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AGORIA

Hub Information

Hub Name
AGORIA
Local Name
Agoria
Evolutionary Stage
In preparation
Geographical Scope
International

Description

Agoria is Belgium's largest employers' organization and trade association. The companies represented by Agoria are active in 8 markets (Transport & Mobility Technology Solutions, Machine Construction & Production Systems Technology Solutions, Food & Beverage Technology Solutions, Healthcare Technology Solutions, Financial Services Technology Solutions, Sports & Entertainment Events Technology Solutions, Building & Urban Development Technology Solutions, Energy Technology Solutions) and 5 industries (Building Contracting & Technical Services Industries, Manufacturing Industries, Materials Industries, Aeronautics, Space, Security & Defense Industries, Digital Industries).

Agoria’s services are built on three pillars: consultancy services to entrepreneurs, business development and the creation of an optimal business environment:

Advice to entrepreneurs

Leading experts answer their questions on, among other topics, skills and the labor market, innovation, energy, the environment, socio-legal issues, well-being at work, taxation, the economic development of sectors and markets, regulations and standardization.

Business development

Our Market-teams help companies to promote their offering on the market, identify market opportunities for their products or services, and forge sustainable partnerships in Belgium and abroad. Agoria is currently focusing on the following markets: Building & Urban Development, Energy, Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Healthcare, Transport & Mobility, Machine Construction / Production Systems, and Sports & Entertainment Events.

Creating the ideal business climate

Belgium

As the official representative of several industries and by addressing different markets, Agoria has the largest business network in Belgium linking the private sector, the academic world and the public sector. A quarter of Agoria's member companies, which in total represent nearly 2,000 companies, come from the digital and telecom industries.

Through advice, tools, workshops and networking events, Agoria's Industry teams support companies to meet the strategic challenges of today and tomorrow in their industry, regardless of its sector: Aeronautics, Space, Security & Defense Industries; Building, Contracting & Technical Services Industries; Digital Industries; Manufacturing Industries; Materials Industries. They are backed in their actions by experienced Policy units lobbying to defend the interests of the industry at all levels of power.

"Digital Industries" within Agoria focuses for the private (and public) sectors mainly on cybersecurity, data analysis & artificial intelligence and network infrastructure by working on the digitalization of processes in an organization, on the digitalization of products and services as well as on the impact of digitalization on business models. Through programs like the “Digital Journey Tracker”, “Scale-up Vlaanderen”, “Factory of the future / Made Different”, “AI for Industry”, “Smart Cities Award”,  “Circular Bytes”, HealthTech Belgium and many others, members of Agoria have direct access to a divers ecosystem to embrace the digital age. Agoria developed also a strong vision[1] and tool to support private and public sector in reskilling and education programs to face the job challenges of the coming decade.

Europe

Agoria monitors the main European issues of importance to its industries and provides feedback to member companies. The federation is a member of some fifty European sectoral committees whose task is to defend the positions of the sector they represent in the European institutions. Through this network, the federation is well informed on the progress of new European legislation, right from the preliminary discussions. This makes sure it can inform companies and defend their position during the entire preparation process. The following domains are monitored: digital agenda, foreign trade, energy, environment, innovation, social affairs and internal market.

Partners

Agoria has an extended network of partners to implement innovation projects on regional, national and European level. Partners are among others Sirris (founded by Agoria as their technological centre), the Belgian sectoral federations and the FEB/VBO, digital hubs like The Beacon or Digityser, Digital Wallonia for the Walloon region and Industry 4.0 partners in Belgium and Europe.

Agoria offers the largest hub in Belgium to connect digital ecosystems with the industry, the academic community and the public sector.

FR:

Agoria est la plus grande organisation patronale et association professionnelle de Belgique. Les sociétés représentées par Agoria sont actives sur 8 marchés (Solutions technologiques pour le transport et la mobilité, Solutions technologiques pour la construction de machines et les systèmes de production, Solutions technologiques pour l'alimentation et les boissons, Solutions technologiques pour les soins de santé, Solutions technologiques pour les services financiers, Solutions technologiques pour les événements sportifs et de divertissement, Solutions technologiques pour le bâtiment et le développement urbain, Solutions technologiques pour les énergies) et 5 industries (Industries des services techniques et du bâtiment, Industries de fabrication, Industries matériaux, Industries aéronautique, spatiales, sécurité et défense, Industrie numérique).

