Delaware’s Belgian arm has quietly elevated two long-serving senior technologists — Nicompetitorlas Maes and Kenny Decorte — to partner, a move that tightens the consultancy’s grip on two strategic value pillars: sector-focused ERP delivery and Microsoft-cloud-led data platforms. The personnel changes are more than an internal promotion: they illustrate delaware’s continued bet on vertical expertise and a Microsoft-first technology stack to win complex digital transformations for food, retail, manufacturing and broader enterprise customers.
delaware is an international IT consultancy founded in Belgium and grown into a multi-country professional services group. The firm positions itself as a hybrid technology-and-industry consultancy that marries ERP, data & analytics, and cloud architecture to industry domain knowledge. Over the last decade delaware has emphasized deep partnerships with major platform vendors, most notably Microsoft and SAP, and it now presents itself as a large—and growing—player with a multi‑thousand-strong workforce spread across multiple countries.
The promotions of Maes and Decorte align with an ongoing leadership refresh across delaware’s Belux leadership ranks over recent years, where the company has steadily added partners and directors to scale practices and to consolidate specialty units. The moves are framed internally as a way to strengthen client-facing senior leadership while retaining and rewarding technical and industry know-how from inside the organization.
Key differentiators for delaware:
However, the commercial gains from these promotions depend on disciplined program governance, the ability to scale delivery without diluting quality, and maintaining a pragmatic stance toward multi‑vendor flexibility as clients increasingly demand hybrid and multi-cloud options. Organizations evaluating partners for ERP and data modernization should weigh delaware’s deep platform expertise and vertical IP against the strategic trade-offs of vendor alignment and delivery scale.
If delaware succeeds in combining Maes’ sectoral ERP expertise with Decorte’s Microsoft platform scale, it will strengthen its position as a go-to partner for enterprises seeking to modernize operations and to build cloud-native data capabilities — especially for companies in the food, retail and wholesale sectors looking to turn legacy data into business advantage. The next 12–24 months will be the test: sustained client wins, predictable delivery outcomes, and the translation of platform investments into tangible business results will determine whether these promotions are an inflection point or merely a sensible internal reorganization.
Source: Consultancy.eu Nicolas Maes and Kenny Decorte promoted to partner at delaware
Background / Overview
delaware is an international IT consultancy founded in Belgium and grown into a multi-country professional services group. The firm positions itself as a hybrid technology-and-industry consultancy that marries ERP, data & analytics, and cloud architecture to industry domain knowledge. Over the last decade delaware has emphasized deep partnerships with major platform vendors, most notably Microsoft and SAP, and it now presents itself as a large—and growing—player with a multi‑thousand-strong workforce spread across multiple countries.The promotions of Maes and Decorte align with an ongoing leadership refresh across delaware’s Belux leadership ranks over recent years, where the company has steadily added partners and directors to scale practices and to consolidate specialty units. The moves are framed internally as a way to strengthen client-facing senior leadership while retaining and rewarding technical and industry know-how from inside the organization.
Who are the new partners and what they will lead
Nicolas Maes — From ERP specialist to Consumer Business partner
- Background and focus: Maes’ career at delaware began in the late 2000s, anchored in ERP solutions for internal and logistics processes. Over time he added project management and solution architecture to his toolkit and moved into leadership roles within delaware’s ERP business.
- Current remit: He now leads the Consumer Business practice — a unit that targets food, retail, and wholesale clients — and his promotion to partner is described as a formal recognition of that leadership and a mandate to scale delaware’s industry foothold.
- Strategic positioning: Maes signals a deliberate shift from horizontal ERP expertise toward verticalized, sector-specific offerings that bundle business-process knowledge, regulatory understanding (food safety, traceability), and technical execution (S/4HANA, supply chain planning, logistics integrations).
Kenny Decorte — Scaling Microsoft Platform and Data & Analytics
- Background and focus: Decorte joined delaware as a Microsoft BI specialist and was instrumental in building the firm’s Data & Analytics offering and in expanding delaware’s footprint across Microsoft technologies.
- Current remit: He now leads the Microsoft Platform unit — a cross-disciplinary, Azure-centric team that delivers end-to-end solutions across cloud infrastructure, data platforms, analytics and AI-enabled services. The unit is described as a large, central delivery capability for Microsoft-centric customer work.
- Strategic positioning: Decorte’s elevation formalizes delaware’s intent to accelerate growth inside the Microsoft ecosystem, deepen its Azure and Power Platform capabilities, and expand the firm’s ability to deliver cloud-first data transformations at scale.
