The Sourcing Company from Woerden joins Total Specific Hosting (TSH), a strong group of collaborating Dutch ICT outsourcing companies. This will allow The Sourcing Company to shape the next growth phase of the company. With 45 employees, The Sourcing Company is a leading company in the field of innovative cloud services in the Microsoft 365 and Azure domain. Hogenhouck advised the shareholders of The Sourcing Company in this transaction.
Strong in vertical market segments
Founders Ronald Verweij and Johan van der Blom have known each other from earlier an career history. At the time of an MBA study on global sourcing by Johan, they met again. In 2007 they decided to start a business together, which was The Sourcing Company. They were located in a start-up accelerator building on the Nyenrode campus in Breukelen. They soon started to provide services to other entrepreneurs at the campus, some of whom are still clients of TSC. Starting in 2013, they decided to focus on Microsoft and Hewlett Packard Enterprise technology. The Sourcing Company has thus built up a strong position with housing associations, legal companies, and in healthcare.
Growing to 100,000 users
The Sourcing Company provides services for the Microsoft public cloud, with Microsoft Azure as the basis for a successful and secure delivery of services, to as many users as possible. The company’s customer base has grown to 10,000 users. But the ambition for the coming years doesn’t stop there.
Ronald Verweij and Johan van der Blom, founders of TSC: “We are both real entrepreneurs and are always looking for an intellectual challenge. Our ambition is to roll out our services on a much larger scale. By joining the Total Specific Hosting group, we will be aiming for that growth. Our strategy is to combine our specialised services with those of other companies within TSH, and further expand our services and our customer base. Of course, we will still maintain our personal approach to our clients and focus on the development of our employees.”
Process is more intensive than expected
Ronald Verweij looks back on the process of selling to TSH: “We started to think about this step 2 years ago. Our first meetings with Hogenhouck took place well over a year ago. We hoped for a short process, but we found out that it is more intensive than we thought. An investor looks at different elements than we do. We have learned to match our insights and information with the management information that an investor is looking for. And that simply takes time. From now on, we can focus completely on our next step and the further growth of TSC.” Hein Stoops, partner Hogenhouck m&a, about this process: “We had a close and pleasant collaboration with two entrepreneurs who know and trust each other 100%. For Ronald and Johan, this has now led to this next step, with plenty of ambition.”
Investor with track record in the IT sector
TSH is a portfolio company of Strikwerda Investments, leading investor in Dutch ICT companies. Strikwerda Investments is a majority shareholder in Total Specific Hosting and with this transaction also a majority shareholder in The Sourcing Company. TSH has a long-term investment horizon and, in addition to the current strong organic growth, is also looking for other leading ICT outsourcing companies to join the group.
