Category: Interview

As CIO of PostNL, Marcel Krom was at the forefront of a successful transformation to a digital company. He was the driving force behind technological solutions for optimizing (chain) processes and customer experience. After almost thirteen years as CIO, he will start working part-time as a consultant. Gerard Wijers, director and co-founder of Anderson MacGyver, and Marcel Krom talk about the why, what and how of this collaboration.

“You don’t take a decision like that overnight,” the former CIO says about the career switch. “PostNL is a beautiful company with great people. I certainly could have stayed there a few more years until retirement. Then my farewell speech would have been mainly about PostNL, while I often got outside the company walls enough to know that there is more. To be able to discover and explore all that, I need freedom and time. I then set a date for leaving, which was postponed twice. After all, it took a while to find my successor and I wanted to hand everything over properly.” 

Krom deliberately chose not to take on a new CIO role, because then he would once again be in one domain for a long time. He wants to develop more broadly, gain experience in different industries and positions. “As CIO, you are also operationally responsible 7×24 hours in addition to the digital business strategy. After all, if IT doesn’t work, nothing works anymore. When you have a thousand systems, and they all have a problem three times a year, you know you’re constantly dealing with operational sores.” 

Making translation 

He wanted more time for the creative part: to translate the business activities into the enterprise architecture and then the IT architecture. As far as he is concerned, digital transformations start with the business and end with IT via the operating model. Those three pillars should come together in the architecture. “For me, that is the core,” said Krom, who prior to his appointment as CIO held leadership positions for more than ten years at PostNL subsidiary Cendris, which specializes in customer contact. 

He then began to have exploratory conversations with various consulting firms. “You quickly come to the consideration: in the Netherlands or internationally? I didn’t feel much like sitting on a plane all the time anyway. But also: do the culture and methodology match my own views? I wanted to work two days a week as a consultant in order to have enough time for other activities as well.” Krom has been a commissioner of Facilicom Group since 2020 and a member of TWTG’s advisory board. 

“Marcel called me last fall that he was quitting,” explains Gerard Wijers of Anderson MacGyver. “We were on his shortlist and he was curious to see how things worked here. Preferably, consultants join us on a permanent basis, in view of our self-developed approaches and concepts – our intellectual property. Joining as an associate is possible in specific cases. But everyone follows the same training program, participates in in-depth meetings, training sessions, team-building initiatives and so on. Regardless of one’s background, competencies or role.” That clarity did appeal to Krom. “It is a great advantage that we have worked closely and enjoyably together within PostNL.” 

Right match 

Anderson MacGyver indeed turned out to be the right match, the former CIO explains. “Indeed, we have known each other for some time. They have well-thought-out models and standard approaches for successful digital transformations. Think of the Operating Model Canvas and multimodal analysis to optimally align operations and IT with the business. Or the Value Web, which provides insight into a company’s added value within a market or ecosystem. Moreover, Anderson MacGyver is not that big, is humane and has both feet on the ground.” 

Apart from its philosophy and methods, the internationally developing consulting firm does indeed have a distinctive signature: familial, authentic, passionate and determined to make an impact for clients. Wijers: “That suits Marcel well. He is ideally someone who wants to move forward in a good atmosphere. In addition, he has seen that we only work with the best people. That’s a coat that fits and feels right, both for him and for us.” 

Half of the time Marcel Krom does other types of work; things that do not necessarily fit with Anderson MacGyver’s strategy and activities. For example, in a country or area where one is not active or something within a completely different domain. “Where possible, I will always do something together with Anderson MacGyver or other parties. On your own, you may be able to think fast – this is the direction it should go – but on your own you won’t get far. Collaboration and connecting companies allows for speed and makes it scalable.” 

Within Anderson MacGyver, the 2020 CIO of the Year has no distinct status or role, but ‘just started’ as an associate on September 1 of this year. “We did a trajectory together last summer and it went flawlessly. We let it all develop organically. More creative, less operational and in different environments.” 

