Axelio expands the growing group of Microsoft partners with the acquisition of BEND. With the addition of this expert in CRM solutions for education, non-profit organizations and SMEs, Axelio can further help its customers with the digitalization of their business.
With the acquisition of BEND, Axelio realized a significant expansion of its CRM activities and strengthens its position as a full-service Microsoft partner. Within the last year and a half, the group has already acquired Newminds (Dynamics 365 Business Central specialist), Pixelzebra (Dynamics 365 CRM specialist) and Xperit (Dynamics 365 Business Central specialist). With these specialists joining forces, Axelio can offer its customers a wide range of Microsoft solutions that contribute to further digitalization of business processes.
Business companion
With many years of experience as a CRM specialist, BEND is a valuable addition to the group. The company has improved the processes of various universities and colleges with their Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution. “By welcoming BEND into our Axelio family, we can offer BEND’s customers additional Microsoft solutions and services and we can even better fulfil our role as a travel companion on the road to digitalization for our customers,” said Frank van der Woude, CEO of Axelio. “We can guide customers, at the pace that suits them.”
Van der Woude entitles BEND as ‘a real specialist in education’. “It is a small-scale company that is working together with large and renowned educational institutions, such as Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and Deltion College, and additionally they also offer services to organizations in the SME and non-profit sector such as the RDW and NOM. BEND is a very entrepreneurial organization that is able to use their knowledge and expertise in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement/CRM and Microsoft Power Apps into result-oriented and user-friendly solutions. Combining these solutions with the other companies of the Axelio group, allows us to offer BEND’s customers a complete package of solutions and services.”
Cultural fit
The corporate culture of BEND fits well within Axelio’s growing collective. Van der Woude, “we are the same type of organization and are well connected. This forms a strong basis to build upon for a good future collaboration.”
Bert Doedens, co-owner of BEND, endorses these words. “Since there is a good personal connection, my partner Marc Borker and I are strongly convinced that we will be successful together. We like to identify ourselves with our northern roots, are down to earth and pragmatic. These are characteristics that we also recognize in Axelio. Not pompous, but very ambitious. Knowing this, creates a corporate environment in which we can stay ourselves.”
Continuity
Through this acquisition, the continuity of the services of BEND are guaranteed. Doedens: “With our team and solutions we have been very successful to our large clients for many years. Nevertheless, this also brings organizational challenges for our small team. Thereby, it was hard to grow the organization itself as we have always been busy and focusing on our clients. By joining Axelio we resolve this challenge. Furthermore, we can exchange knowledge and expertise, and deploy this for our clients.”
Except for the new benefits, nothing will change for BEND’s customers: BEND remains who BEND is. The owners of BEND will continue. “We think that it’s important to remain entrepreneurs and being challenged in doing so,” says Doedens. “That immediately gives new energy.”
