The Sourcing Company, based in Woerden, is becoming part of Total Specific Hosting (TSH), a strong group of collaborating Dutch IT outsourcing companies. This move will enable The Sourcing Company to shape the next phase of the company’s growth. With 45 employees, The Sourcing Company is a leading provider of innovative cloud services in the Microsoft 365 and Azure domains. Hogenhouck advised the shareholders of The Sourcing Company on this transaction.
Strong in vertical market segments
Founders Ronald Verweij and Johan van der Blom knew each other from their previous professional experience. While Johan was pursuing an MBA in global sourcing, the two men reconnected. In 2007, they decided to co-found The Sourcing Company. They launched the company from a startup accelerator space on the Nyenrode campus. The newly established IT company soon began providing services to other entrepreneurs based there, several of whom remain TSC clients today. Starting in 2013, the company chose to focus on technologies 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
Throughout its history, The Sourcing Company has developed services centered around the Microsoft public cloud, using Microsoft Azure as the foundation for successfully and securely delivering services to as many users as possible. The company’s user base has now grown to 10,000 users. But its ambitions for the coming years extend much further.
Ronald Verweij and Johan van der Blom, founders of TSC: “We are both true entrepreneurs and always want to be intellectually challenged. We want to scale up what we’ve achieved so far. We aim to realize that growth with the Total Specific Hosting group. Our strategy is to combine our specialties with those of other TSH divisions, which will allow us to further expand our services and our customer base. Of course, we’ll do so while maintaining our personal approach to clients and our focus on the development of our own employees.” Hein Stoops, partner at Hogenhouck M&A, on this process: “We had a close and pleasant collaboration with two entrepreneurs who know and trust each other through and through. For Ronald and Johan, this has now led to the next step, one filled with ambition.”
Process is more intensive than previously thought
Ronald Verweij looks back on the lead-up to the sale to TSH: “We started thinking about this step two years ago. We began the process with Hogenhouck a little over a year ago. We thought it would be a short process, but it’s actually much more intensive than you’d initially think. An investor looks at different factors than we do, since we know the company better than anyone else. We have, however, learned to align our own insights with the management information an investor needs. And that simply takes time. From now on, we can once again focus entirely 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 the 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 the current strong organic growth, also wants other leading ICT outsourcing companies to join within the group.
