‘Outsourcing ICT to further develop the organisation’

*This is an article from CorporatieGids.nl.

Elan Wonen is responsible for around 7,000 homes in Haarlem and Heemstede. When asked what are currently the most important developments for the North Hollanders, Guus says: "ICT developments follow each other in rapid succession. The organisation's adaptive capacity and keeping ICT knowledge up to date within the organisation is perhaps a greater challenge than implementing new products. In addition, themes such as optimal digitalisation, robotisation and chain cooperation are currently very topical within Elan Wonen."

Greater importance

This year, Guus is 35 active at Elan Wonen. When asked what the biggest difference is between ICT then and now, he says: "In my early days, ICT served purely as support for administration. Now, however, it has become an indispensable part of everything we do, at any time of the day and for all employees and tenants. The importance has therefore become much greater."

Supporting the organisation

‘We therefore - eight years ago now - made a conscious decision to outsource,’ Guus continues. "Maintaining the increasingly complex ICT infrastructure is hardly doable for an organisation with a very small ICT department. Moreover, we prefer to shift the focus of managing the ICT environment to supporting the organisation with the right ICT resources. Besides reducing the management burden, we are also always up-to-date and available to employees anytime, anywhere."

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Outsourcing

Elan Wonen works closely with Previder Corporations in this regard. Guus: "We outsourced to them. Previder Corporations now manages our IT infrastructure and forms the first-line helpdesk and workplace management. Because we know the IT is so well secured, we can focus on things that matter more."

Early adaptor

It is not important for Elan Wonen to be a frontrunner when it comes to adopting new technologies. ‘When you want to be a frontrunner, as management you have to want to be innovative and dare to take risks,’ Guus explains. "This then includes a professional ICT team. We haven't reached that point yet. However, we do consciously choose the role of early adaptor, rather than joining only when the technological development train has already arrived at the next station. With this in mind, we keep a close eye on developments around robotisation, for example."

Fully in the cloud

When asked what Elan Wonen's ICT landscape will look like in five years' time, Guus says: ‘I can be brief about that: within five years we want to make the full transition to the cloud, so that we can focus even more on further developing the organisation.’

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