Incentro Times - April 2024

The Incentro Times

Table of Contents

Recap of the Dutch BM

Business as unusual

Unleash the potential of Marielle van Verseveld (HA)

Spain in the spotlight Crazy ant shows up in Bali

Exciting times for Africa

Girls’ Day in Utrecht Rope for Hope

3 5 7 8 9 10 11 12

Recap of the Dutch BM

Dear Incentronauts,

I’ve been given the honours to write the preface of the second edition of the Incentro Times. In the last Great Place to Work survey you encouraged us to communicate more about what’s happening in our global ecosystem of cells. We hope this edition of the Times lives up to your request. Of course everything can be improved, so your feedback, both positive and negative, is very welcome.

Q1 Group financial results

In the second half of last year we embarked on a journey to structurally improve the financial results of Incentro as a group. As a Board we gave our journey the designation C2 which stands for Commerce and Clarity. In our journey commercial effectiveness and professional feedback play a pivotal role, this is what we want to ignite within all Incentronauts.

The results of Q1 show that we are seriously improving: commercial effectiveness, revenue per consultant and profitability have all gone up. Q1 2024 is the best quarter since Q2 2022, so well done! Are we there yet? No, we still need to improve further to get to where we want to be. And for that we need to generate more revenue.

Awesome Digital Solutions

The way to boost our revenue is by providing the most relevant awesome digital solution to the market. Our vision: We hand-pick the best (technological) solutions, ahead of the curve, has been emphasised in the last Dutch central BM. Technology evolves so fast that a topdown approach can never keep this pace. We are organised for agility (cell model),  so we will be able to go where digital opportunities arise and we will capture that demand.

We learned that hand-picking needs to be done by all Incentronauts, every day!  And we’ll do that fast, faster than our competition!

Reloading our brand

Hand-picking requires mastery, mastery keeps us ahead of the curve. As Incentronauts we don’t settle for the standard, we set the standard. So time to give our brand pay-off (“Ready for battle”) an overhaul. The last couple of months, the Nucleus team worked together with an external brand agency to revamp our brand. The results can be seen on the next pages, I hope you like it as much as I do.

Until the next Times, be us, be unusual.

Regards, Sander.

Business as unusual

Following on from the new focus within Incentro and the story of the crazy ant on the BM, this new brand concept feels like a natural fit. For those who do not yet know the story: The story of the crazy ant is about how, as a hard-working ant colony, you sometimes need one (but preferably more) crazy ant that takes a step outside the box. Who spots opportunities where sometimes you wouldn't expect them. Later in the Incentro Times we have such an example of a crazy ant. But first, more on the new brand story...

Over the past few months, we have been working on setting up our new brand strategy and creative concept. The goal of the strategy is to give the Incentro brand a new direction, refocus it, and give it more substance. Over the past 26 years, we have built up a lot of brand awareness, but it is not always clear to the outside world in which areas we can offer a solution.

The new brand concept is a broad umbrella under which we can kick off a lot of campaigns in the future. So ‘Business as unusual’ is not a standalone campaign, but a story, a feeling, and a visual extension of our current brand identity.

Together with the creative agency Verve, we have been working on our new brand story. We have gone back to the core of Incentro and validated our positioning with customers on both the CX and DT sides. We then let a team of creatives (from both Verve and Nucleus) work on storytelling and linked a new visual direction to it. This visual extension gives us more flexibility in our communication without losing our distinctive identity.

Instead of only using our distinctive circle we will also implement more ‘unusual’ shapes inline with the brand story. We also introduced 3 new colors to our current color palette.

Our new brand story conveys a sense of action, progress, curiosity, and looking forward to tomorrow. It is not a standalone campaign, but forms the foundation of our external and internal communication.

With this brand movie, we launched the concept internally during the Dutch BM on April 16th. You can check . In the coming months, we will continue to roll out the concept internally from Nucleus. In the form of a new email signature, presentation template, an updated brand book, officce branding and many more. If you have any questions regarding the brand story and concept, please feel free to reach out to Robey from Nucleus. the brand movie here

By Paul Baan Unleash

Human potential unleashed

If you really want something, go all the way to reach your goal

Incentro is all about Sustainable Growth and Unleashing Human Potential. But how does that work? This still requires someone to pick up the gauntlet and go for it, right?

