Sabio is 'the new kid on the block' – at least in the Netherlands. Abroad, the name Sabio Group stands for a global organization with a head office in London and a thousand employees in Europe and customers in 65 countries. The company wants to grow organically and through acquisitions to become the leading player in the Dutch CX market. High time for an introduction.

 

Specializing in helping customers transform their customer experiences, Sabio is a true technology company. Partly thanks to private equity financing, ambitions are high, also in the Netherlands. “Now Sabio in the Netherlands only has about thirty employees, but in two years' time we want to have more than a hundred people on board,” explains Wouter Bakker, Country Manager for the Netherlands.

Sabio serves a number of local customers from the Netherlands, but also facilities contact center Transcom Worldwide, for example. Furthermore, a number of customers who have a link with BV Nederland are served from the United Kingdom: Aegon, DHL, Essent and Office Depot (known as Viking in our country).

Specialized system integrator

Bakker: “We are a specialized system integrator that brings together CX technology, insight and experience in cloud migration. There are not many players in this category on the Dutch market. There are a number of smaller niche players that focus on a specific aspect of CX – think of chatbots or AI – and there are larger companies that are specifically active in the field of CX. Although relatively new to the Dutch scene, we are very well equipped and extremely knowledgeable. We benefit from a global CX specialist network behind our Dutch operation. As a system integrator, we can help integrate technologies if a customer has an application landscape with multiple suppliers. That puts us in a strong position.”

Agnostic

On the one hand, Sabio focuses on implementing technology from established providers, such as Genesys or Avaya. But on the other hand, Sabio also sees that the world is changing. Bakker explains: “We help customers optimize the entire customer journey. This means that all kinds of technology solutions can be relevant. We therefore try to support the customer's ecosystem as best as possible. Sometimes that means taking on a coordinating role, sometimes we develop a special solution ourselves. Our own IP is, for example, in the field of voice bots, but also in simplifying technology and the roll-out or management of contact center platforms. Another solution we developed is Airline, which allows us to integrate Google's Dialogue Flow into the customer's business, including on regular contact center platforms. We also have self-developed implementation methods.”

Bakker states that it is not Sabio's primary goal to replace customers' technology, unless it is in their best interest. Rather, Sabio helps them get the most out of their current CX tech stack. “In addition, we naturally like to see customers use solutions from our portfolio. But in practice, it often happens that we are also involved in other areas. So basically we are agnostic.”

Customer contact from Amazon or Salesforce?

“The movement to the cloud is currently dominant, cloud adoption is growing strongly,” says Bakker. “In recent years, there has also been some change cloud washing done: hosted solutions that are ultimately closer to the licensing model than the cloud model. The traditional players are therefore still experiencing a growth spurt with their new cloud solutions. In addition, you see new players who operate from the ecosystem concept, think of Twilio or AmazonConnect, or Salesforce working hard with Service Cloud. Those kinds of applications are so extensive that you can choose where you would like to place your routing and the agent desktop: in the contact center platform or in Salesforce?”

“Within the next three years, Amazon Connect and Salesforce will have made huge strides in the market.”

As far as Bakker is concerned, there are therefore many opportunities for new application providers who can benefit from the trend that ICT increasingly comes down to linking and integrating the best applications. “Within the next three years, Amazon Connect and Salesforce will have made huge advances in the market,” he believes.

Expand or simplify?

Customer contact managers often cling to the idea that they primarily have a technology challenge, says Bakker. “For example, they are quick to think that their problems are related to legacy systems. And that replacement is a condition for innovation and improvement. My experience is that those companies have an organizational challenge rather than a technical one. They are often not well able to organize innovation. In addition, many companies find it difficult to quickly meet the need, which they have quickly identified, with a working solution. The new technology providers are also not all equally mature in this area,” says Bakker.

Force strange eyes

In his opinion, the business within many large companies in recent years has been more concerned with expanding – resulting in complexity – than with simplifying the IT landscape. “As a supplier, we like to play a role in that area: force foreign eyes, let someone from the outside examine your application landscape. We therefore prefer customers who are really open to this. In other words, there must be a need for change and customers must be of a certain size – we are looking at larger organizations in particular. With the ideal customer, the contact center manager takes responsibility for processes and technology. In practice, companies often opt for the cheapest solution. I myself am a belief-driven manager. I prefer not to focus on KPIs, good results are often mainly the result of good cooperation and honesty. A lot depends on the intention with which you enter something.”

Pay differently

Bakker thinks that there is still room for improvement in the sector in terms of trust. “Technicians, including at suppliers, often find it difficult to deal with criticism. In addition to their advantages, all applications also have their disadvantages and weaknesses. If you have a gut feeling about a particular situation or solution, make it explicit and do something about it. And if you, as a supplier, really believe in a certain solution, attach obligations and benefits to it. Often little remains of the agreements about realized benefits: rewarding cost savings does not end up in the contract anyway.”

On acquisition path

“Innovation in CX always involves integrating different systems,” says Bakker. “Within a typical Sabio customer there is usually an ecosystem in which the capabilities and specialisms of the organization itself, of Sabio and of other relevant partners are involved. We strongly believe in this collaborative co-creation approach where our ambition is to help customers take control of this journey.” In any case, part of Sabio's journey is that there will be acquisitions. “We may have more to say about that in the short term. And we certainly also want to communicate about interesting customers,” says Bakker. (Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

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