Why these promotions matter for clients and the market
The appointments are significant for three reasons:- They reflect a purposeful, practice-based leadership model. delaware is clearly trying to institutionalize domain and platform leadership rather than relying purely on matrixed, project-level leads. That makes it easier to sell repeatable solutions to sector customers.
- They underline the continuing centrality of Microsoft Azure and associated analytics stacks (Power BI, Synapse, Azure Data Services) in the firm’s growth strategy. For customers already invested in Microsoft, delaware is positioning itself as a single-vendor strategic partner capable of delivering everything from infrastructure to reporting and AI.
- They signal the prioritization of industry specialization — especially in consumer goods and food — where ERP modernization and supply-chain digitization remain high-investment areas.
delaware’s playbook: platform + vertical expertise
delaware’s model blends several elements that repeat across the industry, but with deliberate emphases that are worth mapping for IT leaders:- Platform alignment: delaware invests in being a deep partner to Microsoft (and historically SAP). That includes certifications, jointly developed solutions and claims of recognized partner awards.
- Industry IP: The firm builds reusable assets and accelerators for specific industries — e.g., retail merchandising and supply chain templates for the food sector or preconfigured ERP blueprints for distribution.
- Delivery scale: By consolidating platform teams into units (for example, a Microsoft Platform unit under a single leader) delaware tries to achieve both scale and reuse, enabling larger, multi-geography projects to be run with more consistent practices.
- Talent pipeline and leadership continuity: Promoting long-serving technical directors into formal equity-style partner roles is a retention play and a signal to both clients and the market that delaware values homegrown leadership.
What this means for the Microsoft ecosystem (and Windows-era IT teams)
delaware’s focus intensifies the trend of consultancies acting as amplifiers for major platform vendors. For Microsoft-centric Windows-era IT teams and enterprise architects, the implications are practical:- Faster Azure adoption paths: Having a partner with a large, dedicated Microsoft Platform unit can shorten migration times for Windows Server, SQL Server and on-prem analytics workloads to Azure equivalents.
- End-to-end data modernization: For organizations using Microsoft 365, Power Platform and Windows-based infrastructure, a partner that combines ERP (S/4HANA or Dynamics) and Azure expertise can weave a single modernization story — from operational ERP data to enterprise BI and self-service analytics.
- Skills and integration: delaware’s emphasis on data & analytics and Azure-native services means Windows-focused teams may see more opportunities for hybrid deployments (on-prem + Azure) and for integrating Windows workloads with Azure Synapse, Azure Data Lake, and Power BI.
- Risk of vendor lock-in: Consolidating around a single vendor stack reduces integration complexity, but it also narrows strategic options if a client wishes to diversify cloud providers or adopt a multi-cloud strategy.
Strengths: What delaware brings to the table
- End-to-end capability: The combination of ERP, data & analytics, and Azure/cloud delivery lets delaware own broad transformation programs.
- Industry-relevant IP: Verticalized solutions for food, retail and wholesale accelerate deployments and reduce time-to-value.
- Experienced leadership: Elevating long-tenured practitioners to partner positions reduces knowledge loss risk and preserves client relationships.
- Vendor recognition: delaware’s investments in Microsoft competencies and partner statuses (including advanced designations) add credibility for enterprise Microsoft customers.
- Global footprint: A multi-country presence helps in running cross-border projects and providing nearshore/offshore delivery options.
Risks, gaps and cautionary notes
No single announcement can rewrite market dynamics. The promotion of two senior leaders is strategically positive, but there are practical risks and limits to the upside.- Over-reliance on one ecosystem: While deep Microsoft expertise is an advantage, it can become a constraint if a client needs impartial, multi-cloud or multi-vendor advice. Relying on a single platform may increase vendor dependency and reduce flexibility.
- Growth vs. quality trade-offs: Rapid scaling of delivery units (Microsoft Platform teams, data & analytics hubs) risks inconsistent delivery quality if governance and standardization don’t keep pace with headcount growth.
- Market competition: The space is crowded. Global consultancies and systems integrators are pursuing identical markets with larger balance sheets and broader portfolios, increasing price pressure on differentiated talent.
- Talent attrition and market churn: Promoting leaders is a retention tactic, but the broader consulting labor market remains fluid. Maintaining momentum requires systematic succession planning and continuous investment in training, especially around generative AI and real-time analytics skills.
- Unverified or soft claims: Public statements by consultancies sometimes contain numbers that are difficult to independently verify at a granular level (for example, team sizes in a single unit). Where reported metrics cannot be cross-checked across multiple public documents, readers should treat them as indicative rather than definitive.
