Digital transformationFive success stories

Dear Reader,

Today’s IT leaders are aware that a digital transformation is vital to achieving and maintaining success. An organisation’s IT and finance department and other stakeholders have a shared commitment toward the business in making this revolution happen – sometimes supported by new laws and regulations. All this necessitates rapid action in order to keep up-to-date and remain relevant.

Individual companies and organisations are also looking for opportunities to forge new partnerships, improve digital collaboration and explore new business and supply-chain models.

This publication tells the story of how five Dutch industry leaders are not only putting their IT resources at the service of their organisations, but also how IT serves as an enabler and helps to create innovations, streamline processes and – above all – allows employees to collaborate more smoothly and securely by giving them access to valuable tools and resources.

We make a point of highlighting the ‘digital journey’ in our publication, as we feel this is the key to inspiring you and can provide you with fresh new insights.

You will find that all of the solutions described are based on Microsoft and HPE technologies. In partnering with InSpark and Microsoft, we seek to provide our clients with superior solutions that meet their business needs.

We would be happy to discuss the options available with you any time – until then, we hope you enjoy reading this publication.

Yours sincerely,

Arie den BoerAlliance Business ManagerHewlett Packard Enterprise

Contents

1. Full cloud-based mobility 6

2. The transformation of the Customer Contact Centre 10

3. Azure Cloud Transformation 16

4. Sharing data as a foundation for digital transformation 20

5. Digital transformation in a traditional environment 26

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Asics (‘Anima Sana In Corpore Sano’ – a healthy mind in a healthy body), a Japanese-based manufacturer

of athletic shoes and apparel, is making the switch to fully cloud-based mobility. While the freedom of

its employees to work wherever and whenever they like remains the company’s number-one priority,

manageability is another absolute prerequisite.

1. Full cloud-based mobility

As the IT Manager for Asics EMEA, Edwin Idema oversees a division of 3,500 people – employees who all want to be able to work and access their applications at any time, irrespective of location or the device they’re using. This digital transformation process

is currently in full swing, and the successful teamwork facilitated by these technological advances meets the strong demand – mostly among younger employees – for a cooperative community within the company.

Asics | Edwin Idema, ICT Manager EMEA

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Enterprise Mobility and SecurityThe basic idea behind Asics’ digital transformation is in keeping with the company’s philosophy and the needs of its business: employees should have instant access to their applications from the office, at home and any other location (including while travelling), using their mobile phone, laptop or a company device. This inevitably presented a challenge for the IT department, as how do you go about this without ceding control over various data and risking non-compliance with laws and regulations? After a careful selection process, the company decided to partner with Microsoft. Idema: “They currently offer the most extensive suite of applications and the best tools, which gives us the assurance we need.”InSpark assisted Asics in implementing Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), while employees’ user profiles were migrated from the local network into the cloud, Microsoft Azure. “Once you’ve completed that part of the process, you can add any number of features to a profile. You start out by selecting a device, and then you can begin linking applications to that device. We distribute these applications securely using Intune, which is integrated into EMS. Cloud-

based user profiles also enable you to use single sign-on. This is not the case everywhere as yet, but we’ve begun the process of setting up Azure and linking the web applications.” Idema explains that the company’s legacy applications are the main obstruction to mobility and the migration to the cloud: “It used to start with the mainframe, followed by the client-server, and we currently have an AP platform: Office 365, which is stored somewhere in the cloud. We can now instantly access Word and other applications, but we need to take some additional steps when it comes to non-web applications – we’re currently in the process of adapting them for the web.”

Alles beheersbaarThe Enterprise Mobility suite contains several components for software, application, storage and data deployment: “I can use that profile to manage everything,” Idema says. He describes the recently launched Advanced Threat Analytics as “an intelligent tool that operates from within the network by monitoring and detecting system developments. If there are any major changes in the system over the course of a few days, say a major data migration,

an alert message will appear on the screen. It’s a really ingenious idea.”

Azure Rights Management is one part of the suite not actually used by Asics: “It allows you to add security controls on a document level. While that’s an exciting feature in itself, we’re dealing here with a pretty complex and fragmented application infrastructure. Other geographic divisions within our company use Google, and when it comes to our global roadmap, we’re not yet aligned at this point to transition to a single platform.” However, the various point solutions have not stopped the company from implementing EMS across the board and migrating the profiles of the more than 7,800 Asics employees worldwide into the cloud. “We’ve created a global domain, and, from the sidelines, are working hard on getting Office 365 up there as well. OneNote, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams are up next. The issue we currently face is how we’re going to migrate our on-premise resources to Azure and make it accessible through that one, single profile, so we can make full use of the cloud and distribute data, apps, and so on.”

