e-BO case study
Hulpverleningszone Waasland
From legacy landscape to future-ready digital backbone
At a glance:
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Market : Public Safety | Fire & Rescue Services
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Scope : 550+ firefighters covering 320,000 residents, high-risk sites including a nuclear plant, Seveso companies, highways, and a prison.
The challenge
In 2015, after a regional fire brigade merger, HVZ Waasland faced a fragmented IT and OT landscape inherited from the various municipalities: outdated hardware, inconsistent software updates, security vulnerabilities, and high operational risks.
“We had everything from unpatched systems to conflicting printer contracts,” says Karel Vanderkerken, Head of ICT, HVZ Waasland. “For a mission-critical organization like ours, that was simply unsustainable.”
With only two ICT staff, HVZ Waasland lacked the capacity to manage infrastructure, networks, cybersecurity, and OT systems internally. A single outage could jeopardize response times, legally bound dispatch deadlines, or the availability of ambulances and fire trucks.
The Waasland zone needed a reliable one-stop partner to unify services, safeguard operations and prepare the organization for future digital needs.
The solution
In 2017, HVZ Waasland chose e-BO Enterprises for its unique blend of IT and OT expertise and proven track record in zero-fault-tolerance environments such as offshore energy.
One-stop shop IT/OT integration
Compute: Standardized servers, desktops, storage, and private cloud hosting from e-BO’s datacenters in Belgium.
Connect: Linking 9 operational fire stations and one mobile command center securely to headquarters, and preparing for secure connections between all fire stations.
Protect: SOC-backed security monitoring and NIS-2 readiness programs, plus physical security, including access control and video surveillance modernization.
Navigate: Design and setup of a 24/7 dispatch center with video walls, PCs, and peripherals to guarantee uninterrupted operations, combined with e-BO’s e-Fire solution, which connects multiple applications into one unified system.
e-Fire: a data highway for the fire brigade
Alongside the broad IT/OT services, HVZ Waasland also pioneered e-BO’s e-Fire solution, an enterprise service bus which integrates multiple applications – from HR to alarmering and planning – into one unified system, avoiding data inconsistencies, eliminating data silos, and reducing errors.
“Think of e-Fire as the fire brigade’s CAN-bus,” says Karel Vanderkerken. “One data element, like a phone number, is updated once and instantly synchronized across all systems. That alone reduced workload by 1.5 FTE annually.”
e-Fire also forces software vendors to adopt connectors, creating a universal plug for the firefighting sector, which ensures seamless data exchange. Waasland is now the reference zone, which may inspire other fire brigades to explore the same approach.
The results
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Full relief for a lean internal IT team: e-BO handles day-to-day service via SLA, on-site support, and SOC monitoring.
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Operational continuity secured: From automatic gate openings in unmanned stations to real-time vehicle telemetry, IT/OT integration ensures readiness.
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Improved efficiency: Administrative processes are streamlined through e-Fire, cutting work pressure equivalent to 1.5 FTEs.
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NIS-2 compliance journey started: Security operations and extended detection response (XDR) roll-out prepare HVZ Waasland for EU mandates by 2027.
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One trusted partner: A direct, transparent relationship ensures rapid resolution and a shared culture of pragmatism.
Continued collaboration will broaden the scope with branch connectivity, expanded cybersecurity, and further co-development of e-BO’s e-Fire solution. Other Belgian fire zones are already looking to replicate Waasland’s model.
For HVZ Waasland, the partnership with e-BO is about more than technology: it enables firefighters to focus on their mission of saving lives and protecting communities.