Healthcall vs Essec, Objective comparison for 2026

Essec and Healthcall are sometimes discussed together in Belgian care home consultations renewing their nurse call system or their resident safety setup. This page puts the two players side by side on verifiable criteria, to help the director, the care coordinator or the IT manager of a care home decide with full knowledge.

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Executive summary

• Essec Group is a Belgian integrator founded in 1977, specialising in nurse call systems, notification systems and telecoms. Its subsidiary IndigoCare International (parent = Essec Group) developed iCall in 2007, claimed as “the world’s first nurse call system based on the open IP standard”. A more recent version, iCall2, is a fully IP platform designed, developed and manufactured in Belgium.
• Notable technical asset: the LocalBus technology claims the ability to run on legacy cabling infrastructure in more than 99.3% of cases. SIP voice units enable immediate intercom with the carer after a call.
• Coverage: iCall is deployed in 60 countries. EMEA Technology Awards (awarded by NEC), Belgian Export Award (Born Global), VOKA SMB-Export Award 2021, runner-up Flanders International Business Awards 2023.
• Target: hospitals, long-stay care (including WZC / care homes), prisons, hotels, a broader spectrum than Healthcall.
• Healthcall is a Belgian SaaS published by Groovit SRL (Frasnes-lez-Anvaing) since 2017, focused exclusively on Belgian care homes of 30 to 150 beds, with an open architecture, sovereign premium hosting and public pricing from 50 € excl. VAT / button.
• The right choice depends on your context: size of the structure, existence of a wired hardware estate to reuse, membership of a multi-country group (where iCall’s international footprint may weigh in), and weight given to economic transparency and to specialisation in Belgian care homes.

Comparison table

Several cells of the table are explicitly marked “to be confirmed”. This is an editorial choice: we prefer honesty to extrapolation. If you are evaluating Essec in your consultation, we invite you to request this information in writing from the vendor, with supporting documents, and to compare on documents.

Essec’s strengths

• A 48-year history (since 1977) as a Belgian integrator of nurse call, notification and telecoms. Few players in the sector have this depth. For a care home management that wants a partner with a long history, this is a serious argument for longevity.
• Technical innovation with Full-IP iCall since 2007: iCall was claimed as the world’s first nurse call system based on the open IP standard. This means a modular and durable architecture, well ahead of recent standards.
• LocalBus technology for renovation: in more than 99.3% of cases, iCall runs on a building’s existing cabling, without new cable pulling. A major asset for care homes in renovation or heritage buildings where redoing the cables would be disruptive.
• SIP voice units: SIP voice units allow the carer to speak immediately with the resident after the call via intercom, which can reduce unnecessary trips.
• International footprint + distinctions: iCall is deployed in 60 countries, several major awards (EMEA Technology by NEC, Belgian Export Award, VOKA SMB-Export 2021). If your care home belongs to a multi-country group, this reach may weigh in.
• Belgian product manufacturing: iCall2 is designed, developed and manufactured in Belgium, consistent with a sovereign procurement policy.

To verify with Essec / IndigoCare: data hosting location for your care homes, GDPR DPA, pricing grid, update policy (frequency, inclusion), contract exit conditions, Walloon or Flemish care home references comparable to your size.

Healthcall’s strengths

• Vendor and vendor-lock independence. Groovit SRL is self-funded, with no loan and no external investor. Our only shareholder is the satisfaction of our clients. Product trade-offs are made for care homes, not for a shareholder profitability plan.
• Open architecture with no proprietary hardware. Healthcall runs with standard off-the-shelf hardware. You are not locked into a closed range, and partial renewal remains possible supplier by supplier.
• Pricing transparency. Pricing starts at 50 € excl. VAT per button. It is published and stable. Four major updates per year are included. No migration cost is charged. You can budget without surprises.
• Retention documented over 8 years. Out of around twenty care homes installed since 2017, only one departure in 8 years. 20 clients out of 21 are still active. This figure is not a marketing argument: it is the direct consequence of the subscription model and the open architecture. If we stopped providing value, nothing would retain clients.
• Product agility. Healthcall is a SaaS in the strict sense: the code evolves, field feedback from care coordinators is integrated over short cycles, updates deploy without heavy on-site intervention.
• Sovereign Belgian hosting. High-availability private cluster at a Belgian premium host, triple database mirroring, native GDPR. Resident data remains in Belgium, under Belgian law, with a host we can name and verify.