Les services d'Agoria reposent sur trois piliers : les services de conseil aux entrepreneurs, le développement des affaires et la création d'un environnement d'affaires optimal :

Conseils aux entrepreneurs

Des experts de premier plan répondent aux questions des membres sur, entre autres, les compétences et le marché du travail, l'innovation, l'énergie, l'environnement, les questions socio-juridiques, le bien-être au travail, la fiscalité, le développement économique des industries et marchés, la réglementation et la normalisation.

Développement des affaires

Nos équipes "Marchés" aident les entreprises à promouvoir leur offre sur le marché, à identifier les opportunités de marché pour leurs produits ou services et à forger des partenariats durables en Belgique et à l'étranger. Agoria se concentre actuellement sur les marchés suivants : Bâtiment et développement urbain, Energie, Services financiers, Alimentation & Boissons, Santé, Transport & Mobilité, Construction de machines / Systèmes de production, Sports & Divertissement.

Créer le climat d'affaires idéal

Belgique

En tant que représentant officiel de plusieurs industries et en s'adressant à différents marchés, Agoria dispose du plus grand réseau d'affaires en Belgique reliant le secteur privé, le monde universitaire et le secteur public. Un quart des entreprises membres d'Agoria, qui représentent au total près de 2 000 entreprises, proviennent de l'industrie numérique et des télécommunications.

Par le biais de conseils, d'outils, d'ateliers et d'événements de réseautage, les équipes d'Agoria Industrie aident les entreprises à relever les défis stratégiques d'aujourd'hui et de demain dans leur secteur, quel qu'il soit : Industries de l'aéronautique, de l'espace, de la sécurité et de la défense ; Industries du bâtiment, des marchés et des services techniques ; Industries numériques ; Industries manufacturières ; Industries des matériaux. Ils sont soutenus dans leurs actions par des unités politiques expérimentées qui défendent les intérêts de l'industrie à tous les niveaux de pouvoir.

"Digital Industries" au sein d'Agoria se concentre pour les secteurs privé et public essentiellement sur la cybersécurité, l'analyse de données & l'intelligence artificielle et l'infrastructure réseau en travaillant sur la digitalisation des processus dans une organisation, sur la digitalisation des produits et services ainsi que sur l'impact de la digitalisation sur les business modèles. Grâce à des programmes tels que "Digital Journey Tracker", "Scale-up Vlaanderen", "Factory of the future / Made Different", "AI for Industry", "Smart Cities Award", "Circular Bytes", HealthTech Belgium et bien d'autres, les membres d'Agoria ont un accès direct à un écosystème divers pour adopter l'ère numérique. Agoria a également développé une vision forte[1] et un outil pour soutenir les secteurs privé et public dans les programmes de formation permanente et d'éducation afin de faire face aux défis professionnels de la prochaine décennie.

Europe

Agoria suit les principaux dossiers européens importants pour ses industries et fournit un retour d'information aux entreprises membres. La fédération est membre d'une cinquantaine de comités sectoriels européens dont la mission est de défendre les positions du secteur qu'ils représentent dans les institutions européennes. Grâce à ce réseau, la fédération est bien informée de l'évolution de la nouvelle législation européenne, dès les discussions préliminaires. Elle est ainsi en mesure d'informer les entreprises et de défendre leur position tout au long du processus de préparation. Les domaines suivants sont suivis : agenda numérique, commerce extérieur, énergie, environnement, innovation, affaires sociales et marché intérieur.

Partenaires

Agoria dispose d'un réseau étendu de partenaires pour mettre en œuvre des projets d'innovation au niveau régional, national et européen. Les partenaires sont, entre autres, Sirris (fondé par Agoria comme centre technologique), les fédérations sectorielles belges et la FEB, les hubs numériques comme The Beacon ou Digityser, Digital Wallonia pour la Région Wallonne et les partenaires Industry 4.0 en Belgique et en Europe.

