Dutch Airline Pilots Association

IT Management Under the Microscope

One of those VNV officials is Guido Rietbroek. He works as a 737 captain for KLM two weeks a month, and spends the other two weeks at the VNV office. During that time, he focuses on advocating for pilots’ individual interests, and since 2021, he has also been responsible for all IT management.“In recent years, we’ve modernized many processes and also taken a close look at existing vendors,”says Guido. “We also feel we owe this to our members, since we use membership dues for this purpose. When selecting a new IT partner for MacBooks, VNV looked not only at the costs but also at quality and a ‘certain spirit.’ We spoke with several providers and felt a good fit with Root3. Root3 really gave us the impression that they understand the product and could take the work off our hands in terms of both management and innovation. In addition, Root3 gave us the feeling that we were choosing a sustainable solution.

Security, easy deployment of MacBooks, excellent support

VNV has been using Root3’s Apple Managed Services since 2023. Guido notes that it’s important for the association that security on the MacBooks is up to par. This is partly because officials from all over the world work on their MacBooks. In addition, the ease of deploying new MacBooks is important.“Root3, in collaboration with Jamf, has created customized tools for this. We have permanent staff at the front desk who can easily order and issue the MacBooks, and those devices are then immediately set up correctly. As the IT management team, we’re not available every week, so it’s important for us to have a partner like Root3 that can also provide excellent support. If people run into problems, they can simply call Root3, and that way, Root3 takes the pressure off us.”

Passion for IT

Guido sums up Root3 as a partner as“proactive, personal, and knowledgeable.” Root3 isn’t too big, which keeps the interaction personal—an important factor for VNV, according to Guido.“From the very beginning, we’ve had productive discussions with Root3. We appreciate dealing with people who also ‘work in the code.’ We can tell they’re truly passionate about IT and innovation. Since we don’t always have the time for that ourselves, it’s a real advantage for us that Root3 stays on top of all the latest innovations. They let us know when there are new things we should implement, such as Zero Trust security. They come up with these ideas on their own, and we really appreciate that proactivity.” Of course, things don’t always go smoothly right away. Guido explains that there were some issues with the onboarding process.“We especially appreciated that Root3 really acted on our feedback at the time. We at VNV were also able to provide our own input, which allowed Root3 to ultimately resolve the issue completely, and we now have a smooth onboarding process.”

No regrets whatsoever

For Guido, Root3 is a partner with whom VNV can definitely move forward into the future.“We’re very satisfied with Root3 as a partner, and our colleagues feel the same way. We’d worked with another provider for many years before this, so making the switch a few years ago was a bit of a leap of faith. But Root3 has completely lived up to our expectations—we haven’t regretted it for a moment!”