Developing organically 

Gerard Wijers: “The fact that Marcel has joined us says something about where we stand as a company. He is one of the best known and most highly regarded CIOs. In addition to his stature, he has a strong personality. As a person and a professional, he can offer us a lot. We are super happy and proud that Marcel has chosen us. Our impact with clients will be even greater with his knowledge and experience.” 

Anderson MacGyver stays true to the proven models and methods used to solve challenging puzzles for clients. “We typically do this in consultation, with carefully assembled teams and with attention to both the business activities, the operating model and the IT architecture,” said the managing director and co-founder. 

“We are at the top when it comes to digital strategies and transformations. We work for clients like Leaseplan, PostNL, Eneco and other large Dutch companies. In the Nordics, we advise Scania, among others. We often advise on projects that require huge interventions and investments. We also find small clients interesting. The most important thing is that we can use our creativity and our craftsmanship.” 

People and the planet

At PostNL, the transformation was fundamentally about making the company able to withstand change. Given its crucial role, that was an economically and socially very meaningful ambition. “You noticed that in the commitment and energy of the people working at PostNL,” says Marcel Krom. “Everyone wanted to show that this huge transformation was possible. For such assignments, I want to have more opportunity. Knowing what’s going on, and knowing what needs to change, with an eye for people and planet.” 

Interested in Anderson MacGyver’s solutions for digital services?

Contact our specialists! We are happy to assist you.

Thanks to technological advances, education is personalizing along the principles of ‘any time, any place, any path, any space’. Universities and colleges will likewise offer modern online and offline learning concepts. The required flexibility, scalability and user experiences require an appropriate IT infrastructure that facilitates this optimally. From our consultancy practice in the education sector, we present the vision on this topic as seen by some of our customers. This week, Ellen Schuurink, Manager Digital Operations at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, has the floor.

‘The coherence in focus’

Ellen Schuurink has been working for Hogeschool Utrecht (HU) since 2016. After she started as Manager Digital Learning Environment and Digital Research Environment she made the connection between didactics and IT. At the time, the focal point was the newly formulated digitalization ambition, focusing on personalized education, among other things. Agile, DevOps and low-code development were important tools in the realization.  

As Manager Digitalization Business Operations, she is now shaping the next battle in digitalization, in which three elements play an important role: people, processes and IT. “Business operations are organized in such a way that students, teachers and researchers can focus optimally on their core tasks.” 

Innovation and optimization 

HU is one of the large educational institutions in the Netherlands with almost 35,000 students. “Given our nature and size, everything we do ultimately has a significant social impact,” says Schuurink. “With all the initiatives we undertake, we ask ourselves, for example, how this will make things easier for the student or teacher, or how it will improve the process.” 

Ultimately, everything must be in line with the digital strategy. “In doing so, we are always looking for the balance between innovation and optimization.” Some time ago, with the help of Anderson MacGyver, the Manager Digitalization Business Operations and her team ran a project in the ERP domain, aimed at optimizing basic administration. “That too involved the trade-off between super fancy and super simple, or something in between.” 

Target audiences

By examining the entire process and the supporting IT, you will easily get a good picture of of the coherence. In the ERP project, for example, the relationship with the various related financial and HR processes and systems became clear. This includes matters that seem more distant from these processes. As a result, the impact of choices also emerges.  

“For us, for example, a so-called contract student – a student who combines work and study – is of a different importance than a 17-year-old who chooses their studies following their high school in his or her region. The latter will come to us automatically, while for contract students we compete with other colleges and institutions, commercial or otherwise, at home and abroad,” Schuurink said. 

“Both categories relate to the administrative process, but for the young student from the region we can probably suffice with a standard solution in terms of CRM, while we may have to differentiate with regard to the contract student.” 

Vision and expertise

“In a decentralized governance, you can enter into dialogue about every point solution that should make the difference,” says the Manager Digitalization Business Operations. “For a lot of support processes, uniform systems suffice. It’s a missed opportunity to do all of that on a small scale and every man for himself. That does require a clear demarcation, where you choose technological solutions that fit the strategy and the purpose of use.” 