Strong Microsoft platformWhile all Asics employees are free to use their own individual devices, Idema and his team have taken full control of the transition process. “First, I wanted to go back to having just a single platform, analysing everything and making sure all profiles were aligned and all data was linked. Once that whole process is wrapped up, I don’t care what types of devices our people might be using. We’re basically creating a very strong Microsoft platform at Asics. For example, our designers are currently using Microsoft Studio 10. It took some time for them to adapt to that and I sometimes get involved in discussions with employees about the merits and demerits of the program, but I do know these types of standardised solutions are what our company needs.” End users are encouraged to adopt the platform, being offered various training courses, instruction manuals, videos, and even a road show touring various countries and company divisions. In addition, the company has appointed ‘Champions’, whose job is to make sure the organisation is aware of any new developments as soon as possible. The team manager is in charge of Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA), but his role sometimes

also extends to that of enterprise architect, as his IT department plays a dominant role in the organisation, including when it comes to compliance with laws and regulations. “In the US, Asics has partnered with Google, and Microsoft happens to be a little more advanced as far as compliance with European laws is concerned. So we’re fully in charge of implementing GDPR worldwide.”

View of the businessWhile Idema’s team may be highly skilled technically, they do tend to sometimes lose sight of the businesses surrounding them. “Nothing changes faster than technology. If that hyperloop conceived by Elon Musk actually materialises, this could spell the end of KLM and other airlines: after all, why would you choose to fly if you can speed across land at a thousand kilometres an hour instead? You may very well be inspired and develop some sort of vision by observing the changing world around you, but what good is that if your team spends most of its time simply troubleshooting on the operational end? You could really find yourself in over your head unless you’ve got the support you need. I’ve been working more closely with

the businesses, and have been training my team members to become business consultants if the opportunity arises. Where do I get the knowhow, you ask? I either hire consultants or enter into partnerships with companies such as InSpark, a company I am more than happy to endorse.”

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Provinsie Fryslân (the Friesland Provincial Authority), which fields numerous

questions a day from the public, businesses and non-profits, recently opened its

brand-new Customer Contact Centre (CCC). After implementing a smart CRM

system and introducing a customer-friendly service desk for the public, the

organisation scores a highly respectable 7.4 in customer satisfaction surveys.

2. The transformation of the Customer Contact Centre

The conversion process at the Friesland Provincial Authority was supported by the management and other provincial authorities. “While our policy officers were all extremely good at their jobs, answering questions

from the public turned out to be a different ballgame altogether.” A single service desk was introduced to change this, and when the CCC was opened in October 2016, it became a great success.

Provincie Fryslân | Jenno Terpstra, Customer Contact Centre Coordinator

7,4customer satis-faction survey

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Terpstra is proud of the new Customer Contact Centre, which he describes as the Friesland Provincial Authority’s ‘baby’. The process from concept to launch was carefully planned, during which time the organisation worked with a project team and their partner InSpark. “We used to simply transfer callers to the appropriate person within the organisation, as knowledge was dispersed among six-hundred

people in all these different departments. We already agreed on a set of service guidelines back in 2013 – call people back the same day, respond to emails within two days, and reply to letters within five days – but the reality was that few people actually followed those guidelines or were even aware of them. That caused its share of stress across the provincial government system.” Ranging from information about permit

applications to questions regarding the colour of the Frisian flag and just about everything in between: 80 per cent of the questions received by the CCC are currently answered on the spot, while the remaining 20 per cent are promptly forwarded to colleagues with expertise in that particular area. What really helped the organisation to improve its efficiency more than anything is the smart Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) system supporting the CCC. “We use Microsoft Dynamics to enter and update customer data and assorted business data. The system automatically sends out reminders whenever there are any outstanding queries.

