Customer story

Trespa and Ctac: strong IT control, strong sounding board

Ready for success

Daan Voets

Modern Work Expert

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Customer

Trespa

Label

Manufacturing, Modern Work

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Trespa is known worldwide for high-quality façade cladding and architectural panels. It is a strong brand with a clear position in its market, and it stands on its own feet, IT included. With around 650 employees and a compact IT team of roughly ten professionals, Trespa deliberately keeps knowledge, responsibility and control close to the business. That is how a relatively small team achieves so much. Not because everyone does everything, but because colleagues reinforce one another, keep the lines short and work closely together across infrastructure, security, applications and business processes.

Independent where possible, together where it adds value

That strong internal organisation also shapes the way we work together. Trespa is not looking for a supplier to take over the reins. They want a partner who brings expertise and experience to the table when it counts: a sounding board who helps them spot opportunities, make sense of new developments and back up their choices.

Stefan Seerden, IT Infra & Security Manager at Trespa, puts it well: “The value Ctac adds is not in supplying Microsoft licences alone. It is in the combination of a structured approach, in-depth knowledge, regular follow-up and proactive advice.” That came through clearly when Trespa compared several Microsoft partners side by side.

Advising on what is needed, not selling what is possible

Many vendors focus mainly on selling licences, Stefan says. Trespa wanted something else: a partner who stays involved once the contract is signed, thinks through what shifts in the Microsoft landscape mean for the business, and speaks up about opportunities and risks.

That, in his view, is where we make the difference. We do not wait for a question to come in. We keep an eye on contracts, usage, new developments and room for optimisation, and we raise them ourselves. That approach suits an organisation like Trespa, which holds the reins itself and still welcomes fresh insight from outside.

A proactive look at the Microsoft licence landscape

One good example is the proactive analysis we ran of the Microsoft licence landscape. We looked at the contractual situation, but above all at how licences are actually used across the organisation. It showed that a sizeable share of users may hold functionality they barely use in practice. Running contracts did not allow immediate changes, but Trespa now has valuable input for future renewals and optimisation.

That proactive view covers the timing of contractual choices as well as usage and functionality. When Microsoft announces a price change, for example, we think through with Trespa whether renewing early makes better financial or contractual sense. Looking ahead like this, before an issue becomes urgent, is a large part of what the partnership adds.

Sparring together about what matters tomorrow

For Trespa, the partnership is not about resolving incidents. It is about having the right conversation at the right moment. Microsoft moves at pace and new possibilities follow one another fast. Stefan sees a challenge in that: “Keeping track of every development yourself is close to impossible without a specialist team working full-time on licensing and Microsoft innovation. That is when it pays to have a partner alongside you who builds that knowledge every day and translates it into practice for your own organisation.”

So our conversations often turn to possibilities that are not yet on the agenda. What do changing licence models mean? Which Microsoft developments matter to Trespa? How do you avoid unnecessary costs? And where is there room to set up processes more intelligently? We work through these questions with Trespa regularly, while the final call always stays with them.

"Keeping track of every development yourself is close to impossible without a specialist team working full-time on licensing and Microsoft innovation. That is when it pays to have a partner alongside you who builds that knowledge every day and translates it into practice for your own organisation.”

Stefan Seerden, IT Infra & Security Manager at Trespa

The strength of knowledge across several domains

Alongside Microsoft, Trespa also works with us on SAP. For Stefan, the added value comes less from having both services with one supplier and more from knowledge across different domains coming together whenever that is relevant.

Microsoft often touches infrastructure and the workplace, while SAP sits much closer to business processes. A partner who understands both worlds sees the wider context. That makes it easier to signal early which changes are likely to affect other processes in the organisation. It helps Trespa make better-founded choices, and it stops developments being viewed in separate silos.

Trust as the foundation

The partnership between Trespa and Ctac shows that the value of an IT partner does not always lie in execution. Organisations that already have their house in order look for a partner who thinks with them at strategic level, brings new insight and makes opportunities visible before they present themselves.

Trespa has a strong IT team that achieves a great deal by combining knowledge, sharing responsibility and working as one team. We add extra expertise, market knowledge and an independent view. That makes the relationship complementary rather than dependent. Exactly how Stefan likes it: an organisation firmly in the driving seat, with a partner beside it to help take the right turn when new opportunities come along.