“Anderson MacGyver helps us get the insights based on which we can make these choices. They make a nice picture of that. They also know the products available in the market. Everyone brings in his or her individual knowledge and skills: overview, content, execution power, knowledge of architecture and so on. That all works well with the people involved on our side.” 

Pressure cooker 

In the trajectory with Anderson MacGyver, a pressure cooker was chosen, aimed at delivering two things: the documentation of the thought process and their outcomes, plus a translation into business impact suitable for decision-making in the IT board. The focus here was on the supporting processes. 

Together with the IT board, costs are also considered. “By investing in IT you can improve things, but the operating costs have to be kept under control.” 

“The question here is also: where do things need to be stable and reliable, and where is agility required? What buttons do we need to press to be effective and efficient, but with the right change capacity and absorptive capacity? Here it is all about finding a collective point of view.” 

Starting point  

“The target architecture is the starting point,” says Ellen Schuurink. “The interpretation must be based on the question in which areas you want to be distinctive as an organization and where uniformity is sufficient. Thanks to the trajectory with Anderson MacGyver, we have a handle to give direction to this.” 

Interested in Anderson MacGyver’s solutions for digital services and digital strategies?

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Thanks to technological advances, education is personalizing along the principles of “any time, any place, any path, any space”. Universities and colleges are also increasingly offering modern online and offline learning concepts. The required flexibility, scalability and user experience require an appropriate IT infrastructure that facilitates this optimally. From our consultancy practice in the education sector, we present the vision on this issue as seen by some of our customers.  This week, Ronald Stolk, Director of the Center for Information Technology (CIT) and CIO of the University of Groningen, has the opportunity to present his views.  

‘Ingrained habits up for discussion’  

Ronald Stolk, as Director Center for Information Technology (CIT) and CIO, has been responsible for all IT-related matters of the University of Groningen – a broad education and research institution with 40,000 students and 8,000 employees – since 2017. This includes the IT organization, the fiber optic infrastructure, the data centers, applications and the hardware in the study halls. 

In addition to office automation, focused on HR, finance and facilities issues, among others, there is support for the research and education domains. To do this as well as possible, a transformation was initiated five years ago, which was completed over two years ago. IT staff was organized across domains in Agile teams. Consultants combined IT and specific domain knowledge and, together with teachers and researchers, looked for the best-fit solutions. Regular services were also supported in this way. 

The covid-pandemic has made it even more visible how important digitalization is to the university. “In that sense, we’re floating more and more on IT,” says CIO Ronald Stolk. “From a traditional structure you are far too slow to quickly and adequately support that. Therefore, you have to allocate responsibilities further down in the organization: people should be able to make their own decisions to a certain extent in conjunction with the IT consultants.”  

Expertise 

Many things are developed in-house based on the available expertise. In terms of education, think of the possibilities for examination in digital rooms, where students must be able to look things up in Wikipedia, for example, but are not allowed to talk online with friends. That requires specific adjustments to the network. In the digital tests that students can take at home, the questions are randomized, which makes discussing difficult. 

With respect to research, it is often about facilitating data processing, sometimes with proprietary equipment and proprietary datasets, which of course must meet the FAIR principles of findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. In addition, the university traditionally had capabilities for high-performance computing – once set up for the data processing of the Westerbork radio telescope. 

The size and diversity of the University of Groningen presents Ronald Stolk – who is also a professor of clinical epidemiology – and his colleagues with challenges when it comes to secure, high-performance, available and appropriate IT support. “We serve the most idiosyncratic beta researchers, who prefer not to be limited by standards, but also philosophers who primarily use a text program, so to speak.” 

Challenges 

Naturally, there is a considerable emphasis on security within all functions and domains. It is important that students and employees restrict themselves to centrally facilitated and controlled facilities and do not share files and data via Dropbox or other services. “Then hackers can enter in a flash. Sharing passwords with colleagues and assistants is prevented through two-factor authentication.” 