When to choose Essec vs Healthcall

Choose Essec / iCall if your project is a renovation where you want to keep existing cabling (LocalBus works in 99.3% of cases), if you are looking for a product manufactured in Belgium with a long history (since 1977 for Essec Group, 2007 for iCall), or if your care home belongs to a multi-country group that wants to standardise its nurse call internationally (iCall present in 60 countries). It is also a good choice if you want a hybrid care home / hospital product, or if your technical manager values an open Full-IP standard with native SIP voice units.

Choose Healthcall if you run a care home of 30 to 150 beds and your need is a nurse call specifically designed for Belgian senior residential care (not a derivative hospital product), if pricing transparency matters (50 € excl. VAT / button public, 4 updates/year included, no migration cost), if you value an open architecture without proprietary hardware to keep control over your partial renewals, and if the agility of an independent vendor based in Frasnes-lez-Anvaing, which adjusts its product to the field feedback of Belgian care homes, weighs more in your decision than an international catalogue.

Typical use case

Take the case, frequent in our base, of a care home of 80 beds, an independent structure or one belonging to a small regional group, whose nurse call system is reaching end-of-life. Management and the care coordinator launch a consultation with several suppliers, including Essec and Healthcall.

Essec will answer, according to its positioning, with a proposal that should be examined precisely: nature of the hardware proposed (proprietary or open), economic model (purchase, rental, SaaS), inclusions (updates, support, training), exit conditions, hosting and GDPR. It is this written answer that must serve as a basis for comparison, not a general perception of the supplier.

Healthcall will answer with a SaaS subscription proposal on compatible hardware, with public pricing from 50 € excl. VAT per button, four major updates per year included, and no migration cost. The existing infrastructure is assessed for partial reuse. The budget is spread over the subscription, the contractual commitment remains light, and management retains the option of evolving the hardware estate without renegotiating the software. Hosting is provided in Belgium at a Belgian premium host, with triple database mirroring and native GDPR.

The decision then turns on what the structure values: compatibility with a specific estate or service on one side, economic independence, pricing transparency and open architecture on the other. It is a model decision, to be made on written documents.

Frequently asked questions

Why is this page deliberately cautious about Essec?

Because we refuse to write about a competitor what we cannot source. Publicly verifiable information about Essec as a nurse call supplier in Belgian care homes is, to date, limited within the research scope accessible to us. Rather than extrapolating or caricaturing, we explicitly flag “to be confirmed” points and invite the reader to request these elements directly from Essec. A fair comparison requires it.

Is Healthcall compatible with an existing Essec system?

Healthcall is based on an open architecture with no imposed proprietary hardware. Depending on the nature of the Essec components installed (buttons, transmitters, network infrastructure, carer terminals), partial reuse is conceivable. We systematically carry out a prior technical audit before any proposal: this point must be decided on the basis of your real inventory, not on a marketing claim.

Is there a migration cost if we leave Essec for Healthcall?

No migration cost is charged by Healthcall. Any costs are those linked to hardware: replacement of non-reusable proprietary components, or addition of equipment to cover an expanded scope. These costs are priced and presented transparently in the proposal, separately from the software subscription.

Do resident data leave Belgium with Healthcall?

No. Hosting is provided on a high-availability private cluster at a Belgian premium host, with triple database mirroring. GDPR compliance is native, and processing remains under Belgian law. For Essec, this information should be requested directly from the vendor: hosting location, name of the host, applicable legal regime, backup and disaster recovery policy.

Ready to compare on your real case?

A Healthcall demonstration lasts around 30 minutes. We cover your current configuration, your constraints, and what a concrete deployment involves at your site, without commitment. If you are evaluating Essec in parallel, this demonstration can also equip you to ask the right questions, with documents, to all the suppliers consulted.

Let’s discuss your project

Sources consulted

• Healthcall canonical data, Groovit SRL, installed base 2017–2026, premium hosting (internal Healthcall source, April 2026).
• Essec Group official site (healthcare), www.essec.be/healthcare (consulted 2026-04-21, source referenced via IndigoCare): founded 1977, system integrator.
• IndigoCare, About (consulted 2026-04-21): affiliation Essec Group → IndigoCare International, iCall chronology (2007), LocalBus 99.3%, 60-country coverage, awards, iCall2 developed and manufactured in Belgium.

Last updated: 2026-04-21.