Customer story Sijthoff Media

"Our customers are everything to us, their data must be secure"

From the beautiful Office Capital C in Amsterdam we speak with Daan van Renterghem, IT Director at Sijthoff Media. In 2019 they moved to this new building, that was the moment for Daan to take a clear position: no servers more in our new office. The way of working was previously still very bad traditional, on this day and age it is also very important for Sijthoff Media that everyone can work safely anytime, anywhere. "Our journalists are always on the road, they don't have to be dependent on a desk in a fixed place".

From on premise to full cloud based

The traditional way of working caused a lot of dependence, like the steam it was no longer possible to email, so to speak. Also the cooperation was not optimal. Sijthoff Media really wanted to become a frontrunner when it comes to cloud-based working. New Media 2Day has been Sijthoff's permanent ICT partner for years. Knowing the companies each other through and through and have made a plan to within 3 months to make a complete move to the cloud. Ambitious, but by good preparation and ensuring support in the organization, this process did good go through. Teaching the entire organization a different way of working takes time. The management was the first to make the switch and training courses from New Media 2Day, followed. "That way we set the right example and any problems affect us, not our colleagues". "The visibility of New Media 2Day at our office and the accessibility has really made for a smooth transition. Of course, sometimes something goes wrong, but everything is always solved, there is continuous support for our employees. Rick Meijer and his colleagues want to continuously improve their services, that we notice everything". "The all-in price and service of New Media 2Day ensures that there are no unexpected costs; it does provide security, flexibility and security." – Daan van Renterghem, IT Director at Sijthoff Media

Security and safety

The flexibility to be able to work anytime and anywhere is a must in this day and age. The pandemic has emphasized this once again, fortunately Sijthoff already had their infrastructure arranged in such a way that the switch to fully home or hybrid caused no problems. As always, they remain extra focused on online security. "Our customers are everything to us, we have privacy-sensitive information from those who data must be secure at all times." In the context of GDPR, there is also an ongoing alertness to information security." The cloud-based working ensures that Daan and his colleagues have  grip on everything. There has been well thought out about the design in teams, roles and rights and in this way everything is controllable and responsible. In addition, this is continuously improved and adapted where necessary. For example, documents can be labeled, so that they can be viewed, but not downloaded. In addition, there is also added an extra layer of security by using MFA (Multifactor Authentication) and all data is stored encrypted everywhere. "A good design of the ICT infrastructure brings peace to the organization."

Awareness

"If something goes wrong with the security of data, the impact is very large. Therefore we do everything we can to prevent this. In addition, our experts write daily articles about possible security risks, the impact of a data breach or preventing it. Then we have to set a good example ourselves, right?" All employees of Sijthoff Media receive training and guidance to ensure for awareness of the possible risks – and what you can do yourself to act with privacy and data protection by design. To get it under the to keep attention, Sijthoff Media also regularly performs a phishing test or they mimic an attack. In the company there is now so much conviction that making colleagues aware of each other. This support ensures that, for example, one is well thinks about where data is stored securely and isn't just put on it suspicious links clicked.

Shift to Teams

With the move to the cloud through the use of Microsoft 365, the use of Teams greatly increased. Externally there is still a lot of emailing, but internally there is a shift to communication via Teams. "In Teams, we can basically do anything, chat, (video) call, manage your calendar, share files, send and save, collaborate within Teams with team chats and applications, there is always more possible. Teams in combination with the use of OneDrive For Business and a complete back-strategy we always remain in control of our data."

Also telephony to VoIP

Also with regard to telephony, Sijthoff Media no longer wants to be dependent on the traditional device on the desk. That is why we have chosen to use the VoIP (Voice over IP) replace devices with soft clients: calling via your laptop or mobile with fixed Numbers. In this way, everyone has the advantages of a telephone exchange, but not the dependence on a fixed place. Employees choose how and when they want to be reachable.

Well worth the investment

The switch to fully cloud-based working obviously brought an investment with him. "This investment is more than worth it, the cost model is although slightly higher, but it is predictable and manageable. The all-in price and the service of New Media 2Day, ensures that there are no unexpected costs; but it does provide security, flexibility and safety."

Not a supplier but a partner

This flexibility also ensures scalability and that fits seamlessly with the buy-and-build strategy of Sijthoff Media. When an acquisition takes place the company wants to switch quickly. "We recently acquired a company. Rick knew this was going on and proactively pointed out the increasing delivery times of hardware. At the same time, a quotation was immediately ready with which we can quickly expand our stock. to bring it up to standard. As a result, there were enough laptops in stock and after the takeover everyone up and running within 3 days with new laptops and Sijthoff Media accounts. That makes New Media 2Day more than a supplier: they are truly a partner that proactively thinks along.