“In addition, in terms of security, there is also a behavioral side,” Stolk continues. “People have to understand that in terms of IT you can’t just bring in all kinds of things you’ve bought or developed yourself. Something like that would be unthinkable at a bank, for example. There, everyone automatically goes along with the standard.” 

Besides that, there is another tension at play. “Universities employ very special and important people who discover beautiful things for society. In doing so, they often push the boundaries: building their own solutions for research, inventing things. Those lecturers and researchers are part of one of the eleven faculties, all of which are organized differently. They have a certain degree of autonomy and with that come their own wishes regarding the same central IT service.” 

Governance 

Anderson MacGyver has very effectively supported the university on their journey. The Agile transformation that was initiated five years ago was ‘exected’ in order to be able to translate questions and requests easily into the most appropriate solutions. Ronald Stolk: “The optimal governance is clearly visualized with areas and colors. Moreover, a distinction is made between IT support that can be standardized and IT with which you really distinguish yourself as the University of Groningen.” 

“For example, we recently incorporated a computing cluster costing tons into the infrastructure, financed from the decentralized research budget. Sometimes there is a grey area, with a server running somewhere under a desk or in a broom closet. Then you have a challenge in terms of governance. Anderson MacGyver taught us how best to interpret and adjust those things.” 

“The view from outside by Anderson MacGyver’s experts is that they aren’t limited by taboos. Ingrained habits are easily brought up for discussion. I am satisfied with what we have managed to do, and I’ll keep working on more and more improvement.” 

Interested in Anderson MacGyver’s solutions for digital services?

Contact our specialists! We are happy to assist you.

Thanks to technological advances, education is personalizing along the principles of ‘any time, any place, any path, any space’. Universities and colleges will likewise offer modern online and offline learning concepts. The required flexibility, scalability and user experiences require an appropriate IT infrastructure that facilitates this optimally. From our consultancy practice in the education sector, we present the vision on this topic as seen by some of our customers. This week, the floor is given to Rob van den Wijngaard, Director of the Administrative Shared Service Center at Leiden University. 

‘Replacing complexity with uniformity is a quest’ 

The Administrative Shared Service Center (ASSC) was established in January 2021 within Leiden University, which, from a multidisciplinary perspective, will have to make an important contribution to the realization of an appropriate, future-proof IT infrastructure. 

ASSC director Rob van den Wijngaard and his teams have been facilitating various functional domains and stakeholders in the field of HR, finance, IT, customer relations and document management from the ASSC for over a year. “Our field of work is broad and diverse within a complex environment. Due to the decentralized setup, the faculties have a high degree of autonomy. The challenge is to provide an efficient, user-friendly and contemporary service with which everyone is satisfied.”  

“If you really want to mean something to people and the organization as a shared service center, then mutual chemistry, trust and being people-oriented are fundamental,” says the ASSC director. It typifies Van den Wijngaard as a leader and helps him with his responsibilities within Leiden University. “I usually give a lot of space and trust to colleagues. That’s how you make the most of everyone’s unique traits and skills, so too within the MT.”  

Multidisciplinary

Leiden University, like any traditional educational institution, operates in a changing social and economic dynamic in which the organization must move efficiently, quickly, with agility and scalability to meet the changing needs of both students and people working within teaching, research and support functions. “This development is being driven by broad digitalization.” Other keywords include connection, innovation, diversity, inclusivity and self-reliance.  

Digital transformations, according to Van den Wijngaard, should not be limited to modernizing existing IT. “Such a fundamental change process is highly multidisciplinary. If you pull a string within one domain, it will irrevocably move elsewhere. The HR component in particular is very important and is quite often overlooked.”  

The ASSC director promotes a multidisciplinary approach that includes aspects such as people and culture, processes, management and organization, customer interaction and information technology. Change is thereby always embedded in the big picture. 

