in Kortrijk. Although he no longer has any political ambition in the short term. He is increasingly emerging as an investor, with already about ten participations. Last year, for example, he invested in Get Driven, a European platform for on-demand drivers. “There are a lot of parallels,” Vandendriessche responds. “Just like us, Get Driven wants to relieve people’s worries by transporting them efficiently and safely in their own car. The company also has European ambitions: in the short term in Germany, later in the United Kingdom.”

Finnish takeover

In addition to hardware, Signpost is supported on four other legs. Academic Software is the software branch aimed at university students. Through a subscription system, they gain access to a unique platform with more than 1,500 software titles, from big names such as Adobe and Microsoft to niche products. More than 1.3 million students, teachers and researchers already use the platform, which is known for its efficiency and user-friendliness. That number was recently boosted by the acquisition of Ilona IT, the market leader in educational software and training in Finland.

Signpost has been developing a digital publishing house for several years. With Lernova it is targeting the Flemish secondary school market. “Thanks to our interactive teaching methods – with a good balance between paper and digital – we can save a lot of costs. The school bill can even be halved. Already 60,000 students have opted for a partial switch with a limited number of subjects. We hope to reach the 100,000 mark in September,” says Vandendriessche.

In collaboration with Proximus, Signpost is building a high-speed fiber optic connection that connects all educational actors. That connectivity company is the fourth arm of Signpost. With the acquisition of Fourcast, it added a fifth branch in the middle of last year. Fourcast specializes in training, guiding and supporting educational professionals in digital skills. Arne Vandendriessche: “In our own country, Fourcast is not only a strong brand name, but also the Belgian reference. I strongly believe in the power of consultancy for schools and teachers in Europe.” The company has 320 employees in twelve countries.