We also created a link with the information database for the Provincial Authority, to which new data items are added constantly.” Any information supplied by employees is integrated into this database, so that the CCC can provide an appropriate answer, in some cases even send the information item to the applicant directly. If the case needs to be referred to a colleague in second-line support, the CRM Portal is used: this platform enables policy officers to view the business data, communicate with the Customer Contact Centre, and search the information database. Employees respond to customer questions efficiently and within the agreed period; members of the public making the queries know what to expect throughout the process, and the Friesland Provincial Authority maintains the necessary control by keeping track closely of the queries received. “That’s what makes the system so strong: we have the full picture and know exactly what’s going on at all times.”

Communication channelsThe Provincial Authority can be reached through a variety of communication channels: “We started out with just a general phone number, email address and website, but we have since added two external phone numbers: the Waddengebied Regiecollege (Wadden Sea Management Board) and the Waddenfonds (Wadden Sea Fund). Our IT department is pleased with us as well: we’ve been working closely within the company to ensure that no more strictly job-related email addresses are issued. There are fewer of these types of email inboxes now, as the questions can be sent to the general email address instead and are handled by the CCC. A pilot project using WhatsApp persuaded the Provincial Authority to continue, while the CCC will soon also be handling questions submitted through Facebook and Twitter. “Our centre is open from Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the average waiting time is just twelve seconds. We still receive the vast majority of questions by phone. A live chat function is an option which may be added in the future, although Terpstra says he feels a little sceptical about that. “People applying for a grant or

permit should really be guided through all the various steps involved – the process should be as clear-cut as possible. If someone can’t find the answer to their question, this shows there’s a weakness in our site’s design.” Callers with urgent issues that require immediate action are always assisted promptly: “Calls to the environmental emergency number are diverted to us during the daytime, but there’s a small organisation that takes over from us after hours.”

External helpdesks will also be integrated into the CCC in the future. “The main event for our province in 2018 is that our capital city, Leeuwarden, will be European Capital of Culture, and we’re looking at opportunities to team up with the City to provide information about that to the public.”

Learning as you go alongWhile the Provincial Authority may have started out on a small scale and using a hands-on approach, it is definitely open to adapting its methods based on any new knowledge it picks up along the way. “When our field

Microsoft Dynamics and information database

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representatives receive a request from, say, someone reporting road kill, they need to use a special application to process this report, using a system linked to the police and the traffic control centre. They previously had to use three different systems to complete the process, which was a huge hassle. Our technical people are now creating a link in the CRM system which provides us with automatic feedback – that really reduces the number of operations required. We deal with these types of situations all the time, and particularly the 20 per cent of requests we’re unable to handle in the CCC keeps us busy round the clock. In that sense, I suppose we’ve become experts in process improvement of sorts.

Once a question has been answered, it’s saved to the CRM system – that way, we can make our processes smarter all the time. We’ve also established a link with the Chamber of Commerce. We’re all about serving the public; we aim to assist our customers with their questions with the least possible delay and provide them with accurate information. The fact that everything is now stored in the same system and easy to find has been a tremendous help in that regard.” Another challenge has been adopting the system across the entire organisation. “Getting our colleagues involved has been an ongoing process”, Terpstra says. He and his team celebrated the first anniversary of the system’s go-live with a typically Frisian treat called oranjekoek, a new slogan, “Your knowledge is our answer” was introduced, and employees were offered the opportunity to attend information sessions and were given encouraging instructions such as “Got a new project? Tell CCC about it now!” Terpstra and his team are doing everything they can to make sure everyone knows the CCC is here to stay.

Bowing out“So where do we go from here? Well, I think we’ve pretty much proved our value to the organisation at this point. We’re currently reviewing the job structure within the CCC. We had a single role, and we will now be adding an accounting role to that as well. We need to start sharing more information within the organisation, as we’ve really become the organisation’s expertise centre. We’re currently exploring ways of adapting the information we provide to that external demand, so that we can eventually become more or less redundant and fade into the background. That might sound a bit odd, as we’ve only just started, but that’s the plan for now.” The team’s ultimate goal is to build a database and eliminate all the intermediate links. But for now, customers continue to flood Provincie Fryslân with phone calls every day, and by providing efficient and friendly services, the centre’s staff has gone a long way towards restoring the public’s image of civil servants in the process.

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The most visually apparent effect of insurance company De Goudse Verzekeringen’s recent transition to the

cloud is that its data centre currently serves as a storage space for desks and chairs and other assorted office

equipment. We asked Sector Manager Roland Currie about the long and frequently arduous journey he and

his colleagues had to complete to reach their destination.