Agoria offre la plus grande plate-forme en Belgique pour connecter les écosystèmes numériques avec l'industrie, la communauté académique et le secteur public.

NL:

Agoria is de grootste werkgeversorganisatie en beroepsvereniging in België. De door Agoria vertegenwoordigde bedrijven zijn actief in 8 markten (Technologische oplossingen voor transport en mobiliteit, technologische oplossingen voor machinebouw en productiesystemen, technologische oplossingen voor voeding en drank, technologische oplossingen voor de gezondheidszorg, technologische oplossingen voor financiële diensten, technologische oplossingen voor sport- en ontspanningsevenementen, technologische oplossingen voor de bouw en stadsontwikkeling, technologische oplossingen voor energie) en 5 industrieën (Industrie van de technische diensten en bouwsector, maakindustrie, materiaalindustrie, luchtvaart, ruimtevaart, veiligheid en defensie, digitale industrie).

De diensten van Agoria zijn gebaseerd op drie pijlers: adviesdiensten aan ondernemers, bedrijfsontwikkeling en het creëren van een optimaal ondernemingsklimaat:

Advies aan ondernemers

Toonaangevende experten beantwoorden de vragen van de leden over onderwerpen als talent en arbeidsmarkt, innovatie, energie, milieu, sociaal-juridische kwesties, welzijn op de werkplek, belastingen, economische ontwikkeling van industrieën en markten, regulering en standaardisatie.

Ontwikkeling van het bedrijfsleven

Onze "Markets"-teams helpen bedrijven om hun aanbod op de markt te promoten, marktkansen voor hun producten of diensten te identificeren en duurzame partnerschappen aan te gaan in België en in het buitenland. Agoria richt zich momenteel op de volgende markten: Bouw en stadsontwikkeling, Energie, Financiële diensten, Voeding & Dranken, Gezondheid, Transport & Mobiliteit, Machinebouw / Productiesystemen, Sport & Entertainment.

Creëer het ideale bedrijfsklimaat

België

Als officiële vertegenwoordiger van verschillende sectoren en door zich op verschillende markten te richten, heeft Agoria het grootste zakelijke netwerk in België dat de privésector, de academische wereld en de publieke sector met elkaar verbindt. Een kwart van de bij Agoria aangesloten bedrijven, die in totaal bijna 2.000 bedrijven vertegenwoordigen, is afkomstig uit de digitale en telecomindustrie.

Door middel van advies, tools, workshops en netwerkevenementen helpen de teams van Agoria  bedrijven om de strategische uitdagingen van vandaag en morgen in hun sector aan te gaan, wat die ook moge zijn: Lucht- en ruimtevaart, veiligheid en defensie; bouw, (onder)aannemers en technische dienstverlening; digitale industrie; maakindustrie; materiaalindustrie. Zij worden in hun acties ondersteund door ervaren politieke eenheden die de belangen van de industrie op alle machtsniveaus verdedigen.

"Digital Industries" binnen Agoria richt zich voor de private en publieke sector voornamelijk op cybersecurity, data-analyse & kunstmatige intelligentie en netwerkinfrastructuur door te werken aan de digitalisering van processen in een organisatie, aan de digitalisering van producten en diensten en aan de impact van digitalisering op businessmodellen. Via programma's zoals Digital Journey Tracker, Scale-up Vlaanderen, Factory of the future / Made Different, AI for Industry, Smart Cities Award, Circular Bytes, HealthTech Belgium en vele andere, hebben Agoria-leden rechtstreeks toegang tot een divers ecosysteem om het digitale tijdperk te omarmen. Agoria heeft ook een sterke visie[1] ontwikkeld met een instrument om de private en publieke sector te ondersteunen in programma's voor levenslang leren en onderwijs om de professionele uitdagingen van het komende decennium aan te gaan.

