Diamond® Europe : A partnership of almost 25 years!
Diamond® Europe is a family-owned Belgian company, founded in 1985 by the Dini family, which has contributed to the development of the professional kitchen and refrigeration equipment sector.
The brand’s reputation and success, backed by a state-of-the-art organization, place the company in the TOP 5 of European distribution, with sales in excess of 40 million euros. The company is present in over 50 countries, with a network of 2,500 dealers/installers.
In Neder-over-Heembeek, on the site of a huge warehouse, we meet Bernard Temmerman, who combines an IT and marketing role, and Alex Dini, the group’s COO. In addition to Diamond Europe, we also come across sister company Bertrand Manufacturer, which has been manufacturing stainless steel equipment for large kitchens for 20 years.
Alex Dini explains:
“At Diamond, we have around fifty people, almost all of whom use dual screens to work efficiently. Advensys takes care of the cloud hosting of the Sage X3 ERP as well as the web part enabling our resellers to place orders in real time. 75 to 80% of orders are placed online, so it’s important for us that this ap- plication is secure and available! We’ve just decided that advensys will also take over the management of Bertrand Manufacturer’s infrastructure, so as to reinforce synergies between the 2 entities. That’s around forty more people, but in a more industrial environment.
We’re recruiting an in-house IT specialist. He or she will be the day-to-day contact for users and for the two “Juliens” who, at advensys, look after IT at Diamond and Bertrand respectively. Having developed commercial, financial and logistical synergies, we’re now tackling the IT side of the business, with a migration that’s less common in an industrial environment.”
Julien de Bled confirms:
“At Diamond Europe, we take care of all the infrastructure (in addition to the Cloud) and everything is covered by an Omnium contract. We have a long history and when I get a call from Alex Dini, I know it’s important and I know how he works and he knows how I work. We’re a complementary and efficient team!”
COVID accelerated remote working at Diamond, which was initially reserved for the management team, i.e. 4 to 5 people, but has since become widespread. Bernard Temmerman explains: “advensys was a great help, as we managed to set up teleworking in 2 weeks for around 50 people. We had been thinking about switching to Office365 for several months, and COVID speeded things up. What’s more, we realize that the possibility of telecommuting is one of the questions that comes up most often when we see a candidate during the recruitment process. It’s become a must!
Our Business Unit Manager explains: “It’s difficult for a group of 100 people to afford all the in-house IT skills needed to run and secure your IT environment. You have to put the right foundation in place to match your at- tents, and then make sure everything runs smoothly. We no longer sell infrastructure, we offer a service with an all-inclusive monthly fee. We are proud to take over the entire infrastructure of sister company Bertrand Manufacturer.”
The interview ends with a tour of the huge warehouse, which provides Diamond Europe with a strategic stockpile in these difficult supply times due to shortages of certain critical parts, such as processors. It’s a bona fide treasure trove!
