Network, cabling and technical services in the Netherlands

In short. If your company is setting up in the Netherlands, or already
has an operation here, we build and run the technical side of your building. Cabling, WiFi,
power, workstations, cable trays, screens, video conferencing. We also manage the project:
talking to your landlord, your suppliers and the building manager on your behalf, in Dutch,
so you do not have to.

Who we usually work for

Companies with their head office abroad and their operation here. A business at Schiphol,
a logistics operator, a company taking an office floor, a distribution centre moving into a
new warehouse. What they have in common is that someone in another country has to make
decisions about a building they have never stood in, using a specification written for a
different market.

They contact us in English and ask whether we can help with the network. Usually it turns
out to be more than the network.

What we do on site

• Network cabling — Cat6, Cat6a and fibre, pulled, terminated,
  measured and handed over with a report. More on cabling.
• WiFi — measured coverage, access points where they belong, and a
  network that holds when the shift changes. More on WiFi.
• Power and outlets — the electrical work that goes with a fit-out:
  sockets at the workstations, power to the cabinet, circuits that do not trip when everything
  starts at once.
• Cable trays and routing — through ceilings, along walls and through
  a warehouse, done so it can be extended later instead of ripped out.
• Workstations — the desk end of it: data, power and whatever the
  job needs, installed in one go rather than three visits.
• Screens and video conferencing — mounting displays, the cabling
  behind them, and meeting rooms that work when the call starts.
• Server racks and technical rooms — built, labelled and documented.
  More on racks.
• Fibre — inside the building and between buildings, including
  groundwork. More on fibre.
• Management and support — monitoring, changes, and someone to call.
  More on management.

We manage the project, not just the installation

This is the part that matters most to a head office abroad, and it is the part that is
hardest to buy. We have project managers, not only engineers. They deal with your people,
with the suppliers, and with the landlord or the building owner — which is where most
of the surprises live.

A landlord will often say no to something that is entirely possible, because nobody asked
the question the right way. Knowing what a Dutch building owner will and will not accept,
and being able to sit down and discuss it in Dutch, regularly saves more money than any
decision about which brand of switch to buy. It affects the cabling routes, the meter
cupboard, the server cabinet, the technical room, where the access points can go, and even
what internet connection you can get into the building.

Why projects for foreign clients go wrong, and how we stop that

Permits and rules. We know what needs one and what does not. Fire-rated
sealing where cabling passes through a compartment wall is not optional here, and a building
inspector will ask about it. So will your insurer, eventually.

Sourcing. We know where to get materials in this country, what is actually
available, and what has a lead time that will hold up your opening date. Where something is
expensive or slow, we look for another way to get to the same result. That is usually where
the savings are — not in the price of components but in avoiding the route that costs
three weeks.

Specifications written elsewhere. A cabling schedule from another market
will quote distances in feet, assume different power standards, and sometimes specify parts
that are unusual here. We read it, tell you where it does not fit and what the Dutch
equivalent is, and we do that before anything is ordered.

Language. Our engineers speak English on site, not just in email. And
where it helps, we deal with your Dutch suppliers on your behalf — the internet
provider, the building manager, the contractor doing the interior. That is often the single
most useful thing we do for a client whose team is not here.

Your equipment or ours

We are familiar with nearly every brand on this market and we are not tied to one. If your
head office has a global standard and ships the hardware, we install and configure it. If you
would rather we supply it, we will, and we will tell you honestly what fits your situation
rather than what we happen to have. We are a UniFi specialist, but that is a capability, not
a sales target.

The same applies to an existing network. We take over networks other people built, which
starts with finding out what is actually there: walking the cabinets, reading the
configuration, and testing the cabling if there is no report. We would rather spend a day
finding out than promise to manage something nobody has looked at.

Not just the network: everything technical in the building

Once we are on site anyway, most clients ask us to arrange the rest as well, and we do.
We apply for the internet connection and follow it up with the provider. We arrange telephony
and the phone numbers that go with it. We install the alarm system and the cameras. In
practice, if it is technical and it lives in your building, we either do it or we arrange it.

That is not a list to look impressive. It is the reason the dates hold. A fit-out fails
when six suppliers each wait for one of the others, and nobody owns the gap between them. When
the same company installs the cabling, hangs the screens, applies for the connection and talks
to the landlord, that gap does not exist.

Own people, and what that changes

Everything is done by our own engineers and our own project managers. Nothing is
subcontracted to a company you have never heard of and cannot reach.

