Since founding Nidaros in 2008, Gerben Dolsma has led the company through significant growth. But what drives him? And how has he seen the field evolve over the years? “In fact, we’ve introduced a new form of RPA.”

You could easily call Gerben Dolsma a pioneer—or even a visionary. The founder of Nidaros was already working with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) before the term even existed. In fact, while most organizations were still thinking purely in terms of software solutions, he was convinced that major gains could be made by streamlining and optimizing business processes with the help of virtual robots.

That belief was validated and strengthened in 2008 when Gerben was approached by Opalis—now known as Microsoft Orchestrator—to support ING as an implementation manager during the migration of Postbank into ING. With software robots, over one million customers and their entire portfolios were successfully migrated from one system landscape to another. Fast, error-free, and with great precision.

Why wait?

There could hardly have been a better time to start his own company. “The idea for Nidaros was partly inspired by insights I had gained over the years, including my experience as a financial services provider in the automotive sector,” Gerben explains. “When a customer contacts you, it’s usually because there’s a problem that needs solving. But why wait for a call or email when you could prevent the issue altogether using RPA? In other words, RPA enables organizations to transform their processes from reactive to proactive.”

Gerben gives an example: “I was once involved in a project for British Telecom. A server needed to be set up, and the expected lead time was 21 days. With the help of RPA, the entire process—from request to setup—was completed in just over four days. Simply because the complexity wasn’t technical—it was in the collaboration between departments. Sometimes it would take days just to get a response to a question or request. And yes, RPA can easily solve that kind of problem. That’s the mindset that led to the founding of Nidaros.”

Working with existing software applications

Fast forward about seventeen years, and Nidaros has become a key player in the dynamic world of RPA. In short, the company helps clients become more productive and efficient by proactively relieving them of operational burdens.

“We do this by automating repetitive tasks and processes within organizations,” Gerben explains. “A virtual robot works with existing software applications and systems just as a human employee would—quietly taking over time-consuming, repetitive tasks in the background. There’s no need to build new systems. What we do is make smarter use of existing IT infrastructures. Naturally, we’re also increasingly applying AI techniques in our work. The combination of RPA and AI enables us not just to automate, but also to optimize processes through data analysis and machine learning.”

In other words, Nidaros sees RPA as a solution for identifying and eliminating inefficiencies. A tactical tool, certainly—but in today’s tight labor market, one that is quickly becoming a strategic necessity. By offloading dull, repetitive work to software robots, employees can focus on more meaningful tasks, driving faster results for the organization. More precisely: in addition to increasing productivity and eliminating human error, RPA contributes significantly to improving employee satisfaction.

A milestone

Especially in recent years, the use of RPA has grown rapidly and is being adopted across a wide range of industries and processes—from finance to HR and supply chain management. “We’re seeing a real shift in how companies think,” says Gerben. “Thanks to RPA, they’re no longer just thinking in terms of software, but in terms of processes. They ask: What do I want to achieve, and what does my customer journey look like? And they’re realizing they can get much more out of their IT investments that way.”

For Gerben, one of the major milestones in Nidaros’ history was the development of Spider, the company’s own RPA product. Spider can best be described as an “intelligent workload manager” that autonomously decides how work should be prioritized and distributed—based, of course, on data provided by the client. What’s more, customers get real-time insight via a dashboard into both the quality of the processes and the performance of the robots. “That’s important to us,” says Gerben. “We don’t want to act like just another vendor—we want to be a partner. Where do adjustments need to be made? And how can we improve processes together?”

Relevant management insights

“If we say something can be done, we do it—and we take full responsibility,” Gerben emphasizes. “And when we deliver something, we don’t just support the client operationally—we also provide visibility across the entire process chain. After a process runs, we also provide relevant management insights: how often certain scenarios occur, why they happen, and how those situations might be managed or prevented in the future.”

In Nidaros’ view, RPA acts as a bridge between business operations, application management, and infrastructure. “In fact,” Gerben says, “we’ve introduced a new form of RPA. And I’m incredibly proud of that.”