Customer Success Stories

City of Bruges turns IT cost pressures into a catalyst for innovation

Smart budgeting, better performance

The City of Bruges has ambitious plans for its citizens, but it has to deliver on them within tight budget constraints. So what happens when software licensing fees suddenly increase and European regulations such as NIS2 require additional investment? “It’s a challenge,” says Ollivier Francq, IT Director Infrastructure, “but not an impossible one.” Through a strategic partnership with Inetum, the city managed to avoid spiraling costs and even free up budget for further innovation.

Published: 29/10/2026

Challenging climate

Today’s citizens expect government services to be accessible anytime, anywhere. Whether they are applying for a parking permit, reporting an issue to the parks department, or contacting social services, the process should be easy. For the City of Bruges, this means the technology behind those services needs to work seamlessly.

But that is easier said than done in a climate of budget constraints and an IT landscape made even more complex by the integration of the city administration and its Public Center for Social Welfare (OCMW).

Rising costs call for smarter choices

One of the biggest pressures on the budget came from software vendors that had drastically changed their pricing models. For the city’s contact center software, costs suddenly more than tripled. “It forced us to make a fundamental choice,” says Ollivier Francq. “We manage public funds and have a responsibility to use them as efficiently as possible.”

Inetum proposed that the City of Bruges switch to AudioCodes Voca CIC. The solution uses Microsoft Teams as its frontend, an environment employees were already very familiar with. For just half the original budget, the city ultimately gained a more powerful system. “Neither citizens nor contact center employees noticed a difference. At the same time, administrators gained a wide range of additional capabilities that were easy to manage behind the scenes.”

Seven years of cost certainty

A similar situation arose with the city’s virtualization infrastructure. Following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, the city was facing a twelvefold price increase. Accepting that increase would inevitably have diverted budget away from other IT projects. Inetum suggested HPE VM Essentials (VME) as an alternative.

“By choosing an integrated HPE package combining servers, storage, and the virtualization layer, we were able to acquire twice as many resources for the same amount of money. At the same time, we achieved a 30 percent saving on the total budget.” The city also locked in pricing for seven years, providing budget certainty in an unpredictable market.

A strategic lever

While keeping rising licensing costs under control, the city faced another challenge: the European NIS2 Directive. Rather than viewing the legislation as a purely administrative burden, the City of Bruges used it as an opportunity to structurally strengthen its cyber resilience.

Inetum guided the city through an in-depth maturity assessment based on the CyFun framework from the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB), translating complex legislation into a pragmatic roadmap with concrete action items. Instead of vague intentions, the roadmap included clear actions such as documenting onboarding and offboarding processes and organizing a monthly risk management meeting. The city’s executive bodies were also involved through dedicated board training. “Cybersecurity is now embedded at every level of the organization,” Ollivier Francq emphasizes.

Stronger security

The renewed security strategy also focused heavily on addressing the city’s fragmented IT landscape. Previously, the city relied on a patchwork of security tools. Working with Inetum, the City of Bruges opted for a single overarching solution: Managed Detection & Response (MDR), based on CrowdStrike.

This approach provides the city with round-the-clock monitoring without requiring additional investment in its own security specialists. The SOC detects potential issues and takes immediate action. This proved its value, for example, during a phishing attempt.

“Our IT department received a personal phone call warning us about the threat. And when an account was compromised following a breach at an external partner, it was blocked within minutes.” This preventive approach helps the city avoid not only the operational and reputational damage of a cyber incident, but also the unpredictable costs associated with it.

The power of partnership

The common thread across all these projects is a deliberate choice for open architecture and avoiding vendor lock-in. By making smarter choices across its licensing landscape, including the switch to AudioCodes and HPE, the city created the financial headroom needed for critical initiatives such as the NIS2 roadmap and CrowdStrike security.

Inetum’s role as a strategic partner is crucial. “Inetum understands how we work inside and out,” says Ollivier Francq. “Whether it’s a complex cloud migration or translating NIS2 requirements into concrete actions, Inetum’s expertise helps us identify the solution that best fits our needs and available budget.” This enables the City of Bruges to provide citizens with the services they rely on, while the support of an experienced partner gives its IT team greater peace of mind.

Request a contact