3. Azure Cloud TransformationDe Goudse Verzekeringen | Roland Currie, Sector Manager Operations & Management

De Goudse Verzekeringen employs 750 people, including around 150 IT staff, divided across two areas of expertise. “We’ve got software developers and architects on one side, and management and operations on the other. Our mission is to do only what we’re good at and

leave everything else to experts in their field.” This has helped De Goudse Verzekeringen to evolve into a management organisation in recent years, which entails doing the job themselves if it adds value and managing everything when third parties can do a better job.

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Procedures“What really stood out in the development of IT – other than the usual more-for-less requirement, of course – were the steep administrative costs. We’ve currently got six VT administrations. Whether it will be possible to reduce this number remains to be seen, but the administration can be stripped down by moving around some other functionalities, as this will reduce the costs of the administration systems.” We have switched to a new development method: we’ve gone from being waterfall-oriented to using a more agile approach. “We’re becoming more of a DevOps organisation, and the experiments we’ve carried out so far have been promising.” Administrators now work closely with developers in order to be able to act quickly in any process. A partnership with the enterprise platform Mendix has resulted in tailor-made solutions for different roles with a platform which can achieve short-term results.

The strength of the cloud“We believe in the strength of the hybrid cloud, where we combine the capacity of the data centres operated by our suppliers with

the cloud services we purchase. The idea is to have a single public cloud provider, which, in this case, is Microsoft. Another one of our key principles is ‘SaaS before PaaS before IaaS.’ We use a lot of different types of software: we’ve got as many as 200 applications for a

total of 750 employees. We’re currently also implementing a number of pre-defined cloud playbooks.” De Goudse outsourced several of its operations between 2012 and 2017. “After outsourcing the various VT systems, we converted the WAN network to EVPN. Next, we transferred all the Wintel components to Centric, while the workspace switched from

fat to thin clients using a VDI concept. All components had been removed from the data centre at that point, so we could complete that stage of the process. We no longer have any technical use for those components.”

Looking aheadBut De Goudse insurance company is not quite ready to rest on its laurels yet. “What else is in the pipeline for us? Working in the cloud. We’re currently sorting out the finer points, as the VDI environment is extremely costly. We’re migrating DTA(P) infrastructure to IaaS. For DTA, we’ll be reducing costs by introducing a

pay-per-use system, and we’ll be doing the same for P through flexible sizing to peak moments. We migrate portals to PaaS in order to achieve availability and scalability more easily and at a lower cost. The document management system also needs to be fully upgraded, simply because postal volumes are declining and the fact that outgoing post has already been outsourced. We expect the archive to be transferred to Azure as well. And finally, there are the six VT systems which are being stripped of functionalities as part of the rationalisation process. I’m unable to say at this point whether they, too, will be migrated to the cloud, but I can tell you that all peripheral systems certainly will.”

Current status“We’re currently at the implementation stage. VSTS is a costly operation: we were mired in technical debt, and it’s essentially a never-ending process. I absolutely believe in DevTest Labs, and once we get that up-and-running, it will make everything more user-friendly and improve productivity in the process. The migration from Dynamics 365 was a long and drawn-out process – we actually needed four separate contracts for the DTAP environments – but it really paid off in the end. We’re currently finalising SharePoint Online, which will then be released to our users. API Management is our disconnection point for converting externally available web services. While Azure AD B2C certainly works fine, the question is whether it’s the right choice from an architectural point of view. Our new Goudse portal is run based on Azure VMs with Sitecore.”

2018 and beyondAnd there’s more to come: “OMS and Azure Security Center will be further implemented next year. Windows 10 and HyperV will allow us to

save significant costs on our licences. We’re in the process of preparing Hybrid Exchange and an Office 365 cloud workstation for ‘ordinary’ users. Another exciting development is BizTalk: we’ve created a complex HA BizTalk integration environment in which all parts of the system are integrated. We’re setting up an HA BizTalk in Azure, which is really a case of trial and error. We’re also involved in Azure storage: SQL DWH, Azure data lake options for DWH. We’ve prepared a business continuity plan for when something happens, as we will need to keep things running no matter what. Maintaining two systems and performing all the tests this requires is extremely costly, which is why we’re considering Azure Disaster Recovery: this may allow us to dismantle the DR system for two data centres. And finally, another exciting thing: we’re working on telephony: on-premise PABX versus cloud PABX, Office 365 E5. Quality of service is very important to us: our customer contact centres should be accessible by phone at all times. That’s why I’m a little wary of taking this next step. After all, we’re all doing this with the objective of providing better services to our customers.”

