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Advising Start Up - Lifelong Learning Portfolio

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A veterinarian is a veterinarian? Not quite. Besides the fact that there are various specialisations in education, there are numerous follow-up courses that ensure further specialisation. However, everything that takes place after graduation is not centrally registered anywhere. Nor does an examination mark provide any insight into how skilled a professional is in an procedure. What if every graduated veterinarian could carry an online portfolio to have all this information together?

Contribution Takeshape: From POC to Platform

A first version of this online portfolio platform has been published and is slowly but surely being expanded. I was able to help the founders make a plan to scale from proof of concept to a fully-fledged IT platform. This sometimes involves technology, but often not. Small matters, such as the use of freeware, which is permitted in a personal sense but not in a commercial sense, is such an example.

  • Right of ownership of software
  • Copyright protection of source code
  • GDPR and Processor Agreement
  • Open source elements vs. licensing
  • Solid 2 factor authentication
  • Commercial model.

 

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Advising Start Up - Zero Emission Last Mile Delivery

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The Last Mile... In logistical terms, this refers to the transport of products to their final destination, usually from a distribution centre in a city. This logistic chain is still hopelessly inefficient. For example, on the Dutch motorway 25% of the trucks are empty. The average load factor is 45%. So we mainly transport air. What if these large and mostly empty trucks unload their cargo at the edge of a city and small emission-free vehicles deliver these goods in the city? That would save a lot of transport movements of empty and polluting trucks into the city. Cleaner and safer. Such a 'hub' is planned around Utrecht, in Bilthoven.

One would think this is all about physical goods, delivery vans and parcels. However, the beating heart is an IT system that controls this complex chain. Complex because there are 6,000 transporters in the Netherlands and many parties use their own Wharehouse Management and Transport Management System.

The software that the Utrecht Hub will be working with is a fairly new development that can be layered on top of all Warehouse Management and Transport Management systems in order to maintain a total overview.

The question to Takeshape: "Is this software a solid basis for further growth?".

The following aspects were evaluated:

  • Functional; evaluated against the Programme of Requirements
  • Non-functional; assessed by the Solution Architect
  • Legal; contract review
  • Commercial/service provision; contract and SLA assessment
  • Implementation approach; supplier proposal.

Based on this analysis, the hub's management team was able to make a well-founded decision.

A new IT governance model for Maastricht University

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Maastricht University (UM) is the most international university in the Netherlands and, with over 17,000 students and 4,000 staff, is still growing. The university distinguishes itself through its innovative educational model, international character and multidisciplinary approach to research and education.

The challenge

Maastricht University has strategically ambitious plans and partnerships that require IT innovation, but at the same time has found that the information provision is insufficiently capable of moving with it. A bottleneck analysis is available, but it does not tell the full story. There is more to it than roadmaps of systems and substantive IT choices. The clearer the vision, the easier the choices. Forming a vision, organising decision-making and adapting working methods in combination with content, that's when things fall into place.

Contribution Takeshape - Organisational Change of the IT Domain - Vision, Design, Implementation

As a part of the Wielinq brand, Takeshape forms a team which together shapes the renewal of the IT domain of Maastricht University. The goal is to become an adaptive organisation and to better connect and embed the IT domain in the organisation. Using the motto "practice what you preach", the team lays down a vision and translates it into a design for organisation and decision-making. The principles of the intended organisation are also applied in the programme itself. Taking "User-centred" design seriously means making the organisational design in sprints in which a broad reflection of the institution participates. Using the power of visual communication. Step by step, sprint by sprint, the design of the intended IT domain takes shape.

The design becomes reality with the recent appointment of the new CIO who chairs the IT Board, core of the new IT Governance organisation.

The new organisational model cannot be introduced as a big bang, the change is too big for that. The next step is therefore a period of learning and experimentation. Important parts of the organisational design are put into practice. Takeshape also supervises this phase, the 'learning programme', after which the supervision moves to the background and the organisation itself will take over the management of the change.