In 2020, Hardis Group maintained business activity at 2019 levels despite the crisis, and even recorded an uptick in some areas. These will be among its growth drivers for 2021. Outside France, the company will maintain its investment and business development strategy in Europe.
Grenoble, March 24, 2021 – Hardis Group, a consulting firm, digital services company and independent software vendor, reports on its performance in 2020. Although the COVID-19 pandemic naturally weighed on business activity, especially in the spring of 2020, the company was able to weather the economic fallout of the crisis thanks to a very strong Q1 and a significant bounce-back in Q4. Hardis Group achieved revenue of €119.4 million for the year—almost identical to 2019—while profit also remained largely unchanged year on year.
Clearly identified growth drivers
These figures were made possible thanks to above-target performance in certain business lines. These included bumper sales of licenses for Reflex (logistics execution software for warehouses, stores and plants), a 20% increase in demand for application hosting services, and solid revenue from cloud-related activities. Hardis Group’s Insurance & Financial Services arm achieved its target of €4.6 million in its first year as a fully-fledged business unit, while profit from Salesforce and Workplace from Meta integration activities doubled in 2020.
Outside France, sales at the company’s Spanish subsidiary remained on a par with 2019, while its Netherlands-based subsidiary posted revenue up almost 60%—a spectacular performance in the circumstances.
Overall, Hardis Group’s services business was hit hard by the spring lockdown but activity bounced back strongly in the second half of the year. As demand fell, the company used the lull to refine its information systems transformation strategy, with a particular focus on public cloud systems. During this time, employees also took courses and obtained various certifications, including in Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Likewise, Hardis Group ramped up research and development (R&D) spending on its Reflex suite, which was up 15% year on year.
“These strong figures are testament to the unfailing hard work and dedication of our people. Looking ahead to 2021, we are now well-placed to embark on our ambitious plans in software innovation, cloud-based systems, and expansion into global markets,” said Nicolas Odet, President of Hardis Group.
No change in strategy for 2021
Last year, Hardis Group signed several flagship agreements under its enhanced cloud-focused strategy. The company will maintain this strategy for the year ahead, including by forging closer ties with Google and Microsoft, and by pursuing Azure and GCP certification for its employees. It will also continue investing in industrializing and automating cloud hosting processes and systems.
As in previous years, Hardis Group will retain its focus on growing its Salesforce services business in 2021 and beyond, as it aims to boost revenue by 20% through both organic and external growth. Meanwhile, services related the deployment of Workplace from Meta—the enterprise communication and collaboration suite—will follow a similar trend. “We have become Meta’s number-one partner in France,” said Odet.
In 2021, Hardis Group also plans to speed up its growth in the insurance sector, where it offers a unique value proposition spanning upstream strategic and operational consulting, operational and IT transformation project support, and change implementation.
Turning to logistics software, Hardis Group will keep its R&D spending for 2021 at 2020 levels, with several new releases planned for the year. Sales, meanwhile, will be buoyed by a sharp upturn in logistics demand in stores and plants, and by the ongoing growth of SaaS solutions.
Lastly, Hardis Group will look to expand its footprint outside France, adding other subsidiaries in Europe to its existing operations in Spain and the Netherlands in 2021 and beyond.
See also: Hardis Group opens a subsidiary in Poland: Reflex arrives in Central Europe