Europa

Agoria volgt de belangrijkste Europese kwesties die van belang zijn voor haar industrieën en geeft feedback aan de aangesloten bedrijven. De federatie is lid van een vijftigtal Europese sectorale comités die tot taak hebben de standpunten van de sector die zij vertegenwoordigen in de Europese instellingen te verdedigen. Dankzij dit netwerk is de federatie goed op de hoogte van de evolutie van de nieuwe Europese wetgeving, vanaf de voorbereidende besprekingen. Zo kan zij bedrijven informeren en hun standpunt verdedigen gedurende het gehele voorbereidingsproces. De volgende gebieden worden gevolgd: de digitale agenda, buitenlandse handel, energie, milieu, innovatie, sociale zaken en de interne markt.

Partners

Agoria heeft een uitgebreid netwerk van partners om innovatieprojecten op regionaal, nationaal en Europees niveau uit te voeren. De partners zijn o.a. Sirris (opgericht door Agoria als technologiecentrum), de Belgische sectorale federaties en het VBO, digitale hubs zoals The Beacon of Digityser, Digital Wallonia voor het Waals Gewest en Industry 4.0 partners in België en Europa.

Agoria biedt het grootste platform in België om digitale ecosystemen te verbinden met de industrie, de academische wereld en de publieke sector.

 

Contact Data

Coordinator (Industry association)
AGORIA
https://www.agoria.be/en
Year Established
Before 1960
Location
August Reyerslaan, 80, 1030, Brussels (Belgium)
Website
http://www.agoria.be
Social Media
Contact information
Ferdinand Casier
ferdinand.casier@agoria.be
+32475541678

Organisation

Organizational form
(Part of) Private organization
Turnover
>5.000.000
Number of employees
>100

Technologies

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Cyber security
  • Big data, data analytics, data handling
  • Software as a service and service architectures
  • Cloud computing

Agoria is the founder, together with its joint research centre Sirris, of the Digitising European Industry initiative “Made Different” (https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/dem/monitor/content/belgium-%E2%80%9Cmade-different%E2%80%9D) , also deployed by the Flemish government (Flemish initiative on Industry 4.0) and the Walloon government (Digital Wallonia). The Made Different program is also deployed on European level (COSME/ADMA) (https://www.agoria.be/en/Made-Different-goes-Europe).

Other European initiatives:

Regional/National initiatives:

…

Market and Services

Sectors

  • Energy and utilities
  • Transport and logistics
  • Public administration
  • Life sciences & healthcare
  • Community, social and personal service activities
  • Manufacture of rubber and plastic products
  • Manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products
  • Manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products
  • Manufacture of machinery and equipment
  • Manufacture of electrical and optical equipment
  • Manufacture of transport equipment
  • Other Manufacturing

TRL Focus

  • TRL8 - Actual system completed and qualified through test and demonstration
  • TRL9 - Actual system proven through successful mission operations

Services provided

  • Awareness creation
  • Ecosystem building, scouting, brokerage, networking
  • Visioning and Strategy Development for Businesses
  • Collaborative Research
  • Digital Maturity Assessment
  • Incubator/accelerator support
  • Market intelligence
  • Access to Funding and Investor Readiness Services
  • Mentoring
  • Education and skills development

Service Examples

“Digital Journey Tracker” Programme

Name of program

Digital journey tracker

Purpose of program

Digital Journey Tracker is a tool that offers a broad overview in digital tactics:

- a guidance to a digital journey for companies searching how and where to digitalise

- an overview of starting points for different types of business

CountryRegion

Belgium

Operator

Sirris + Agoria

Duration

open

Target Group

- Settled companies/sme as well as start ups in Belgium with questions on digitalisation

- Companies with an offer on digitalisation

Number of Companies Participating

2018: Approx. 100 reached in individual and collective workshops

Over 1000 visitors website

Barriers Addressed

companies have enormous difficulties to get an overview and set concrete goals.

