MSP of the Month for November: Virtual Computing in MSP Business

Every month, Dutch trade magazine MSP Business sits down with one MSP. In November, that was us.

Our CTO Mohammad Moghtader called in from a customer site in Eindhoven, where he was cleaning up a network on his own. That is how we work: close to the customer. In the interview he tells how Robin Damen started Virtual Computing while studying computer science in Breda, how he himself joined in 2010 as a vocational intern, and how we grew into an AI-first MSP that became an FD Gazelle for the fifth year in a row this year. The full interview (in Dutch) is on MSP Business. Below are the highlights, and what they mean for you. The quotes are translated.

Not a number, but family

"Personal" is what every IT partner promises. Mohammad chose a different word:

"For us, I would say: family. Our people have been here so long that customers always hear the same names."

You mention your organisation's name and our people know your configuration almost by heart. No changing faces, no explaining from scratch. It shows: the average customer has been with us for ten years. Seventy, eighty percent trust us blindly. And the rest stay critical: "that is good, it keeps us sharp."

Up to date is our responsibility

We would rather take on a bit more than strictly necessary. That way we know for sure your environment is compliant and current. With customers who switch to us, we still see servers that are years behind, because their previous provider treated the upgrade as an expensive migration project. That is not how we work:

"It is our responsibility to keep the customer on an up-to-date system."

From sole trader to three hundred users

Our customers are small and medium-sized businesses, from sole traders to an organisation with three hundred people on our platform. The largest group is in healthcare: dentists and physiotherapists. Their practice software often already runs in our cloud. Then the next step is logical: "If that program is already with you, why don't I put my Office and my accounting software there too?" That is how it grows into a complete Online Workplace, on our own platform in a Dutch data centre.

Top priority now: hybrid Azure Virtual Desktop

Every MSP in the series names AI as the biggest trend. For us, AI is number two. For a year it was priority one; now we improve it step by step. Number one is the hybrid version of Azure Virtual Desktop.

For years, you only got AVD if you ran a machine in Azure. And that machine costs many times more than the same machine in our data centre. Since September, AVD can also run on our own platform. You sign in with your own Microsoft account, with single sign-on, on a workplace that simply runs in the Netherlands. Together with our customers, we are now moving from the traditional setup to this more modern, future-proof workplace. Also read how the Online Workplace on AVD works in our own data centre.

A year ahead with AI

"With AI, we went in chest first and learned along the way what works and what doesn't."

Where many IT partners are only now starting with AI, we are a year ahead. As an AI-first MSP, we use AI across every stream in our business. AI does the first triage of every incoming request and decides whether a colleague needs to pick it up. In January, AI fully handled 20 percent of all requests; today that is 35 percent. Our goal is 75 percent. Human contact remains the foundation: it gives our people time for the work that is not repetitive.

Part of our AI work sits in Nahayat, our sister company with largely the same team. That is also where Alex comes from, our AI service desk employee, who now also works at other MSPs. The principle: a secure platform on which you use AI, for example an agent on your own data. That data stays in the Netherlands and is not used for training.

We grow our own talent

Ninety percent of our team started as interns, Mohammad included. As a Partner in Education of ROC Tilburg and Fontys, he gives guest lectures, and students get to know our platform before they join us. "You skip the whole onboarding period, because that person already knows your platform."

The average age is around 26. We have lunch together twice a week and go on an outing every quarter. Working from home is allowed, but hardly anyone does it:

"When something urgent comes up, you walk into each other's office, roll up your sleeves together and get to it."

For you as a customer, that means short lines and people who have known your environment for years. Want to join us? Take a look at our vacancies.

"Look, that is where you run"

A lot of IT work is invisible. As a result, customers sometimes only see the tip of the iceberg of what they pay for. That is why Mohammad likes to make it tangible. Anyone who wants to, we take to the data centre:

"Look, you are running in one of these pizza boxes."

Let's meet

Looking for an IT partner who knows you by name, keeps your environment up to date and is a year ahead with AI? Or curious what hybrid AVD means for your workplace? Schedule an introduction and we will come and sit down with you.