EXPRO it

Wouter Mertens, founder & co-owner, and Jeroen Busschers, co-owner & Operational Manager at EXPRO it, share their success story about the partnership with Fundaments and how this collaboration enables their end clients to refocus on their core business.

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Wouter, how did the partnership with Fundaments come about?

Wouter: “We won the startup award with EXPRO it in 2009, which is how I got in touch with Dennis. Dennis was working at Oxilion at the time, which is now part of Fundaments. We didn't start working together then; that only happened later, in 2011.”

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What challenge did you bring to Fundaments at that time?

Jeroen: “Before 2011, we focused mainly on secondment. In 2011, we entered the MSP market with our Cloud-first philosophy. We landed our first client who needed servers in a data center. We got back in touch with Oxilion, and that’s how our partnership began. When Fundaments was founded out of Oxilion, we became customer number 1, and that is still our customer number to this day.”

Wouter: “Our challenge hasn't really changed. The technology has, of course, but we are still delivering the same value to the client.” Jeroen: “Yes, we still buy the ‘Lego bricks’ from Fundaments, and fundamentally, that remains the same. We do regularly look at new developments with Fundaments so that we can continue to improve together in the future.”

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Has the demand from your clients changed over the years?

Jeroen: “Yes, we see that there are more and more software packages that no longer require their own servers. This is especially the case for SMEs, which is why we started using VMware Horizon. What’s interesting for Fundaments in this regard is when a client has an application that isn't in the Cloud yet. Another great example is the Metaversus case. This is a new client where we are working together with Fundaments as a true team. Metaversus wants a development environment to build a bridge between two applications. A Metaversus engineer is currently managing the server environment themselves, but it’s very time-consuming. That part is now being completely offloaded, and the responsibility is shifting to Fundaments and EXPRO it. This allows the engineer to focus on what they are truly good at and what they enjoy.”

Wouter: “The big advantage for us in this partnership with Fundaments is that we no longer have to make large investments in hardware, nor do we need to bring in extra expertise. This allows us to focus on our own core business, as we each have our own specialization.” Jeroen: “I’d like to add one more thing: with Fundaments, it’s very clear what you pay and what you get in return. That’s quite different with hyperscalers, for example.”

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What are the most important services for you? 

Jeroen: “Cohesity is very important to us. Fundaments introduced it to us back then, and it was a very attractive solution in terms of price. The technology is unique in the market regarding data volume, and that has been a real success for us. vSan is also very successful for our client Mitsubishi; they have never been able to achieve such high speeds on their database transactions before. Furthermore, we are truly unique for our clients with VMware Horizon. This is a virtual desktop that we purchase from Fundaments. It is quite simple and fast to set up, especially in combination with Fundaments' VMware environment. Ultimately, this allows us to provide a better and faster desktop for the end client.”

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When is a partnership with a Cloud provider like Fundaments successful for you?

Wouter: “When our clients are happy.” Jeroen: “That, indeed, but also when there is proactive thinking for every client, because every challenge is unique. It’s about us coming up with great new solutions together and staying innovative. Furthermore, for mission-critical organizations like Mitsubishi, it is vital that a cloud provider is alert. Fundaments is certainly that, and they inform us immediately if anything is going on. Besides that, everything at Fundaments is always just very stable.”

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What have you solved for Mitsubishi together with Fundaments?

Jeroen: “We created a solution for Mitsubishi that allows them to display their 3D models instantly via the internet, wherever they are in the world. We set up an entire data center to make that happen. Fundaments provided the servers for this and manages the VMware Horizon licenses.”

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Do you have a fun anecdote about the collaboration?

Wouter: “One of our first major clients was Inspirit, part of DNV. In 2011, this division had to spin off from the organization, and it had to be done within 6 weeks. 2 continents, 3 countries, and 120 consultants had to transition seamlessly. We thought, we’ll just do it. Of course, we needed Fundaments for this. They had a number of servers that we housed with Fundaments. Since then, I always think: we succeeded then, so why wouldn't we succeed at anything else?”

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How do you see the future with Fundaments?

Wouter: “Full of courage and confidence.” Jeroen: “Yes, indeed, I don’t look at other parties. Our colleagues do sometimes bring up a hyperscaler. I then ask them to provide a price quote for what it will cost, but they always say: I can’t say exactly. For me, that’s the end of it. Besides that, I really enjoy brainstorming about new developments with Fundaments, so that we can always provide the best solution for the client.”