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Control over data by consumers, businesses and governments is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for digital

transformation, driven in part by new European privacy laws. A growing number of businesses are also looking

for ways to improve collaboration using digital resources and exploring new business models together. Sharing

data in a way that is easy, secure and – above all – scalable can take transformation to the next level.

4. Sharing data as a foundation for digital transformationInnopay | Douwe Lycklama, Partner

The main aspect of the digital transformation process is sharing data, and payment expert Innopay views the world through the prism of transactions. “A transaction involves more than just a payment alone; it’s about two or more parties exchanging data. Logging into a computer, earning loyalty or reward points, and sending and receiving electronic invoices are all examples of digital transactions. Even though no money may actually change hands, data does play a role in these processes. Trust is

also very important when it comes to the digital transformation, particularly because digital transactions are increasingly conducted with external parties.” Major online platforms today have managed to win the trust of consumers worldwide. “Why do so many people allow strangers to stay in their home through Airbnb? Because that company provides a safe, secure environment in which people are comfortable enough to trust each other in that way.”

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Customer in controlAll these digital transactions come with their own, new challenges: transparency, putting the customer in control and – the container word – digital transformation. “API, PSD2 and GDPR are just some of the challenges faced by organisations. You need to make sure your internal operations are in order, but there’s an entire world out there as well which you can’t afford to ignore. How do you operate externally based on the information available? You can only really achieve transparency if you’ve properly set up your controls, both internal and external. The two are very closely connected. ‘Customer in control’ is an unmistakable trend: it’s about gaining control over your data. The same is true for organisations. Large organisations need to monitor their data governance closely, but how do you decide who has access when? That includes customers and suppliers. Digital transformation is really a catch-all term for an entire set of changes: reducing costs, introducing new services, increasing revenue, innovation, a mobile app or portal – it all happens at many different levels.”

Identity condition for blockchain: just like databasesLycklama reckons it’s all fairly straightforward: “There are two parties involved in the process of data sharing: individuals and some type of entity. People can authorise other people or a company to access and share data, but they can also authorise machines, as is the case with the Internet of Things. Machines and ‘things’ are nothing unless they’re linked to someone who instigates the action. A refrigerator will only order groceries for you after you’ve authorised it to do so. You might see that authorisation as a type of proxy.” The exact same thing occurs at the receiving end, with an exchange domain in between. “Blockchain is essentially nothing but an exchange domain, because unless you check who adds what to a blockchain and on behalf of whom, it’s going to be no use to you at all. The same applies to databases: you can load them with data, but there’s not much point to that if you don’t clearly specify who does what on behalf of whom. If you have a solid data governance system and can manage at the data level who is authorised to do what when, and if you have strong controls in place, organisations can also share data with each other bilaterally.

You’re talking about the world of APIs and the like. It’s a case of ‘and-and-and’ rather ‘than or-or-or.’” A very important aspect is that you can’t conduct transactions without establishing trust first. “You can only exchange data once a relationship of trust has been created.”

Laws are turning data into a liabilityUnder the new European Payment Directive, PSD2, customers can decide themselves which app they’d like to link to their bank account. “In conducting a digital transaction, you give consent to your bank, stating that you agree to use a certain app. Similarly, you need to give any parties you collaborate with as an individual permission to use your data. That’s a serious thing. And let’s not forget that data and the value it creates is a result of the fact that we leave behind a trail of data pollution and are unaware of the value of that data, particularly to the major advertising platforms. In the future, organisations need to be able to monitor in a verifiable way and prove that someone has given the go-ahead to use data. The 25th of May 2018 is an important date, as that is the deadline for compliance. The definition of personal data

has been refined under the GDPR, along with our rights as individuals and consumers. It’s not just a matter of checking a few boxes; you must always be able to prove that it was that particular person who gave permission. People will have the right to be forgotten, and they can request information as to what personal data is available on them. This is a completely new category of questions we can expect to be asked by the public in the future. It’s a whole new process that needs to be integrated. And we’ll also have our work cut out for us with all these completely new business models being introduced.”

