The new brand Cerios brings together leading companies Salves, Valori, De Agile Testers, and Quality Accelerators in a ‘House of Brands,’ and herewith acquires a leading position in the consolidating market of quality and software testing. Through this collaboration, the companies are creating more opportunities for their consultants and a broader proposition for their customers while maintaining their own identity and autonomy.
Leading position in consolidating market
The new brand Cerios brings together over 400 consultants with the shared goal of supporting clients in increasing the quality of their IT through a wide range of innovative (testing) services and automated testing solutions. By bringing together the four companies, accompanied by the recently acquired test management software tool Supportbook, Cerios is building an overarching brand with a leading position in a consolidating market. The collaboration is an important step in the growth ambitions of Salves, in which Avedon Capital Partners (‘Avedon’) invested mid last year.
Christ Coppens, CEO of Cerios and founder of Salves: “Within Cerios, the companies operate in a partnership, each retaining their own name, culture, and specializations. They work closely together and strengthen each other wherever possible. The focus on employees enables us to support clients in all aspects of quality and software testing. Always.”
Focus on consultants
In the current tight labor market, focus on consultants is crucial. Consultants make the company. Those who retain personnel for long periods can constantly provide quality to customers and are seen by (potential) employees as stable employers who take good care of their professionals. To safeguard the unique, personal culture of the companies, they will continue to operate independently. At the same time, consultants can benefit from more opportunities within the larger group.
“Providing sufficient career opportunities is important for retaining consultants in the long term,” Coppens says. “This, in combination with variation in the content of the work and the possibility for consultants to work in different sectors.”
According to Jaap Merkus, CEO of Valori, the proposition of Cerios is interesting for consultants: “The different profiles of the individual companies ensure that every professional can get the most out of their career.”
Broadening of proposition with specialized knowledge
Through the collaboration, Cerios can offer its clients a broader service portfolio with specialized knowledge. In addition, the cluster of 400 professionals will be able to guarantee the quality and continuity required for larger projects and tenders. Especially because the different companies are each fully focused on quality and software testing.
Marcel van Eekeren, Managing Director of Salves, is convinced that collaboration within the ‘House of Brands’ strengthens the group of companies: “Customers can benefit from even more certainty in terms of continuity.”
Furthermore, customers benefit from the diversity of the companies that work together within Cerios, Merkus: “Clients can choose the specialization and way of working of one of the four companies that are able to jointly offer a wide range of services.”
James Johnsen, founder and Managing Director of De Agile Testers and Quality Accelerators, adds: “Innovation runs through our veins. Therefore, we have set ourselves the goal of setting the market standard in the field of agile testing. The connection with like-minded companies within the ‘House of Brands’ offers each partner the opportunity to profile themselves even more as a specialist in the field of quality and software testing.”
Collaboration within ‘House of Brands’
Cerios is a cluster of powerful independent companies that will maintain their own authenticity and identity but can benefit from the larger group.
Michel Verhoog, Partner at Avedon: “Cerios operates in a fragmented and rapidly growing market driven by, amongst others, the increasing importance of software for mission-critical business processes. We see Cerios as a strong platform for further autonomous and acquisitive (international) growth where the independent companies can benefit from economies of scale. We are convinced that Cerios will have a distinctive position in the market for quality and software testing due to its unique setup.”
About Salves
Salves supports organizations in the field of quality. With audits, project management, coaching, and testing, Salves elevates the quality of IT. Salves maps risks, determines the strategy to improve quality, and provides customized training. Salves uses test automation where possible and where it contributes to business goals. Salves’ consultants often work in Agile and DevOps teams.
About Valori
Valori believes that building integral quality into information systems is crucial to enable seamless innovation. Valori’s QA- and test consultants help with the quality of IT systems in all phases of the software development lifecycle. We call this ‘Building IT Quality.’ Valori has been doing this for more than 30 years through technology solutions, advice, and expert services. The ultimate goal is to ensure that software can be developed faster with higher quality and afterwards maintains its quality.
About De Agile Testers
De Agile Testers is deeply rooted in agile principles, with innovation at its core. The company has set the goal of establishing the market standard for agile testing, not just in the Netherlands and Belgium, but across the globe. This led to the book FAST (Flexible Approach to Software Testing) and accompanying certified training modules which are used worldwide.
About Quality Accelerators
Agile transformations have yielded many benefits for organizations, but after a while the acceleration and improvement of software delivery reaches a standstill. This is the moment when customers approach Quality Accelerators. Quality Accelerators helps organizations to reignite the process of acceleration and improvement and even implement it sustainably in the existing organization.
About Avedon Capital Partners
Avedon Capital Partners is a private equity firm with offices in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf, which focuses on growing mid-market companies in the Benelux and DACH regions. Avedon supports ambitious entrepreneurs and management teams in accelerating organic growth, international expansion and/or buy-and-build strategies. Avedon focuses on companies in four sectors: i) business services, ii) software & technology, iii) smart industries and iv) consumer & health.
More information
Christ Coppens (CEO Cerios & founder Salves)
christ.coppens@cerios.nl
www.cerios.nl
Lotte Verhoeve (Investment Manager Avedon)
lotte.verhoeve@avedoncapital.com
+31 6 20 822 133
