In October 2024, you rebranded Telindus to Proximus NXT. What motivated this rebranding?
Gérard Hoffmann: You know the saying: "Unity is strength." A group is always stronger than its separate entities. That's why we wanted to bring Telindus under the Proximus NXT banner, progressively but effectively today. By grouping the different entities under a single brand, we enhance our market approach, consolidate our ICT services, and reaffirm our Telecom orientation.
Bringing the different entities of the group under a single brand allowed us to offer an optimized and more transparent service to our clients
Christian Haux: Proximus NXT remains a strongly locally rooted player, but with an international reach. It’s for reasons of consistency, clarity, and understanding of our offering by our clients that this change was motivated. Finally, as Gérard mentioned, under a single identity, we can provide more in-depth and complete support to our clients.
GH: It was also a way for us to enter a new era, the one driven by the technological revolution powered by artificial intelligence, which is now before us.
What consequences did this decision have?
GH: What stands out most to me is both the acceleration of interactions between the group's subsidiaries and the creation of new solutions. I’m thinking in particular of sovereign cloud, but also that this union allowed the Luxembourg teams to showcase their expertise abroad. Luxembourg is now positioned as a real center of competence for the group.
CH: The rebranding also helped bring the Belgian and Luxembourg teams closer together. This was an effect we didn’t necessarily anticipate. Everyone is now pushed into their specialties in service of a common identity. These synergies have given momentum and weight to the entire group.
Proximus NXT is identified as a Professional of the Financial Sector (PSF), how does this status enhance your expertise?
CH: Through this status, we are subject to the same rules as players in this sector: banks, investment funds… but we are also regarded on the same level. Being PSF therefore gives us a certain legitimacy on one hand, but also inspires trust for our clients and partners, whether local or even international.
GH: In fact, I think the development of these sovereign solutions, which therefore operate under Luxembourg jurisdiction, was motivated and made possible by this status. It’s what enabled us to conclude a contract with Google in 2023, to use their technology in a sovereign manner in Luxembourg. Without this status, we would have probably settled for public cloud, as some neighboring countries have. In today’s geopolitical context, it gave us a certain advantage, allowing us to anticipate the need for sovereignty, which is now so evident.
Today, what are the financial sector’s needs?
GH: It’s important to understand that digitalization has completely revolutionized the world of financial and banking services, especially. Today, almost the entire global population with a bank account wants to manage it through an app and almost never visits a branch. This revolution is still ongoing and is now continuing with AI. Added to that is the decline in interest rates in recent years, which has forced banks to find new sources of revenue, rationalize, and reduce costs.
CH: Indeed, digitalization has become both a necessity for banks that need to provide these services to their clients, but also a challenge and a source of complexity. Banks need to hire and train staff for tasks enabling this digitalization. It’s a profound transformation! Banks are now welcoming a new generation of talents specialized in digital, such as data scientists, web developers, and digital marketers, who are actively contributing to this transformation. Then, once digitalization is implemented, they must ensure data storage, security, and usage. Therefore, the demand addressed to companies like Proximus NXT is for a digitalization that is both efficient and secure.
When the regulator adopts our sovereign cloud solution, it’s rather an indicator of the seriousness of our services and our Clarence solution
What solutions have you implemented to address this?
CH: With sovereign infrastructures and services like our Clarence cloud, our partners have a relevant and secure service that aligns with the digitization we mentioned earlier. We also provide them with data security and exploitation services, and we are developing complementary services around AI.
GH: To address these demands, we have a team of experts dedicated to this issue. This allows us to support our clients in these new territories, first by analyzing available data, identifying use cases, and then proposing tailored solutions, where AI is deployed to serve their employees.
What should we be attentive to tomorrow? What are you preparing in this regard?
GH: It’s clear that cybersecurity will be a top priority, and the deployment of AI will only accentuate this trend by being used both offensively and defensively. Proximus NXT remains very committed to this, and we constantly strive to have the best protection solutions, defend, and provide these to our clients.
CH: Our strength lies in our holistic approach: rather than being a pure player dedicated solely to cybersecurity, we master all services and aspects of the information system, which allows us to go much further in prevention and response to threats. We continually invest to surround ourselves with the best experts and train our employees, ensuring optimal protection. Cybersecurity concerns all businesses, even the smallest ones. The real question is not whether an attack will happen, but whether we are ready when it does.
3 questions to Gregory Gruber
Deputy Director, Outsourcing & Cloud Services of Proximus NXT
How does AI optimize the functioning of businesses?
AI allows for the automation of repetitive tasks and certain processes in almost all professions. This enables humans to focus on value-added tasks. It also improves both the qualitative and quantitative analysis of data, allowing for clear and informed decision-making.
What are the main challenges and obstacles that may hinder its deployment?
These are organizational and human challenges. Implementing and benefiting from AI requires technical skills and expertise from the user. Resistance to change is also an obstacle that needs to be overcome by explaining the benefits this technology offers. Finally, regulation and security must also guide its use.
How does Proximus NXT support businesses in this transformation?
We have developed a support program based on explanation and training to build a center of excellence dedicated to AI within the company. Then, depending on the needs, we implement pragmatic solutions that feed into all departments and offer a quick return on investment.
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