Companies have difficulty finding the right ICT partner

Activities

Simple framework based on:

3 impact areas : offering, business model, organisation

3 types of businesses: physical products, digital products, services

18 recurring tactics

with success stories/examples of Belgian companies

A tool for companies with questions on digitisation:

a way to get an overview of opportunities and to help determine the strategy and learn from examples of peers

A tool for companies with an offer in digitisation:

a way to clearly position your own offer and a way to understand new challenges of industry & service companies

free consultation of the information and cases

A tool that can be used by companies and their service providers. Sirris and Agoria developed paid services for their target group and with discount rates for their members.

 

Promotion, Approaching,

Recruiting

Sirris and Agoria do their own promotion: workshops with their partners, newletter, social media

Other organisations like Flanders Food, VIL, Voka, … have also used this tool towards their companies, autonomously or in cooperation with Sirris/Agoria for workshops

Economics/

Financing

Free

Budget spent /

Budget allocated

Fully financed bij Agoria & Sirris

Lessons Learned

Big need for neutral advice to get orientation on possibilities of digital technology

Case studies from local companies (also sme’s) in own sector are great help to address this need

More details: https://www.agoria.be/fr/Decouvrez-le-Digital-Journey-Tracker

“EluciData” Programme

Challenges/needs of the target group 

We can structure the challenges of the target group according to 3 broad core challenges within which different concrete challenges can be identified.

  • Core challenge 1: Being able to estimate the potential of data innovations

It is important that companies can assess the value of data innovations within their organization, especially in competitive sectors where new and younger companies often use data innovations to compete with established values.

But how can companies make this assessment? And why is making this estimate so difficult? The cause is not a lack of inspiration! Based on our expertise, we concluded that there is often a large distance between the inspiring examples of (often international) fellow companies and the own business context. The same success stories are repeated again and again, such as Google, Facebook or Twitter, but not every company focuses on consumers, let alone that web data is the most relevant data for them or that they need such thorough optimizations to operate on a web scale. This makes the needs and priorities of Belgian companies different, and makes it difficult for them to assess the potential of data and give data the right place in their specific situation.

  • Another observation is that companies often have difficulties to estimate which (type of) data is needed to make their intended innovation possible. This includes both data that they already have internally available today, extra data that they can collect if necessary, and public or commercially available external data which they can integrate. Specific data is indeed required to realise specific innovations. For example, solving some problems requires annotated training data, or product recommendations (typically books, CDs, restaurants, etc.) and can only be realized if large amounts of historical data are available in which many users have provided sufficient feedback on a sufficiently large number of products.

 

  • A third important challenge we have identified is to be able to draw up a realistic business case and to estimate the impact of a data innovation on the business model. Identifying all technological, organizational and economic challenges and risks is no easy task for most companies, just because the domain is evolving so fast. We experience a need to help make this analysis.

In summary, we distinguished the following concrete challenges:

  • Being able to translate the general success stories into the own product/service/domain
  • Being able to estimate what data is available and whether it is of sufficiently high quality and volume to realise the intended innovation
  • Being able to draw up a realistic business case and estimate the impact of a data innovation on the business model and the internal corporate culture

In general, we can state that making the potential of data tangible within the specific business context is therefore important, so that the company can make a well-founded strategic decision regarding the innovation paths to be followed. What makes this even more challenging is the characteristic fact that data is becoming increasingly important in more and more sectors, and that companies from the target group are not necessarily active in the ICT sector, nor do they have specific ICT expertise.

Primary target group:

  • companies that build a product, a technology or a service and that could achieve significant added value through targeted exploitation of data. Because data innovation is not limited to a particular domain or sector, these companies are spread across different domains and sectors, of which energy, mobility, and healthcare are just a few examples.
  • Data innovation technology providers are a second category of companies that belong to the primary target group. These companies provide technology and expertise that enables data innovation. This group includes both companies that offer hardware solutions to capture data, for example sensors, and those that offer pure software solutions, for example storage or visualization components or technology for semantic analysis. The challenge for these companies is to recognize the right evolutions and to align their research and product roadmaps accordingly. The Elucidata project helps them in this by bringing them together with the partners who purchase their technologies.
  • A final group of companies that belong to the primary target group are the data innovation service providers, who help other companies to exploit data by concentrating mainly on rolling out scalable hardware and software infrastructures. These are knowledge-based companies whose staff members have developed in-depth expertise and experience with existing technology platforms, and who offer a range of services around them. This is mainly about (helping to) select, configure, optimize and maintain a hardware and software platform for data exploitation, and focuses less on the complex algorithmic and data modeling aspects.