Industry standards  

That holistic view was also the starting point of Anderson MacGyver’s analysis, which involved all key activities and stakeholders: boards of directors of functional areas like HR, finance and IT. Plus the people responsible for information management, the ISSC (focused on hardware support) and the ASSC board. “The result is a widely supported and inspiring report including a concrete approach for the follow-up process.”  

Van den Wijngaard continued: “The report confirmed what we already thought: that for many basic activities you can suffice with uniform processes and solutions. You can for example use cloud-based platforms in the HR domain. Think of Workday or SuccesFactors, which have been developed as ‘industry standards’ specifically for higher education or for a specific functional domain.” 

Uniformity  

Anderson MacGyver’s MultiModal analysis helps with what is known as the “fit for future” design of IT. The colors green, blue, orange and purple stand for different types of business activities, such as: common, specialized, distinct and adaptive business activities. (a more in-depth explanation of the model and business activities colors can be found in our whitepaper ‘MultiModality‘)

The analysis showed that a lot of energy was spilled on insufficiently uniform and harmonized basic activities. When you address this, people can put more time and energy into things that make a difference for the university. “Set up eighty percent of all things tightly and as standardized as possible. For the remaining twenty percent, you then provide customization or specific solutions, with which you optimally relieve and support people.” 

Fundamental choices  

Going from “orange” to “green” requires making fundamental choices. “Replacing complexity with uniformity is a quest – both when rolling out new solutions and replacing legacy. You can’t force illogical solutions down people’s throats. But you also don’t have an unlimited budget to deliver the optimal solution for everyone.”  

“Sometimes you are helped by vendors discontinuing support for older applications. Another time there is a strong impetus from the business. The trick is to continually seize the momentum and urgency to roll out a new application and the corresponding updated processes. All aimed at better supporting the process.” 

Organizational dynamics  

This often requires a different way of managing. Hierarchy is making way for a network-like structure, in which, as stated, action is taken on the basis of cohesion. “Within the complex organizational dynamics there is often an imbalance between the way you organize processes, IT and responsibilities. You can only put the right pieces of the puzzle in place when the organizational structure is in order.”  

Within Leiden University, the ASSC is a link in the overall chain where execution, policy and the organization come together. “From that triangle we look for the connection to get things done.” 

To avoid creating false expectations, Rob van den Wijngaard says it is important to communicate well with all stakeholders. “It requires constant coordination and transparency to match our solutions to the expectations, urgency and ambitions. Again: that quest is our challenge, given the obvious limitations in terms of people and resources.” 

Solid foundation

Due to the scarce internal resources and the high workload at the university, the ‘fit for future IT’ is still a work in progress. “That’s an important disclaimer.” The journey is not an easy one. The ASSC director is nevertheless satisfied with the results: “We exist for eighteen months now. In the first year we worked hard to put a solid foundation in order, also in terms of MT and teams. In the meanwhile, great solutions have been rolled out.”

Interested in Anderson MacGyver’s solutions for digital services?

Contact our specialists! We are happy to assist you.

How do you give direction to a relatively decentralized company from a central vision? How do you address divergent expectations regarding IT within the SPIE group and among employees? How do you stick to a long-term strategy in a highly pragmatic culture? Lieve Declercq, general director of SPIE Netherlands accomplishes it. The IT landscape overhaul is successfully linked to strategic and organizational challenges.

The Dutch branch of the international multi-technical service provider SPIE has grown rapidly over the past fifteen years. With a major takeover almost every year, about five thousand people currently work for the daughter of the eponymous and originally French parent company. For example Zuit, specialist in public lighting, was acquired in 2017.

“Growth is good, but the integration of systems has lagged” says the top woman who took office in May 2017. After her start, she faced an extensive transformation with four strategic spearheads: people first, house in order, innovation and growth. In that context, she encountered an outdated IT environment, that was not qualified to support the SPIE business towards the future.