“You can only exchange data once a relationship of trust has been created.”

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What new customer propositions will we offer based on GDPR and the changes it will bring? And how will we give customers control over their data? “Under the law, you need to hand the customer a tool; you need to facilitate them in giving you the requisite permission. And that applies to countless data attributes. The number of online service providers continues to grow, and they must all have access to that tool and amend their general terms and conditions. These are all examples

of digital transactions. The notion of gaining control over your data is something that has interested people for years. Platforms all over the world are involved in data in some way or another. There are those who have predicted that everything will become more fragmented, as personal data is distributed across many different locations. A network might provide a solution: as with the iDEAL payment system, you don’t need to hold an account at the same bank as someone in order to transfer

a payment to them. People are already thinking about it at that level, albeit still at the experimental stage. It’s really a whole new world that’s opening up. The concept already exists: Facebook and Google, for example, already have a permissions page, and in the future all organisations will be required to offer the same. You draft a type of contract which users then sign to confirm that they don’t object to the fact that company X has their email address and stores other personal data.”

Catch-22An initiative called Verimi was launched in Germany last summer in response to the GDPR, which helps organisations manage digital identity and data. “Several major companies joined forces to launch the Verimi platform and are promising businesses and other organisations that if they join their platform, they will manage their names, identities and all other attributes. So consumers only need to give their consent to all these companies once. They promise users that if they join their platform, they’ll be instantly GDPR-compatible. The problem with these types of initiatives, though, is that they only work if everyone gets involved. But many companies are only willing to join once the platform has proved to be a success. It sounds like a classic Catch-22 situation, doesn’t it? There are several examples of these types of platforms, including hybrid formats. We will be launching iSHARE, which is designed especially for the logistics industry. It’s a unique system that companies can use to exchange peer-to-peer data. This is more user-friendly, as you no longer need to create individual links between companies. Anyone with a user ID and a signed

contract is free to share data without the need to enter into bilateral contracts with each other. This is a brand-new concept in the Netherlands, and possibly worldwide.” Managing data access“The trick is to centralise controls for users rather than the data itself. The question, then, is who will allow customers access to the data. I don’t imagine this will present any major complications for businesses as such: virtual ‘key boxes’ will be integrated into the software, similar to the way you currently need suites to facilitate access to information, you will need the same in the future for your external organisation. But when it comes to consumers, every organisation will be responsible for managing its own data access. You might wait for companies to offer a service where they link you to all the other companies. Will it be banks, retailers, telecoms providers or the government? We’ll find out in the next few years. Ideally, you should have several different types of access and will be able to make a choice.”

Adapting GDPR to your customers

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Global audit, accounting and consulting group Mazars went from using simple Excel spreadsheets to developing

its own platform – a massive transformation for the company, which operates in a traditional sector. Having

the courage to take the lead, starting in the Netherlands, Mazars now serves as a textbook example of how a

company can fully and successfully integrate all its procedures.

5. Digital transformation in a traditional environment Mazars | Frank Keessen, IT Director

While Mazars may employ 18,000 people worldwide, the world of banking and tax consultancy in which it operates is still very much a traditional one. Yet even this organisation could no longer ignore the digital revolution, starting at its offices in the Netherlands, with a workforce of around 900 people. Keessen was involved from the outset in the digital transformation Mazars underwent at its Dutch offices. It all started around two and a half years ago, when they decided to take a critical look at their client services.

“We asked ourselves if we were really meeting our clients’ needs and if there might be ways of improving our services. We had four types of portals clients could use, each of which came with its own user experience. Mazars simply had a traditional sort of worldview, and while we were aware of the emergence of technologies such as blockchain, our sector was slow to embrace them, and we still have some way to go in that regard today. But we cannot afford to ignore these technologies, and our challenge is to improve both the client experience and our internal processes.

