Heutink ICT and Cloudwise Join Forces to Continue as Cloudwise

Heutink ICT bids farewell to its name after 25 years but not to its strategic partnerships with Heutink Nijverdal and Reinders Oisterwijk, which will remain as strong as ever. Together with these partners and the teams from both Heutink ICT and the “former” Cloudwise, we will continue to build a robust and innovative IT service provider for primary and secondary education. The new Cloudwise will advance education as we have done individually for years, with the same people, the same services, and the same quality.

In February 2024, Odin Groep—the parent company of Heutink ICT—announced its acquisition of Cloudwise. This marked the start of a process to align and eventually merge the education-focused activities of the two organizations. By the end of 2024, this process had progressed exceptionally well. Rogier Borggreve, Director of Education Services at Odin Groep, was impressed by the enormous potential. “This year, Heutink ICT and Cloudwise worked closely together, exploring how we could learn from each other and improve by joining forces. The goal was to provide better services, solutions, and greater customer satisfaction, all within a stable and future-proof organization. We quickly realized we shared many similarities, both in culture and expertise, with complementary services that fit seamlessly together. This cultural alignment enabled us to integrate people and resources much faster than we initially expected.”

Operating as One Professional Organization
Since September 1, Cloudwise and Heutink ICT have been working under one organizational structure with a unified management team. However, the departments continued using separate systems and names. This will change on January 1, 2025, when the two education specialists merge into a single company under the name Cloudwise, operating on the same systems. We are confident this will allow us to serve our customers even better.

Innovation and Reliability for Foundational Education
The primary motivation behind this decision is our commitment to delivering value to the education sector, which requires scale. The pace of technological development is accelerating, and topics like privacy, security, continuity, and turn-key solutions are top priorities for both primary and secondary education—at competitive pricing. By joining forces, we can significantly enhance our innovative capabilities, catering to both primary and secondary education. Together, we aim to create a portfolio that fully meets the needs of these sectors and ensures IT works better for education.

The Platform of the Future: COOL
A key focus of the merger is the creation of the online learning platform of the future. This was recently unveiled at Heutink ICT’s customer day, says Borggreve. “With MOO and COOL, both parties already had exceptional online platforms. Over the years, each platform developed its own unique modules. This allows us to accelerate the creation of a unified online learning environment for foundational education, incorporating new functionalities for all customer groups. The new platform will be called COOL and will include modules from both systems, offering enhanced features for both sets of users. We expect the first customers to start using this new platform before the summer.”

Continued Innovation and Investment in Educational Solutions
Arno Witvliet, CEO of Odin Groep, is very pleased with how quickly the two organizations have merged. To remain relevant, growth, scale, and market diversification are essential. “That’s why our strategy focuses not only on organic growth but also on adding more companies to the group. We actively seek companies that align well with our existing markets and portfolios. To maximize synergy, we look for organizations with a national or international presence, similar growth ambitions, and—most importantly—a comparable company culture. Cloudwise has proven to have extensive knowledge and experience, which greatly supports our efforts to develop our education-focused activities further. This enables us to continue innovating and investing in impactful solutions for education, such as COOL.”