Woerden-based The Sourcing Company becomes part of Total Specific Hosting (TSH), a strong group of collaborating Dutch ICT outsourcing companies. This allows The Sourcing Company to shape the company’s next phase of growth. With 45 employees, The Sourcing Company is a leading player in the field of innovative cloud services in the Microsoft 365 and Azure domain. Hogenhouck counseled the shareholders of The Sourcing Company in this transaction.
Strong in vertical market segments
Founders Ronald Verweij and Johan van der Blom knew each other from an earlier work history. At the time of an MBA study on global sourcing by Johan, the two men came into contact again. In 2007, they decided to co-found The Sourcing Company. They started in a start-up accelerator building on Nyenrode’s campus. Soon, the newly established IT company was providing services to the other entrepreneurs located there, some of whom are still clients of TSC. Starting in 2013, the decision was made to focus on technology from Microsoft and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. As a result, The Sourcing Company has built a strong position with housing associations, the legal profession and in the healthcare market.
Ambition to make 100,000 people comfortable at work
In its existence, The Sourcing Company has developed services around the Microsoft public cloud, with Microsoft Azure as the foundation for successfully and securely delivering services to as many users as possible. The company’s service has now grown to 10,000 users. But the ambition for the coming years goes much further.
Ronald Verweij and Johan van der Blom, founders of TSC: “We are both true entrepreneurs and always want to be intellectually challenged. What we have achieved so far, we want to roll out on a larger scale. With the Total Specific Hosting group, we want to achieve that growth. Our strategy is to bundle our specialties with those of other parts of TSH with which we can further expand our services and our customer base. Of course, while maintaining the personal approach to clients and attention to the development of our own employees.” Hein Stoops, partner Hogenhouck m&a, on this trajectory: “We had a close and pleasant cooperation with two entrepreneurs who know and trust each other through and through. This has now led to a next step for Ronald and Johan with plenty of ambition.”
Process is more intense than previously thought
Ronald Verweij looks back on the run-up to the sale to TSH: “We already started thinking about this step 2 years ago. Over a year ago, we started the process with Hogenhouck. We thought it would be a short course, but it really is more intense than you initially think. Surely an investor looks at different elements from ourselves, who know the company better than anyone else. We did learn to start matching our own insights with the steering information an investor wants. And that takes time. From now on, we can fully focus again on our next step and the continued growth of TSC.”
Investor with track record in the IT sector
TSH is a portfolio company of Strikwerda Investments, the investor in Dutch ICT companies. Strikwerda Investments is a majority shareholder in Total Specific Hosting and, through this transaction, is also a majority shareholder in The Sourcing Company. TSH has a long-term investment horizon and, in addition to its current strong organic growth, is looking to have other leading ICT outsourcing companies join the group.