Lieve Declercq: “Our landscape had more than 250 applications, a lot of shadow IT, hack-string interfaces, plenty of manual work and multiple interpretations of the outdated core system, which was used by people and departments in various ways.”

Industry dynamics

At SPIE Netherlands, there was also the question of how the company would develop further towards customers and the market. “Will we continue as a ‘jobber’, delivering purely labor according to the principle of hourly rate times the number of hours? Or is there more to it? For example, some of our customers were interested in smart asset management, predictive maintenance, and managed service contracts. To be able to deliver this, the information provision had to be improved” according to the general director.

In 2018 it was decided to put the technological basis in order, to create value by providing new or different services. Another consideration was that, as a large organization, SPIE still operated as a collection of many small, independently operating companies.

“Different management of work processes was also needed. No longer individually, but from a central and standardized point of view.” However, the old core system, is mainly transactional and did not fit in at all.

Complete programme

It soon became clear to Declercq that the approach requires a complete programme, and not just a series of projects. In addition to selecting the right core application, a large change component is attached to especially the implementation of the application. “We were not sure that we ourselves had the necessary competencies within the company.” Coincidentally, in a former company were Declercq had the role of CEO, she had met a good external program manager: Niels van Loon. “From the start Niels indicated that he could not do this job alone and introduced Anderson MacGyver.”

Rational view

“Together with Anderson MacGyver, an analysis was made in 2018 based on the Operating Model Canvas” she continues. “This immediately resulted in good conversations about our activities, organizational structure and the associated IT support ultimately summarized in clear pictures and actions.”

This rational view of the entire organization helps enormously in determining the course and decision-making. Analysis shows that SPIE Netherlands is characterized by overlapping roles and systems and is struggling with contaminated databases. The core system lacks the required functionality and the capability to integrate acquired companies. The lack of a group solution leads to revenue leakage, faulty processes, and high failure costs.

Four workstreams

Lieve Declercq: “The change program consists of four workstreams: selection of the new core application, cleaning and integration of the databases, approach to peripheral systems, and professionalization of the internal IT department. Until now, IT has mainly focused on service and support and must now contribute to the system implementation and strategic development.”

Seen from the perspective of the international SPIE Group, this is a decentralized implementation. Nevertheless, the experiences from the various countries and divisions are taken along. After all, application selections have also been started abroad, which can lead to possible purchasing benefits. Ultimately, IFS Apps 10, a solution of software vendor IFS, was chosen in the Netherlands. “A company and solution we had not heard of before.”

“Anderson MacGyver, thanks in particular to Onno Wasser, has played a major role in the selection, negotiation, pricing, and conditions surrounding IFS” Declercq continues. “We as SPIE could never have done that ourselves. Fabian Haijenga has made a smart architectural plan. Lisa Folkertsma and Else de Meijer guided the first Agile migrations in such a way that we could take it over ourselves for the remaining migrations. We frequently discuss the progress with Gerard Wijers.”

Keeping track

Since the first proof of concept in 2019, SPIE Netherlands is at about twenty percent of the system implementation. In parallel, the functionality is being further developed and business units are switching step by step to the new application.

“As the implementation is gradually being handed over to our own people, Niels and the people at Anderson MacGyver sometimes have to jump over their own shadow. The transition from hired teams to the mostly newly appointed managers is progressing smoothly and faster than we initially anticipated.”

Sticking to the adopted strategy is not an issue for Lieve Declercq personally: “I am naturally steadfast. As SPIE Netherlands, we are also very committed to the strategic objective. You always encounter problems, but where there is a will, there is a way. And sometimes you have to adjust a bit.”

No Valhalla

Challenges play in four different areas. After all, IFS cannot immediately deliver all promised functionality. Furthermore, the first migration was underestimated in the pilot phase, which required the necessary aftercare. Cleaning up the databases also turned out to be more difficult than expected.