Note: The boundary between product builder and technology or service providers is not always clear. Technology suppliers often also offer services to make optimal use of their technology, service suppliers develop reusable technology over time to make their services more scalable, or innovative product builders start offering non-competitive internally developed technologies and services externally.

Solutions/deliverables:

The general objective of EluciDATA was to stimulate data innovation (i.e. innovation made possible by the targeted exploitation of data). The concrete innovation objectives were:

  • a data innovation knowledge base with independent, neutral and specialized knowledge about all relevant data innovation aspects (technological, organizational, social and economic), supplemented by an expert network of at least 15 experts.
  • A data innovation compass that makes the knowledge from the knowledge base accessible, makes the potential of data tangible in the company-specific context, and supports companies in the realisation of data innovations.
  • the bundling of a collection of material from the knowledge base into four data innovation starter kits (demonstrators) that allow companies to start up specific data innovation projects faster and (possibly) independently
  • Different representative demonstrators that help companies translate general success stories into concrete technological solutions, and better assess the challenges and risks associated with them
  • a platform for industrial interaction that allows different ways of interacting with companies, among other things by carrying out guidance projects, organising technology-related workshops, setting up symposia, and approaching different sector organisations.

More details: http://elucidata.be/about-elucidata

Scale-up Flanders

Need: According to a 2011 study by Startup Compass of 3,200 startups, 74% fail because they started to scale prematurely. It is therefore important to achieve product/market fit before you start scaling. To determine this you have to ask yourself a number of questions. Does your product have sufficient retention (does a large part of your customers stay with you), do you have different channels through which the market is going, is your technology stack and your organization sufficiently robust to absorb strong growth and do you have a well-founded pricing strategy and business plan.

Client: digital start-ups & scale-ups

Solution: The programme offers digital start-ups & scale-ups a Learning Network and tailor-made workshops. With practical tools, top expertise and handy working methods we assist start-ups & scale-ups in 3 crucial steps:

1. INTAKE INTERVIEW

“We determine the phase of your start-up and screen your product, technology, market channels, pricing and financial plan. We also check whether your product is ready for the market or which objectives you can still work on.”

2. KPI WORKSHOP

“To draw up a scaling plan, we define the concrete parameters or critical performance indicators (KPIs) based on the intake interview. If we do not arrive at concrete KPIs, we will first help you with strategic business advice or a market analysis. Later you can join this growth phase again.”

3. IMPLEMENTATION OF YOUR SCALING PLAN

“During 6 months we will help you execute your scaling plan. In individual sessions we work out strategies and experiments to realize your KPI's. In monthly group sessions experts from Sirris and Agoria give workshops on topics that you can help determine yourself. Possible topics are: 10x scaling,  lean marketing, pricing, community building, setting up an advisory board, internationalization, funding, hiring & HR, product development & roadmap, technology stack, legal, IP, …”

Outcome: “In no time at all, you will learn to fully exploit the potential of data and digital technologies to strengthen your service and customer loyalty.”

More details: http://scaleup.vlaanderen/assets/scaleup.vlaanderen.pdf

Funding

  • COSME
  • National specific innovation funding
  • Regional funding
  • Private funding
  • Partner resources
  • Memberships

Customers

Number of customers annually
>50
Type of customers
  • Start-up companies
  • SMEs (<250 employees)
  • MidCaps (between €2-10 billion turnover)
  • Large companies, multi-nationals
  • Research organisations

    • Partners

    • Sirris, The collective Centre for and by the technological industry in Belgium
      Research & Technology organization
      http://www.sirris.be
    Last updated: 13/12/18 17:30