Marielle van Verseveld is a great example of an Incentronaut who rose to the challenge. With a background in motion technology she made a move to the IT sector in 2015 before joining Incentro in 2022. Her resume is a first indication of a wide variety of interests and thriving ambition to be of value. She has been a tester, scrum master, JIRA consultant, Blueriq Business Engineer and became an Outsystems consultant at Incentro.

Despite her efforts and willingness it was hard to find an actual project to build her CV. It was the days of Unity, the outlook was less than perfect, to say the least. Being a proud mother, Marielle decided she wanted to take full responsibility. She did not accept her fate of sitting “on the bench”.

“I really wanted to stay at Incentro and get off the bench. I was not working for any customer, and yet I was still getting paid. That didn’t feel right, I wanted to add value to the organization as well. It didn’t matter what, as long as it had some characteristics of the lowcode domain that I had started my new career in.”

What happened next is a fine example of mastering growth. Marielle started discussing her ambitions with her MD.

“Initially, it seemed he was not the right person to talk to. He referred me to my Field

Manager. When my Field Manager and I concluded we needed to look beyond the cell border, it was back to the MD. He then referred me to a manager of another cell, who in turn referred me to Max Cornel, the operations manager of the cell I ended up in.

Now, looking back, she is very happy to have taken all these steps.

“I really don’t like to be in the spotlight, but I dislike doing nothing even more. I cannot sit still, so I was completely fed up with my position on the bench. I had the OutSystems certificates, but I was not putting it to use, and more importantly I felt stuck. I wasn’t growing.

Where I am now, I feel much more appreciated not only as a T shaped Hyperautomation consultant but also as a person. Jan Kaan made an effort in welcoming me to the floor here, and I have experienced that other aspects of my personal endeavors are also appreciated. As a member of team Happiness I am looking after the wellbeing of all Incentronauts in our cell, and I feel valued for that too. “

Her perseverance in finding her ideal spot within Incentro has paid off tremendously, and if Marielle has one tip to other people it is that they should never give up on their ideals and ambitions. Within a big organization there are lots of possibilities. Incentro enables sustainable growth; it is up to you to accept the challenge and go for it.

By Lorena

We're excited to announce that Incentro Spain was recently featured in a Cantabria Negocios article! The article highlights what makes us a leader in people management with a focus on these key points

Award-Winning culture We earned big in 2023 ranking #2 Best Company to Work for in Spain (50-100 employee category) by Great Place To Work and #48 Best European Company! We also received the Quality Employment Promotion prize by CEOE-Cepyme Cantabria.

Our secret sauce Transparency flat hierarchies commitment and a flexible hybrid work model are at the core of our employee experience. We also prioritize personalized attention for our team

A global force with local roots Founded in the Netherlands (1996) Incentro arrived in Spain in 2010 and has grown to three offices – two in Santander and one in Madrid.

Empowering our teams Our unique cell model allows each office to operate autonomously promoting decentralization and avoiding unnecessary layers of management Success beyond culture Our achievements in 2023 extended beyond company culture. We also saw significant business growth!

We're proud of this recognition and our incredible team. Let's keep building on this success together!

Miguel spain in the spotlight

By Trifitri Muhammaditta

Crazy ant shows up in Bali

One fine afternoon, the sun was seeping through the window on a music beat, just like a normal day. But unlike a normal day, Reiner got up from his chair and walked towards Prabu and Ronald asking to get off early—which they granted. Without hesitation, Reiner bolted.

Reiner had been working at Incentro for about six months by then. Coming from Jakarta, he moved to Bali and joined as a Junior Frontend Developer, working under Prabu’s wings. Even though he’s passed his probation period, his asking to leave early got into Ronald’s mind. Was he not happy working with us? Was he running off to attend an interview?

Things did turn south. That very evening, Ronald received a text from Reiner that read, “Can we meet up first thing tomorrow morning?” With nearly 99.9% certainty, Ronald was fairly sure tomorrow would be an “I got a new job”-talk.

The next day, they sat down together. Ronald opened the conversation with, “What was so urgent?”

To everyone’s surprise, Reiner met up with someone he met at church. That someone was a lead—a hot lead. He was chasing after a hot lead. He said the man wanted a makeover of his company website. Upon learning who the man was and what the company was, we were flabbergasted by his potential.

As it was his find, he took up the offer to lead the deal and he did it brilliantly. We offered him more Sales opportunities and he took ‘em up again; working 50:50 with developing. And, starting in May, he took up another offer to transition into a fulltime sales role when our monday.com partnership begins.