The first roll-out was deliberately based on a minimum viable product, so users did not go straight from the old world to Valhalla. “Gradually, people notice that it works, and they automatically become enthusiastic” according to the general manager. “The corona crisis has no major impact on turnaround time. Training and implementation are mainly executed digital.”

Phenomenal commitment

Lieve Declercq is very pleased with Anderson MacGyver‘s contribution. “The commitment of the aforementioned stakeholders is phenomenal. They are external and at the same time internal. Sometimes it collides, but that is what characterizes any good relationship. They never compromise on quality and understand that we will not be connected forever. That is very neat.”

Interested in Anderson MacGyver’s solutions for digital services?

Contact our specialists! We are happy to assist you.

Eneco is currently the leader in the Netherlands when it comes to supporting customers in the transition to sustainable energy use and it would like to keep it that way. As CIO of Eneco Group, Mario Suykerbuyk plays a crucial role in realizing this ambition. He has implemented wide-ranging changes in which IT, in terms of organization and solutions, operates as a full extension of the strategic business agenda.

Within the whole framework of the energy transition, people are faced with lots of options, says Suykerbuyk. “As an alternative to natural gas, initiatives for heat pumps and heat networks are cropping up. Solar panels and electric cars are becoming more and more popular. We want to help our customers with the choices they face in their personal energy transition.”

Proper use of data is critical

“There are three important aspects to my role, “says the Chief Information Officer (CIO). “We must be able to provide our products and services to customers quickly and simply. In addition to energy and insulation, this also includes solar panels, charging stations and much more. We need an excellent operation to be able to provide our services at the lowest possible cost. And also vital, we must continue to be the frontrunners in the area of technology. Proper use of data is crucial in offering specific customer-oriented services.”

Centralized structure and vision

According to Gerard Wijers, who is involved via Anderson MacGyver, it all revolves around being smart and scalability. “With smart meters and digital interaction, you acquire increasingly more information about the context and energy use of customers. Quick scale-ups and innovative services often require a modernization of the existing IT systems. There are all kinds of challenges and these can’t all be solved by the same kinds of people. It demands a different organizational structure and operational management.”

From a centralized structure and with one shared vision, Eneco now focuses the right, often scarce resources on specific, strategic goals. Suykerbuyk: “In the areas we can distinguish ourselves; we work with our own people. Generic matters are often outsourced.”

Digital transformation

Digitization has a way of fusing many fields. The comfort level at home can be controlled via an app, people gain insight into their own use and know when the central heating boiler needs a tune-up. The various underlying chain processes are modified to fit the individual customer. Over the past two years, the newly founded IT organization has worked hard at integration on the basis of standardized IT and data.

“The transformation to standardized IT platforms knows no national boundaries,” continues the Eneco Director. “Once a Rotterdam company, we are now active in Germany and Belgium and are slowly on our way to becoming a real European organization. We already have windmills, solar parks and power plants everywhere.”

“IT is interwoven in all of the great things Eneco is trying to do”.

Suykerbuyk, as CIO, makes the connection between business and technology at a managerial level. “This is necessary because IT is so interwoven in all of the great things Eneco is trying to do. This has a massive appeal for talented, highly-motivated young entrepreneurs. Not only within IT, but also in the rest of the organization. Besides being CIO, he is now also a member of the Commercial Management division.

Collaboration with Anderson MacGyver

“For me, Eneco is the prime example of how IT belongs in the boardroom,” says Wijers. “It shows that you can make a difference with one central tech-and-data organization. With good people, simple platforms and a clear roadmap. This way, you create a new digital reality on your own, and with all the related products, services and processes. This is the number one theme of these times.”

Realizing your own large-scale digital transformation takes time. By collaborating with a firm like Anderson MacGyver, Eneco is able to bring tried and tested solutions on the market much faster. There is a chronological sequence that must be followed, says Mario Suykerbuyk. “First, you must determine the strategy, then you need to have the right people in the right place to do what is necessary. Experience has taught us this will and makes all of the stops on the roadmap much easier to achieve.”