Portorium now part of AEB customs management practice

“Comprehensive expertise in digital customs solutions is scarce and the investment in bringing people up to speed in such a complex domain is significant,” explained Markus Meissner, AEB Managing Director. "Portorium’s team brings years of customs experience and is knowledgeable about AEB’s solutions, making it a customer-focused match.”

Portorium founder Pieter Haesaert joins the Customs Domain Management Board, leading AEB’s future customs activities. He assumes responsibility for developing and executing strategy for the customs domain, aligning product plans with market needs, industry trends, and compliance requirements. He oversees sales, marketing, and customer success in the customs domain and reports to the AEB Board of Directors.

“The merger comes at a time of significant change in the customs software and services market,” explained Haesaert. “With new legal frameworks brought on by the EU customs reform, technology innovations, and higher customer expectations, the status quo of siloed customs systems no longer meets market demands. By joining forces with AEB, together we can offer customers an unparalleled depth of customs and technology expertise to support comprehensive, data-driven customs management.”

Accompanying Haesaert in the transition to AEB are Senior Account Executives Pavel Malei and Jana De Borger, Senior Customs Consultant Sjors Vonken, Senior Service Manager Stefanie Verheyden, and Finance Manager Florentina Popescu.

“The addition of Portorium is an extraordinary win for AEB and our customers,” shared Steffen Frey, AEB Managing Director. “Their team brings rare expertise and in-depth practical experience in the customs sector that ensures full alignment on execution and allows us to respond to market demands with greater agility.”

Portorium also strengthens a unique differentiator of AEB: Managed Customs Services. These services are delivered by a team of customs and operations specialists who take responsibility for 'jobs to be done' in areas where customers do not have in-house expertise or resources.

In addition to execution, the Managed Customs Services team monitors and analyzes customs operations to proactively resolve issues and propose optimizations. Packaged with customs and trade compliance software implementations, Managed Customs Services make customs management scalable for companies of all sizes. This component completes the AEB offering for a true end-to-end customs management solution.