Alexandru Holicov, founder of Adservio, sponsor of CONCORD IASI OPEN

1. How was Adservio founded? How did the entrepreneurial journey begin and how has it developed over time?

I started in 2008, with the dream of bringing the advantages of technology to education in Romania. A year later we had the first implementation, at the "Vasile Alecsandri" High School in Iasi. For the first time, a school unit in the country used a digital catalog, and teachers, principals, students and parents communicated and collaborated much more easily. Since 2013, Adservio has moved to the cloud and become a complete platform, which includes the digital catalog, but optimizes all the processes of a school.

We gradually expanded our user base with schools and high schools in Bucharest and the rest of the country. In 2018, through the involvement of Buzău City Hall, we succeeded in the complete digitization of the first municipality in Romania. A big leap in digitization came with the advent of the pandemic. With all education moving online, we've offered our platform to over 1,000 schools for free.

In 2021, together with BCR, we digitized education for free for 16,000 children and teachers from 44 schools in disadvantaged areas of Romania. In 2022, we signed a strategic partnership with Microsoft and implemented Adservio in the largest network of private schools in Azerbaijan. We also received funding of €2 million from the Catalyst Romania investment fund.

This year we launched the most advanced digitalization platform for universities and we are in the process of implementing it in the academic environment in Romania. At the same time, we aim to expand operations on international markets.

2. What is the mission and vision of the company?

For 15 years we have been promoting openness to technology in education, we want to free schools from bureaucracy, to give teachers more time for what matters most: working directly with students. At the same time, we bring parents closer to their children's progress at school, and we are very happy about that. Our dream is to digitize our entire education system and to go with a Romanian product on international markets.

3. What steps are you taking to stay ahead of the competition and remain innovative in your approach?

We are constantly innovating, developing new modules that bring real value to our users. We've been doing this since the company's inception, and it's become the essence of Adservio.

4. What do the Iași Open tournaments mean for Adservio and for Iași?

Personally, I played professional tennis from age 10 until my teens and have applied the healthy principles of the sport to my life. At the same time, Adservio is a company established in Iasi and we care about our community. We work and live here, so we enjoy getting involved in major events in the city. We have many fellow tennis enthusiasts who will come to the Iași Open with their families. We can't wait to see some quality competition!

5. What is Adservio's CTA for tennis fans?

Enjoy the show of champions!

6. How do the values of the Adservio brand intersect with the values of Iași Open?

We believe a lot in passion and work. This is the only way that everyone's talent and natural abilities are highlighted and performance emerges. Therefore, there is a close connection with the values of the athletes at the Iași Open.

7. What is the recipe for success?

The recipe for success is unspectacular. Only when you are willing to dedicate many hours to work, to try dozens of times until you get it right, as in endless training, to keep going even though you send many balls into the net, does success appear. That's the only way you increase your chances that, after 5 sets and tie-breaks in your career, you can say Game-Set-Match!