Schiphol Telematics Opts for Fundamental Outsourcing

A few  years back, Schiphol Airport formulated an ambitious strategy: Schiphol had to become the number one digital airport in the world. For Schiphol Telematics, a 100% subsidiary of Royal Schiphol Group to which the subsidiary provides connectivity, this provided the reason for a full strategic reassessment. The company focused on long-term service providing to Schiphol on strategic and mid-tactical levels. All other IT-services provided by Schiphol Telematics were outsourced to third parties with better technological know-how and experience. For the network services and for the service integration and the coordination of partners, Conscia was selected, mainly due to its technical knowledge of the company and to the good cultural fit between Conscia and Schiphol Telematics.

Schiphol aims to become the world’s number one sustainable, high-quality airport and thereto competes with large foreign airports: Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris, Abu Dhabi. Also, technical complexity rapidly increases. For the provision of effective support to Schiphol, Schiphol Telematics essentially lacked the necessary size and the company possessed insufficient expertise in certain areas. For us, this meant the starting point for our thinking about outsourcing of activities to external parties,” says Klaas Verberg, Managing Director of Schiphol Telematics.

Conscia has taken responsibility for the network services and will also play its role as service integrator. Network services they were familiar with, their role of service integrator was new to them. It was a learning-process to implement this the right way and I am proud of the way in which Conscia has succeeded here.

Klaas Verberg, Managing Director of Schiphol Telematics

Fix first, discuss later

Schiphol Telematics started searching for the right providers of physical infrastructure, of network and of security services. One of these parties moreover would have to act as the service integrator and arrange coordination between the parties. For network services and for the partners’ services integration and coordination Conscia was selected, whilst for the physical infrastructure Allinq and for security services Orange Cyberdefence were selected.

Kees Griffioen, Sourcing Director, Conscia Netherlands: ICT complexity and ICT requirements are increasing. It is getting ever more difficult for companies to acquire and maintain all required knowledge and experience. Just like many other organizations, Schiphol Telematics therefore opted for outsourcing, to free up resources for even better business support. Conscia helps its clients to realize such goals.”

In this constellation, Conscia also coordinates the other partners. Léonie Scheerder, Director Sourcing Delivery, Conscia, comments: “A key element in the outsourcing agreement between Schiphol Telematics and Conscia as a Service Integrator and network partner, is the principle fix first, discuss later. Of course, this requires a great measure of trust between Schiphol Telematics and its partners. In order to build this trust, we started by putting in a great amount of effort during the tendering phase and we also continuously maintain open and transparent communications.

Creativity and involvement

Klaas Verberg: “With the transfer to the partners, a difficult phase began when due to Corona, everyone had to start working from home. Especially as many colleagues were to assume new roles and many matters requiring intensive consultations had yet to be arranged. Even so, thanks to everyone’s creativity and involvement we managed to get the transfer done in time. This feat I greatly admire!

Klaas Verberg: “I think key success factors for our cooperation are the fact that we have appointed a Service Integrator as the central coordinator of all sourcing activities, and that we have worked from a basis of trust from the very beginning of this cooperation. For that, you really need one another, and in practice all parties have stuck to this principle. For us, the most important takeaway of the outsourcing trajectory is that clear goals, trust and transparency are vital, not just in the cooperation between Schiphol and the three partners, but also within our own organization.

Follow-up phase

After the transfer Schiphol Telematics and its three partners enter into a transformational phase which should lead to a step-up in the provided services. Therefore, in consultation with the three partners, a one-year plan is drafted in order to quickly realize shorter lead times and to implement changes in one go.

Klaas Verberg: “Conscia has taken responsibility for the network services and will also play its role as service integrator. Network services they were familiar with, their role of service integrator was new to them. It was a learning-process to implement this the right way and I am proud of the way in which Conscia has succeeded here. We are now past the startup and learning phases and are currently working out improvements with the aim of reaching true excellence later in the year together.

Marcel Cappetti, CEO, Conscia Netherlands: “The outsourcing from Schiphol to Conscia has provided us with the opportunity as ICT-partner and infrastructure integrator to grow further and to innovate. This past year, together with Schiphol, we have gone through a special trajectory in which both parties have invested much in cooperation. Thanks to our mutual trust we are now able to really function as a strategic partner.