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For Ricoh, this acquisition strengthens its position as a digital services company; for Dutch Avantage, it enables its customers to benefit from Ricoh’s global presence and its extensive catalog.

 

Ricoh’s customers in the Netherlands will quickly be able to take advantage of an even wider range of IT services and digital transformation support with the acquisition of Advantage.

 

This Rotterdam-based IT services company supports more than 800 customers seeking productivity in their automation processes and in the maintenance of their IT infrastructure and cloud services. The acquisition should allow the two entities to strengthen each other:

 

• Ricoh will benefit from Advantage's long experience in the field of services dedicated to business productivity;

 

• Advantage, by allowing its customers to now benefit from the many services provided by Ricoh, such as IT advice, assistance, remote management services or even commercial advice. They will also have access to the wide range of Ricoh products: document management systems, business process services, production printing and workstation management solutions.

 

Advantage will operate as a subsidiary of Ricoh and will be part of the Ricoh Office Services business. Alberto Mariani, Vice President of Office Services at Ricoh Europe, said: “This exciting acquisition is part of a global strategy to further enhance Ricoh’s digital services, related competencies, and provision of even greater customer support. Avantage offers the perfect fit for Ricoh in terms of customers, employees, propositions, and size. It also complements other areas of our business such as document management solutions, workflow solutions and print services to provide customers with truly dependable extensive service and support."

 

Eric Carree, CEO of Advantage, adds: “By joining forces with Ricoh, we meet our ambition to strengthen our organisation. Ricoh is a strong international player and offers us room to grow further. We can provide customers with even better services in the field of digital workplaces and IT services. We look forward to a successful future."

 

The transfer of shares will take place after the final approval of the National Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). The acquisition of Advantage is a key part of Ricoh's growth strategy, which aims to strengthen its service offering to customers undergoing digital transformation. 

 

Previous acquisitions of digital services in Europe include NPO Sistemi for cloud solutions, technology and integration and software solutions, LAKE Solutions AG for data storage, security and integration in the cloud, IPM activities and TotalStor for the transformation and modernization of critical IT infrastructures, data storage and analytics in private and hybrid cloud, or DocuWare for document management and workflow automation software in the cloud and on the site.