News & Future
We’re truly building something special
- By Nidaros
Jeroen Swart could have chosen a safe IT assignment. He didn’t. Since October 2024, he has served as CTO of Nidaros, responsible for the company’s technological direction. What attracted him most? The company’s practical, down-to-earth approach. “We look for the pebble in the customer’s shoe.”
It was late summer 2024 when Jeroen Swart first drove onto the Nidaros parking lot.
As Competence Lead .NET at Quintor, he had been invited by CEO Gerben Dolsma for an informal brainstorming session. Nidaros was growing rapidly but facing technical challenges that might benefit from Jeroen’s expertise.
The two immediately clicked. The planned one-hour meeting turned into a lively discussion that lasted the entire afternoon. Gerben spoke passionately about RPA, the software Nidaros used, and the company’s growth ambitions. Jeroen listened attentively, sharing his own ideas about software engineering and process optimization. “I was impressed by Gerben’s vision and drive, but I also saw opportunities for further technical professionalization,” Jeroen recalls. “Once home, I wrote down my findings and recommendations — and sent them straight to Gerben.”
Small things, big impact
Jeroen’s detailed analysis made an impression. In fact, when Gerben realized that a Chief Technology Officer could take Nidaros to the next level, he knew exactly who to approach. The offer soon followed, made possible through the close collaboration between Quintor and Nidaros.
Since October 2024, Jeroen has been responsible for Nidaros’ entire technical direction — from code quality and software architecture to development processes and strategic technical decisions. “I’m a technician at heart,” he says. “I can code deep into the night. But technology, to me, is always a means to an end — the goal is to build something that truly benefits the business. Often it’s the small things that make a big difference. That practical mindset is something I share completely with Gerben and the team.”
Operational continuity
Of course, Nidaros is known as a specialist in Robotic Process Automation (RPA). But what makes the company truly unique, according to Jeroen, is that its services go far beyond standard RPA implementations. “We combine RPA with Business Process Outsourcing,” he explains. “That means we don’t just build software robots for our clients — we take full ownership of entire business processes, managing and executing them while remaining fully accountable. Alongside technological innovation, we also ensure operational continuity.”
His mission is clear: to elevate Nidaros’ technology to an even higher level. “First of all, by making our development process more predictable,” Jeroen says. “We wanted more control over planning and lead times. Predictability lies not only in the process itself but also in how we build software and the tools we use. It’s always a challenge to make the right choices — the ones that ultimately improve predictability. At the same time, I’m focusing on optimizing code quality, architecture, and system scalability.”
A renewed Spider
Jeroen reveals that Nidaros has been working for some time on a new version of Spider, the company’s intelligent workload manager.
Developed to monitor and manage both robot actions and process flows, Spider provides real-time insights, optimizes workload distribution among robots, and delivers valuable management information. “We saw opportunities to offer clients even more flexibility and drastically shorten time-to-market,” Jeroen explains. “Right now, analysts design processes in modeling tools, and developers then have to rebuild them in software — a time-consuming process. With the new Spider, analysts will soon be able to design and run processes themselves directly within the tool, without developer intervention. Combined with a transition to a SaaS model, this will significantly lower the barrier for new customers. We’re truly building something special.”
The pebble in the shoe
Whatever changes occur on the technical side, the underlying philosophy remains the same. “We always start from our clients’ challenges,” Jeroen says. “Only then do we look at how to deliver the best solution and what’s needed to make it work. Or, as Gerben always puts it: we look for the ‘pebble in the customer’s shoe’ and find ways to remove it. We don’t just solve problems — we also identify opportunities for our clients, whether in cost savings, quality improvement, or new revenue streams. That’s what it’s all about.”
