MultiMinds celebrates its 7th anniversary by creating an innovation lab

Siegert Dierickx: “The most noteworthy is how we’ve evolved over the past several years: our focus shifted from pure data analytics to customer data strategy. Today we’re working on a strategic level with our customers to improve their customer journeys with data.”

Philippe Vlaemminck: “Of course, we have our customers to thank for that. We grew towards that customer data strategy out of their needs. Most customers came to us with questions related to data analytics years ago, but now we’re taking on larger strategic projects together. Those long-standing partnerships have given us the confidence to focus entirely on customer data.”

Philippe: “I think Partenamut is a very nice case. They turned to us with just a small problem to fix, but by tackling that exceptionally well and thinking along with them, it grew into a long-term, trust-based relationship. Nowadays, we’re working on very innovative projects together. I'm proud that we've made customers think differently about their data, and that we’ve laid out a strategic path for their customer data and third-party data.”

Siegert: “It's hard to choose a single project. Customers such as Colruyt Group also come to mind, who’ve been working with us from the very beginning and with whom we’ve built long-lasting partnerships along the way. And with other customers, such as TVH, Unicef, Cras, ING, Mediahuis and Teva, we’re active in very distinct vertical markets, both in Belgium and far beyond.”

Philippe: “We’ve reinvented ourselves a few times already. I think we’ve more or less reached MultiMinds 3.0. continuous learning is in our nature, but it’s also a necessity. Our business model is constantly being nibbled at. New technologies quickly make existing ones obsolete. As a result, we have to build on completed implementations regularly. Cannibalizing ourselves is necessary to keep up.”

Siegert: “We’ve been drawing up a grand plan for the future these past few months. Now, the time has come to go public with it. We’ve created a dedicated innovation team and christened it DIAL: Data Innovation & Acceleration Lab.”

“Recent research by VOKA shows that almost 70% of Flemish companies struggle with their digital transformations. This means we’re falling behind in terms of digitalization. With DIAL, our goal is to develop data acceleration on a strategic level. In doing so, we’ll be able to help companies that want to start with machine learning or AI but don’t know where or how to start. We’ll identify tomorrow’s market evolutions and develop innovative solutions to tackle the challenges of the future.”

Philippe: “It’s always been our strategy to break down big problems into smaller pieces. That’s what we’ll be doing now as well, by showing our customers how to digitally transform their companies one step at a time. This way, they’ll be able to speed up the pace of digital innovation, and gain and retain a competitive advantage. We’re on the lookout for a lot of new talent to help us with that, because we’re going to push hard on data engineering.”

Siegert: “So, apply now! We’re hiring multiple new colleagues to build the DIAL team, which will be our company’s flagship for the coming year. For now, our sole objective is to innovate. We expect this to lead to new services only in the medium-term future. Instead of being sucked into our daily operations, the DIAL team will enjoy tons of freedom to choose what to work on.”

Philippe: “IT experts who are passionate about customer experience. If you’re already working with data but want your expertise to evolve more towards data flows and data integrations, you’ll fit right in. The DIAL team will get the freedom and budget to experiment and fail. It’ll be like a playground for data engineers.”

Philippe: “Absolutely. Our plan for the next five years is very ambitious: we want to grow by 40% annually. To achieve that, we keep allocating as many resources as possible to research and innovation. By constantly broadening our expertise, our independence from certain technologies also gets stronger – and that’s how we prove our added value to our customers. Our impartial, no-nonsense approach to analyzing and activating data helps them to stay ahead of the game. And DIAL will only reinforce this process.”

Siegert: “We’re flying completely solo on this project. We don’t rely on external capital, and that’s what sets us apart from our competitors. It’s not about creating added value for shareholders; it's about innovating as much as possible. Technology is the driving force. That’s why we want to free up as much capital as possible for innovation – to be able to take on even more innovative projects with international customers in the next few years.”