As an association with more than 2,000 technology companies, plays Agoria an important role in making the Belgian manufacturing industry, the digital and the telecom sector successful. Agoria helps its members in various areas, from tax and legal advice to lobbying and organizing network opportunities.
“I use open the box after a colleague joins Sirris, our innovation center, recommended that I check this out,” says relationship manager Laurence Jacobs. “Since then, I've been using openthebox when preparing for a conversation with a new member.”
“When I'm preparing for a customer interview, I do 3 things. Logically, I first check out the customer's website. A second step is openthebox. For me, Openthebox is a one-stop shop that contains all the information I need. '
“That's how I see when my client's company was founded and who the founders are. Openthebox also calculates a financial score. It's interesting to see how well a company is doing. '
“What I also look at is the social balance of employees. I used to watch this in the KBO (note: Crossroads Bank for Enterprises). But if you then have to search for the PDF, open it and scroll all the way down to find the number of employees, you'll lose a lot of time. In openthebox, you can see that in just one click. '
“Then you have the Spiderweb. It's super interesting to see who is associated with a company. You can also see immediately whether the company is part of a group. So for me, it's really a total package. '
“The only thing left for me to do is visit the company's LinkedIn page. That's where I'll check the messages and the number of employees mentioned because you can also visualize the number of freelancers. '
Women in Tech
“In addition to being a relationship manager, I am also Women in Tech ambassador. Openthebox allows me to easily find female entrepreneurs but also the distribution of shares within a company. You often notice that female founders own fewer shares than their male counterparts; even among entrepreneurial married couples, the ratio is skewed. So openthebox is also a very interesting tool for my diversity research. '
'I use openthebox to properly prepare for a customer meeting. '
Laurence Jacobs, relationship manager Agoria
