The Brand – Voxbone

From its trendy new office-cum-playground, a Belgian telecoms company is leading the market in keeping the world connected

We constantly hear about companies going to the wall and European economies in seemingly never-ending freefall. You could, therefore, could be forgiven for thinking that all was doom and gloom. But there is one Brussels-based company bucking the trend in style. From particularly humble beginnings – it was launched in a tiny Brussels apartment – Voxbone has rapidly grown to become the market leader in providing worldwide geographical, toll-free and iNum telephone numbers. The company delivers high-quality inbound communications, often referred to as direct inward dialling, or DID, from more than 50 countries and 4,000 cities.

It enables internet communications service providers, global carriers and national operators to extend the reach of their voice services internationally, rapidly and with limited costs. To the uninitiated, here is how it all works. Voice calls, faxes and text messages sent to a Voxbone phone number are collected from local fixed or mobile telephone networks around the world and are converted to what is called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. Calls are then routed via redundant IP links to Voxbone data centres in Brussels, New York, Los Angeles, Frankfurt or Hong Kong from where they are transported to the customer’s VoIP network anywhere in the world.

One example of its services is a new service Voxbone provides for UK telecoms giant O2, which has made it possible to add a second telephone number to a mobile user’s existing mobile subscription. This second number is a fixed local telephone number from a country of choice. A call to this number is routed over Voxbone’s global VoIP backbone and delivered as a regular call to the mobile phone on the O2 network, making it easy and more affordable for O2 users to stay in touch with friends and relatives abroad.

The service, called International Favourites, was launched in October 2010 and is but one item on the company’s fast-growing portfolio. Why does all this matter? Among other things, it can substantially reduce communication costs for a company; no bad thing in times of economic meltdown. As chief financial officer Sebastien d’Ursel explains, Voxbone is not a conventional company and it doesn’t intend to become one.

In 2011, its turnover increased by 20 percent to €15 million, continuing a trend that has seen 30 to 40 percent growth since its launch in 2005. It has a young team of 80 people of 23 nationalities with an average age of 28 – the two Brussels-born founders, Rodrigue Ullens and François Struman, are only 35.

“No matter how you look at it,” declares d’Ursel, “diversity is our DNA. We are intensely passionate about what we do and progress and innovation are at the heart of the Voxbone culture. Status quo just isn’t our thing. We are constantly pushing the boundaries of IP telecommunications.” Launched with minimal investment, the company soon outgrew its rented two-room base. One room was the bathroom, the other crammed full of telecoms equipment. Voxbone now has more than 600 wholesale customers around the globe, including Skype and Belgacom.

In 2011, it was recognised as the fastest-growing technology company in Belgium in the Deloitte Benelux Fast50 ranking. It also won the inaugural Bully Award, which honours the leading European technology, media and telecoms companies, in 2010. In making the award, Farley Duvall, founder of White Bull Summits, a business community that champions European innovation, said, “We searched for the ‘wily beast’ we believe lives in all successful businesses.” Voxbone was also named in the Red Herring Global 100 list of the world’s top private technology companies. Another notable achievement was an agreement to provide the means for United Nations agencies responding with humanitarian aid in times of natural disasters to stay in contact with one another quickly and easily via a unique country code – 888. In October, Voxbone moved to plush, 2,500m2 offices on Avenue Louise, in anticipation of future growth. Plans include expansion in Asia, South America and the US and the recruitment of 15 staff, mostly telecom and software engineers.

So what’s the secret of its success? According to d’Ursel, it’s all about being focused and innovative. The fact that Voxbone has been global in its outlook since the start is, he says, another factor. D’Ursel, who joined the company three months after its launch, says, “We are bridging the two telecommunications worlds that coexist today: traditional [public switched telephone network, or PSTN] and IP.
“We collect the calls from the traditional network and turn them into IP. Doing this may seem simple but it is pretty complex: you need specific equipment in every country where you want to do this. You need to connect with the other operators so your numbers are reachable from all networks. You need specific licences and you need to understand the complex and numerous regulatory environments. Once you’re set in a country, you need to make old-fashioned features available on a modern web portal. Our mission is to enable carriers and other voice service providers to innovate in order to launch products or to reduce costs of existing products.”

One other possible reason for this success story is the relative lack of competition, which has surprised even d’Ursel. He says, “What we are doing is very complex and not easy for, say, the Americans to replicate in Europe. Being based in Brussels means we have the advantage when it comes to languages and access to phone numbers in Europe.”

All this is not to say that the company doesn’t have challenges of its own to face, the main one being hiring the right staff. “We need telecoms engineers who understand both the PSTN and IP telecommunications worlds,” explains d’Ursel. “And we need software developers who can make these services available online and in real time to demanding clients. We need what I call the top A-workers to achieve our mission and to make a difference. This is why hiring is a challenge. We have a great team and we need to make them happy. The younger generation doesn’t want to work in traditional offices any more. They want to play a role in their company; they want to have fun while working and to be part of a change. We have recently moved to new offices and invested a lot so our staff can work in optimal working conditions.”

Indeed, you cannot accuse Voxbone of failing to look after its employees. For example, since 2009 bikes have been offered to all staff to travel to and from work. The only condition is that employees must commit to using the cycles at least 50 percent of the time. “We do this for several reasons,” says d’Ursel, “one being that when you take your bike you have this feeling of being part of a green movement.” Also you don’t suffer from traffic jams any more and you’re not affected by public transport strikes. It helps to do a bit of sports in the morning and after work, so you arrive fresh and woken up. It also saves parking spaces, of course.”

The firm has implemented other initiatives to maintain staff satisfaction, including providing a snooker table, table football, giant chess set and scooters in its office. Fruit and drinks are available 24/7, massage sessions are organised during working hours, health foods are delivered to the office and staff get together for drinks and breakfast twice a month.

D’Ursel says, “We get our inspiration from Silicon Valley in California, where companies also do anything they can to keep and attract the best talents. It’s pretty rewarding to see our colleagues happy at work and that we can offer something extra in exchange for their contribution.”

He believes Belgian industry could learn a thing or two from his company’s entrepreneurial spirit, saying, “People here need to be pushed to be more innovative. In the US, if a business fails you get another chance. If that happens here, you don’t get a second chance. This mentality has to change.”

VITAL STATISTICS

• Founded in 2005

• Customers in 65 countries (less than 5 percent of turnover is in Belgium)

• More than €15 million turnover in 2011 and 150 new clients

• Similar growth expected in 2012

• 80 people in Brussels and LA

• Average age of employees: 28

• 23 nationalities employed, including Chinese, Filipino, Congolese and South American

Photo: Voxbone CFO Sebastien d’Ursel