How it began
In 2007, Patrick Follon left his prestigious job at SIDN to become an independent entrepreneur. For him, it was ‘time for something new.’ The economic climate was still favorable, and his motivation to collaborate with a wide variety of organizations was strong.
The first assignment
The first assignment was an immediate success. The IT infrastructure of Achmea and Interpolis had just been outsourced, and a new governance organization needed to be established. Patrick was asked to tackle this task. It was a complex and extensive project, which was completed to the great satisfaction of the clients after a two-year period.
Establishing focus
Encouraged by this experience, Patrick decided to focus his agency entirely on services related to IT outsourcing, offshoring, and governance. Building strong collaborative relationships between organizations became the core mission of the company.
Growing clientele demands a new business model
The Netherlands was by then in a significant economic crisis, but the demand for assignments increased. The IT outsourcing services expanded significantly, benefiting many clients who engaged our agency.
The influx of work exceeded what Patrick could handle alone. This led to a new business model: a network organization comprising independent consultants who share knowledge, experience, assignments, and best and next practices. This approach substantially increased our capacity and areas of expertise, allowing us to meet almost every client need. See some examples of our client cases and assignments.
The sole proprietorship was converted into a BV (private limited company), and the name changed from Follon.nl to Follon & Partners. In 2016, a new office location was established in Amsterdam.
Expanding Services, Certifications, and Accreditations
Growth continued, even during the COVID-19 period, with further expansion of services. F&P invested in training and obtained dozens of certifications. F&P became accredited as a training and certification organization and launched its own training institute.
We also invested in the practice of multi-vendor governance and Service Integration. We are proud to be the first in the Benelux to achieve SIAM Professional certification. Subsequently, F&P obtained accreditation for the entire Service Integration Manager curriculum, becoming the first organization worldwide accredited at this highest level of Service Integration.
Developing the profession
We do not keep our expertise solely for ourselves or our clients but make it broadly available to the market. By doing so, we support and develop the entire profession in the field of Sourcing and Service Integration. We actively participated in the board of the Sourcing Association Netherlands and founded Service Integration Netherlands.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank everyone who has worked with us over the past years. Without the warm collaboration with clients, partners, experts, suppliers, and associates, we would not be where we are today. We look forward to equally fruitful collaborations in the future!