- Client concentration: When consultants have deep vertical specializations, there’s a risk that a few large client wins (or losses) disproportionately affect business performance in that vertical.
Tactical implications for IT decision-makers
If your organization is evaluating partners for ERP modernization, Azure migration, or enterprise data platform projects, consider these tactical steps:- Clarify vendor neutrality: Establish whether a partner will recommend best-of-breed across vendors or primarily design solutions within a single vendor stack.
- Verify practice scale and delivery model: Ask for customer references for projects of similar size and domain. Inquire about the partner’s centralized vs. local delivery approach.
- Review IP and accelerators: Request demonstrations of industry accelerators to understand how much reusability exists and how configurable those assets are.
- Assess data governance and security: For food, retail and manufacturing, compliance, traceability and data sovereignty matter. Demand clarity on how the partner implements governance and regulatory controls in Azure and hybrid environments.
- Negotiate measurable outcomes: Use outcome-based contracting where possible (e.g., supply chain KPIs, reduction in stockouts, time-to-insight improvements) rather than purely time-and-materials models.
What to expect from delaware under the new partners
- More visible vertical packaging of services focused on consumer goods, food and manufacturing under Maes’ leadership, including packaged ERP migrations, supply-chain optimization and traceability projects.
- Broader Microsoft-driven offerings and possibly bundled managed services and IP built around Azure, Power BI and the Power Platform under Decorte’s stewardship.
- Increased emphasis on scaling the Microsoft practice, which may involve hiring drives, targeted acquisitions, or partnerships to bolster cloud-native engineering and AI capabilities.
- Investment in talent development and internal leadership programs to support partner-level responsibilities and to retain senior technical staff.
Competitive context and where delaware fits
delaware sits in a tier of consultancies that are larger than boutique specialists but smaller than the largest global systems integrators. That positioning has advantages: agility, stronger client intimacy and the ability to offer niche domain knowledge without the bureaucracy of very large firms.Key differentiators for delaware:
- Deeper industry playbooks in specific verticals versus generalist competitors.
- Strong Microsoft and SAP alignment that helps in customers choosing those vendor ecosystems.
- An emphasis on local leadership and continuity, with partners who rose through technical ranks rather than being hired from outside purely for commercial reasons.
- Scale and capital for very large, multi-region program investments.
- Breadth of advisory services beyond technology (e.g., large-scale management consulting or M&A advisory) that very large consultancies can offer.
- Global brand recognition in markets where delaware is less well established.
The bigger picture: cloud, data and the enterprise transition
Maes’ and Decorte’s promotions come at a time when enterprises continue to accelerate cloud transformations and to treat data as a strategic asset. A few persistent trends shape the opportunity:- ERP modernization remains a multiyear wave as organizations on older on-prem stacks evaluate S/4HANA, cloud ERP or hybrid strategies.
- Data platforms are consolidating around cloud-native services. Enterprises are standardizing on cloud data lakes, lakehouses and managed analytics services, and consultancy partners that can deliver end-to-end from ingestion to reporting retain a commercial edge.
- Generative AI and automation are moving from POC to production. Integrating AI into ERP processes and analytics pipelines will be a differentiator for consultancies that can combine domain knowledge with modern data engineering.
Final assessment
The elevation of Nicolas Maes and Kenny Decorte to partner is a strategically consistent step for delaware: it reinforces the company’s approach of promoting deeply technical, domain-aware leaders into positions that influence both delivery and go-to-market strategy. For customers and Windows-era IT teams, the signal is clear — delaware is doubling down on Microsoft-led data platforms and industry-specific ERP solutions as the core axes of growth.However, the commercial gains from these promotions depend on disciplined program governance, the ability to scale delivery without diluting quality, and maintaining a pragmatic stance toward multi‑vendor flexibility as clients increasingly demand hybrid and multi-cloud options. Organizations evaluating partners for ERP and data modernization should weigh delaware’s deep platform expertise and vertical IP against the strategic trade-offs of vendor alignment and delivery scale.
If delaware succeeds in combining Maes’ sectoral ERP expertise with Decorte’s Microsoft platform scale, it will strengthen its position as a go-to partner for enterprises seeking to modernize operations and to build cloud-native data capabilities — especially for companies in the food, retail and wholesale sectors looking to turn legacy data into business advantage. The next 12–24 months will be the test: sustained client wins, predictable delivery outcomes, and the translation of platform investments into tangible business results will determine whether these promotions are an inflection point or merely a sensible internal reorganization.
Source: Consultancy.eu Nicolas Maes and Kenny Decorte promoted to partner at delaware
