A Retrospective with Cognitus EMEA: Looking Back on 2021
A lot has happened over the last year, especially at Cognitus EMEA, where we used 2021 to move from a launching company to one landing and closing major deals across Europe. We owe that success to our strong launch in 2020 and to Cognitus USA – which allowed us to launch as a full-service SAP consulting and support firm. That combination of good technology, resources, and our strategic positioning will allow us to continue meeting our goals for growth in 2022.
From launch to rapid growth
In 2020, we closed a contract on with one of our largest clients to date – ATEA. Today, we are proud to say that first, large contract has successfully completed its first and second phase. This landmark project is the first and our proofs -of-concept that our technology, process, and people are capable of meeting our standards and delivering on our promise to our customers. It’s proof that our belief in our people and our technologies is founded on our abilities and not just on our parent company.
2021 also saw us move from the first stage of business growth into the second. In 2020, we set up business norms, a team, technology, and customers. This year, we really focused on forming the business. That includes a stronger sales department headed by René van der Zanden, VP Sales EMEA, to back up our excellent team. The sales team department is already in the process of closing new leads – which we expect to have as customers in 2022. We also set up a new portfolio delivery organization with a strong financial office to back that up. This allowed us to close good deals with our partners in our ecosystem – which we also built-up in 2021, because that ecosystem is very important to meeting our goals for scaling and growth.
That included expansions to Germany with Andrea Cipriani and the UK, where we now have a very strong team with Nigel Eagles, Ran Sandhu and Gabriel Nicolaou, who is also the our change management SME. In addition, we expanded to Czechia with Ales Gesten managing sales and Vladimir Hrouda for resource and back-office management, and the Nordics with Kjell Norstein and Dennis Onstenk.
So, overall, 2021 was a fantastic year for Cognitus. And, globally, that success mirrors the U.S., where the company as a whole closed several large and important deals, expanded to new regions with a new delivery center, and has finalized new industry packages for SAP in the important Aerospace and Defense industry.
Looking forward
In 2021, we invested in infrastructure and the resources to scale to bigger and more clients across Europe. Now, we’re set to close new deals for further growth. That growth also includes new locations to Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France.
Our goal is to close large projects in our pipeline and continue to grow. By 2023, we should have a solidified brand presence across Europe. That will be solidified by our aim to reach SAP Platinum Partner status as quickly as possible. Our aim is to ensure our vision, tools, and team are well-known across Europe – which is made possible by our successful projects and the deployment of additional industry-based packages.
Our SAP S/4 HANA implementation and migration package called Gallop, now includes licensing assessment, business transformation, analyses of custom code, and testing under one package. will also help us to get there. We deliver a full package to prepare and support our customers in their transformation to SAP S/4 HANA.
Cognitus just landed in Europe, but we’re already off to a strong start, we’re rapidly expanding our customer base, and our background in the U.S. and global delivery factories give us the opportunity to quickly scale and deliver not only business transformations but also application management services, configuration and customization, and ARIBA/FICO – under the RISE Umbrella.
Thank you to our clients, consultants, and teams for being part of making 2021 a great year for all of us.