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Relevant to the clientIt turns out that is not the only challenge faced by Mazars: “Our Enschede office and the Amsterdam office each used different processes for preparing the financial statements, even though this involved the same financial statements and the same organisation. So we needed to optimise these internal processes and make them more flexible. And that was only one of many issues we were dealing with, which is not surprising when you’re serving clients in 45 countries. We’re currently in the

process of aligning these systems and will soon be able to present ourselves as a fully integrated firm. We developed a system called Signals, which makes us something of a pioneer in our sector, which tends towards the traditional. We were looking to create a solid electronic platform to communicate with our clients, through which we could offer a high-quality user experience. We would send out all these types of communications, but we wanted to make these both more personal and more relevant. In addition to requesting clients to check and

approve their tax returns and so on, we wanted to provide them with information that would actually be of value to them. For example, we used to update our clients through email newsletters, in which we would write something like: ‘As a company operating in the transport and logistics industry, you might be interested in [fill in the blank].’ Now, we’re more likely to say: ‘Based on the data available on your company in our system, we would like to provide you with service X or Y.’ In other words, we would like to offer much more relevant information to our

clients. Although that might sound odd coming from an IT manager, there’s a trend of IT playing an increasingly important role in co-creation processes with various stakeholders, including the business and the marketing department.”

A single environment“We started out by looking at what products were available in the market, but we found these to be somewhat limited and, for the most part, designed for practical collaboration. There are roughly two independent providers of these

types of portals, who jointly control 85 per cent of the market. We bill ourselves as a company with a mind and style of its own, so we decided to launch our own platform in the Netherlands first. Of course, the idea was to eventually roll it out to our offices in the rest of the world, but we wanted to start out small and then take it from there. The Signals platform has enabled us to improve our client relations, and automate and optimise processes and procedures. We wanted to be able to keep track of the projects everyone is involved in and at what stage they are in these

projects, and our digital platform provides this and other benefits. We wanted to launch the platform first for mobile phones, and we’re now adding a native app, but the plan is to use a web-based system eventually. Signals provides us with a single environment based on two different angles. We barely even used the four client portals we used to run – not exactly what you would call customer friendly.

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We currently use a single platform for collaboration. There’s a timeline on the client side and a dashboard on our side through which the processes are run, which makes the whole process much easier to manage because you can see what’s going on at all times. What is that client working on right now, what documents do they need to provide, or do they need to approve something? This is supported by all the back-office applications, which supply all this data. We had access to this information before, but it was all managed manually in Excel spreadsheets. So I think it’s safe to say we’ve undergone something of an upgrade.” Structure“The timeline serves to lead the client through the process, but we offer more than that, for example, tips on interesting seminars. Instead of receiving an email from us, our clients now find relevant news in their own digital environment. The benefit for us is that we can see the current processes for each client and to which we need to send extra communications, and when.” The process of exchanging data for audits used to take a long time, even in 2017.

“We would send out these customised templates of questionnaires to our clients and request that they complete them by a certain date. The data was supplied to us through various channels, and we would then set to work on structuring all this raw data. To make the process as user-friendly as possible, we developed a fully interactive exchange platform.”

Signals runs in Microsoft Azure. “You need to make sure all these different back-office systems – some of which would qualify as legacy – keep running, but they will gradually be replaced with cloud applications. We created a generic authentication layer for the platform, based on Okta, the purpose of which is to separate user

identities from the actual platform. This gives us the flexibility we need to use Signals to offer SSO to other platforms. In looking for a consistent presentation for our clients, we opted for a PaaS version of Sitecore, which is also available in Azure. In fact, Azure enables us to scale up and down as needed.”

GutsThe results the company has achieved since adopting Signals speak for themselves: “Eighty per cent of our clients currently use Signals. We’ve already processed tens of thousands of tax returns, there’s no longer a need to spend money on all sorts of other platforms and portals, and we save lots of time to boot. This was a massive transformation, which was successful mainly because we clearly explained to people why it was necessary and what the benefits were. We were able to get people involved, and what’s also important is that we had the guts to go ahead with it. There were plenty of people in the market who told me I wouldn’t be able to pull it off, but that only made me more eager to prove them wrong. Even though you’re dealing with

van onze klanten maakt gebruik van Signals

80%

traditional people who’d prefer to keep things the way they are, the trick is to win over just a few of them by getting them excited about the changes. It took time, a positive attitude, guts, and just a smattering of luck as well. I deliberately didn’t sell it to people as this type of large-scale transformation – I simply told them that we’d be improving our current processes, and then I explained what steps this would involve. Also, I continued to communicate with people throughout the process. Some of my colleagues were perfectly happy with their Excel spreadsheets, but walking through our department recently, I saw around 30 screens on which people were using Signals. As you understand, I couldn’t have been more pleased.”

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