I always approach every event in my life from a positive perspective. This outlook makes life more tranquil, simpler, and easier to be grateful for while minimizing regrets. One of my life philosophies is "everything happens for a reason." I believe that every event in my life has lessons that can be learned later on. With this mindset, life becomes less grumbling, and ultimately, we spread positivity to those around us.

Despite being a new cell and a new team, the BAM in CBAM! has stuck with us. We dare them to speak up, foster freedom and trust within the team, and always strive for the best; while camaraderie seems to come naturally. We’re like the Addams Family (without all the macabre and ghostly lifestyle)—passionate, supportive, and a little bit on the funky side.

Incentro believes that our greatest asset is our people, and we are committed to fostering an environment where every employee has the opportunity to thrive and grow. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and providing the necessary support and resources, we ensure that every member of our team has the chance to excel and contribute to our collective success. At Incentro, growth isn t just a byproduct—it s a promise we uphold every day.

By Matthew Munyiri Exciting times for Africa

Exciting Times for Africa

Incentro Africa is making big strides this year!

New Johannesburg office opens!

We're excited to announce the opening of our third Incentro Africa office in Johannesburg, South Africa on March 13th! To celebrate, we hosted a monday.com event followed by an official office opening.

Meeting our valued clients in Nairobi

Our Nairobi office recently hosted a meet-and-greet event for our clients. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with our clients, network, and enjoy some refreshments.

Showcasing monday.com in Nairobi

The Incentro Africa team partnered with monday.com to host an event showcasing the power of monday.com project management.

Introducing In-Central Park!

We're thrilled to unveil In-Central Park, our brand new experience center and workspace! This remodeled garage provides a space for clients to test out hardware and offers a quiet work area for our Incentronauts.

Welcoming new Incentronauts and an Intern

Joanne (top left) brings her sales expertise to the table

Mike (top right) strengthens our financial backbone

Bradley (bottom left) supports clients with their Appsheet needs

Mo (bottom right) joins the marketing team as an intern until mid-July. We're happy to have them all on board!

An esteemed guest

Sander, a distinguished guest, visited Incentro Africa to discuss strategic matters and enjoyed a team dinner.

By Robey Ruissaard

Girls’ Day in Utrecht

On April 11th, we celebrated Girls' Day by welcoming 25 awesome girls from St. Bonifatius College to Incentro Utrecht. This event is all about showing high school girls the exciting world of tech and IT, and we were happy to be a part of it.

Why Girls' Day? Because the Dutch organization VHTO is passionate about getting more women into engineering and IT. More women in these fields means progress for everyone: the industry, society as a whole, and the fight for gender equality. It's a win-win-win!

So, we joined the Girls' Day initiative with a group of amazing women from our Utrecht offices. We wanted to support VHTO's "fix the system, not the girls" campaign and show these young women that the world of IT is theirs to explore.

The day kicked off with introductions and some delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies (thanks, Belle!). Our very own board-lady Arianne, gave a warm welcome, followed by a tour of our colorful office. Sietse even set up a fun photo shoot in our ball pit!

Then came the exciting part: a group challenge!

The girls were tasked with wire framing and pitching a social media app of their own to our sales rep Sacha. It was very cool to see how quickly they grasped the idea and dove into creating their app's different screens.

We hope this glimpse into the world of IT sparked some interest in these girls to make them our future tech stars! Huge thanks to Arianne, Noortje, Linde, Doris, Belle, Sacha, and Tara for showing the girls how cool it is to be a woman working at Incentro. And a shoutout to all the other amazing women who helped make this day a success!

By Robey Ruissaard Rope for hope

Rope for Hope

Let's raise money for children whose futures are uncertain.

Our partner Google approached Incentro for the Rope for Hope event  on the 7th of June 2024 in collaboration with Make-a-Wish. The goal of this event is to raise money for the foundation by abseiling 105 meters from the WTC in Amsterdam.

Every day we climb mountains together with our employees, partners and customers to fulfill the ambition of tomorrow. During this event, we descend to the core, helping others. It can't be more rewarding then to do this for the children with big and small dreams, but for whom tomorrow's ambition is uncertain. Every donation is welcome.

The goal is to raise a minimum of 2000 euro so that we are able to participate in the descent. The more we raise, the more kids we can help, of course!

Please donate here