Not much has changed in the last 25 years
Smart Profile is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on it. I have been asked to say something about our early days. I am more of a forward observer than a backward observer. Much has changed in the past quarter-century, but perhaps not so much. “Time flies when you are having fun.
1996
During autumn 1996, Smart Profile was founded with the purpose of becoming successful on the Dutch market, with specific B2B marketing data for the ICT market. We started off using the name Computer Profile. Together with Harry van der Lint and Margje de Groot we started in the business centre in Oudenbosch. Nowadays we work in Breda with a team of 80 employees.
Floppy disk and fax
We did not yet have much (direct) marketing data to sell, but we did supply the so-called buying intentions: which ICT projects are going to play? Our first customer was Dell. They turned the market upside down by delivering PCs directly to end-users. Our data was offered on a diskette, and the order confirmations came in by fax.
1998: Mobile phone
The mid-1990s saw the rise of the mobile phone. At the time, predictions of potential growth were made that seemed incredible to me. I now know better because the mobile phone has been adopted with lightning speed. Now you can perhaps compare that with the prediction of the speed at which the electrification of car fleets will happen. It may be that everyone will be surprised once again how quickly this will happen in the next few years.
