Towards a hybrid future
More about the performance and the plans of ALSO in the Annual Report 2021
Substantial Growth Potential
IT has become one of the key enablers for economic growth. Spending has grown worldwide over the past decade (2011 to 2021) by over 20 percent to USD 4.239 billion. With its three business models of Supply, Solutions, and Service, ALSO is one of the leading technology providers for this sector. Hardware and software are sold through the ALSO ecosystem in currently 28 European countries, solutions and service offers can be downloaded around the world through ALSO’s proprietary Cloud Marketplace. This set-up produces a high level of scalability and substantial growth potential for the company.
Extensive Ecosystem
The ecosystem of ALSO secures access to the most important vendors and encompasses a broad base of resellers on the market. The number of vendors has increased from around 300 in 2011 to 700 now, while goods in around 1 450 product categories are distributed. Through the approximately 120 000 resellers at the moment in the ALSO countries, the goods and services make their way to more than 500 million end customers, including both companies and private hardware and software users. The ability of the vendors to innovate is at the same time the basis for the constant development of the market.
Strategy for Sustainable and Profitable Growth
With its MORE corporate strategy, which was developed over ten years ago, ALSO focuses on four key activities as it processes this market. In addition to maintaining the company’s leading market position on established markets, the strategy involves continually improving our operational excellence, expanding the share of solution and service-based business models in the total net sales, and further strengthening the company through acquisitions
Three Future-proof Business Models
The Supply division primarily involves the transactional marketing of hardware and software. Solutions concentrates on providing support for the resellers in the design and realization of complex IT landscapes as well as on marketing offers for verticals and IT solutions that originate from the ALSO digital platforms. Service comprises the consumptional, subscription-based business as well as the development and marketing of the digital platforms (cybersecurity, IoT, virtualization, AI). The three business models are closely interlinked and strengthen and promote each other. At the same time, the stable cash flow guarantees that possible fluctuations within the areas can be smoothed out.
Transformative Integration
ALSO grows both organically and inorganically. Over the course of the last ten years, a total of 27 acquisitions have been carried out and all the companies acquired have been successfully integrated. This rapid, systematic harmonization and continued development of the acquired companies and the now very high scalability is only possible thanks to the knowledge that has been gathered and the integration experience that has been gained over the last ten years. ALSO has developed its own program, which we call “transformative integration”, that covers all areas of the company thanks to its five main drivers: processes, IT, new business models, KPIs, and HR.
Successful Track Record
Two KPIs are crucial for managing the company: as a key operating performance indicator, EBITDA ensures the company’s profitable growth. The definition of ROCE as a target figure ensures capital efficiency. ALSO’s medium-term targets are an EBITDA of € 330 million to € 420 million and a ROCE of > 20 percent. ALSO has a verifiable successful track record in all relevant key performance indicators.
Sustainably Successful for more than Ten Years
For ALSO, responsible corporate management means growing sustainably and profitably and acting ethically, all with the aim of improving people’s quality of life through technology. The company pursues these values through its LESS sustainability strategy. ALSO is a member of the UN Global Compact and works actively on the development of the circular economy in IT. A testament to our commitment can be found in the positive assessment from Sustainalytics, one of the most renowned rating agencies in the world.