Three things follow from that, and they are the three things a head office abroad actually
cares about. The price stays sharp, because there is no chain of parties each
adding a margin. The communication stays accurate, because the person who
tells you something is the person who did it — not a coordinator repeating what he was
told. And the deadline stays visible: we can see for ourselves where the work
stands, so we know a week in advance whether a date is going to hold. In practice we often
finish earlier than agreed, and when we cannot, you hear it while there is still time to
act.

Hands-on, and that is deliberate

We are a technical service provider that still does the work itself. Our own engineers,
our own vans, our own stock. Nobody subcontracts your project to a company you have never
heard of. That is also why we can be there quickly when something fails: the part is usually
on our shelf rather than on a boat.

We have been doing this since 1999, from Almere, across the Netherlands.

The brands we work with, and when we would pick them

We are not tied to one manufacturer. If your head office has a global standard, we install
and configure what you ship. If the choice is ours, this is roughly how we think about it.
It is a short list on purpose: we would rather know a few platforms properly than claim to
know everything.

Networks, WiFi and switching

• UniFi (Ubiquiti) — our main platform, and what we install most.
  The reason is management rather than hardware: one interface for the gateway, the switches,
  the access points and the cameras, and it stays understandable for the person who inherits it
  after you. Good for anything from a single office floor to a site with several buildings.
  Less suitable where a group IT policy demands a specific enterprise vendor.
  More about our UniFi work.
• TP-Link Omada — the sensible alternative when the budget is tighter
  or when a client already has Omada elsewhere. Same idea of central management, different
  price point. We install and maintain it, and we will tell you honestly where it stops.
• Dätwyler cabling — not a brand most clients ask for by name, but it
  is the one that matters most. The cable is the part you cannot replace afterwards without
  opening the ceiling again. We use Dätwyler rather than whatever is cheapest that week,
  because the difference shows up in the measurement report and in year eight.

Access control and intercom, on the same network

• Paxton — door access that is straightforward to manage, which
  matters when the person managing it is an office manager and not an engineer.
• 2N and Akuvox — intercom over the network, for a gate, a shared
  entrance or a building where reception is not always staffed. A proper intercom is wired; the
  wireless ones from a DIY store are the single most common disappointment we are called out
  to.

Cameras and recording, where the network has to carry it

We mention these because they live on the same cabling and the same switches, and because
they are usually what pushes a network past what it was designed for. Twelve cameras with
infrared illumination draw far more power than twelve desk phones, and they run
twenty-four hours a day.

• UniFi Protect — when the rest of the site is already UniFi, this
  keeps everything in one interface and one login.
• Dahua and Hikvision — widely used, wide range, and the recorders
  handle large numbers of cameras well. Note that some organisations have procurement rules
  about these; we will raise that with you rather than let it surface later.
• Axis, Hanwha, Bosch and Honeywell — specified more often by
  corporate standards and by insurers. If your head office has already made this choice, we
  work with it.
• Nx Witness — the video management platform we use above roughly
  thirty cameras, where a single recorder becomes the bottleneck. Several servers behave as one
  system, with proper user management and remote access.
  More on managing that.

Alarm

• Ajax — what we install most for intrusion detection, including in
  buildings where running new cable is impractical. It sits alongside the network rather than
  on it, which is deliberate: an alarm that stops working when the network does is not an
  alarm.

If a brand you use is not on this list, ask. The list is what we install and maintain
routinely, not the limit of what we can work with. Taking over and maintaining equipment that
someone else installed is a normal part of what we do — that starts with finding out
what is actually there, not with a proposal to replace it.

One company, one point of contact, one invoice

A fit-out normally involves the network company, the electrician, the AV supplier, the
access control company, the alarm installer, the internet provider and the interior
contractor. Seven parties, each with their own planning, each waiting for one of the others,
and nobody responsible for the gaps between them. Every one of those gaps is where a date
slips.

You do not have to run that from another country. We take the lot: the server cabinet, the
IT equipment, the complete WiFi network, video conference rooms, audio, access control, the
alarm, the cameras, screens on the wall, and the network underneath all of it. One company
that takes responsibility, does the coordination, and sends one invoice.

That last part is not a detail. Ten suppliers means ten sets of paperwork, ten purchase
orders and ten conversations about who was supposed to do what. One supplier means one.

Our position on the awkward requests is simple, and it is how we have worked for
twenty-five years: “it cannot be done” does not exist here. There is always
a route. Sometimes it is a different product, sometimes a temporary solution while we wait
for the permanent one, and sometimes it is something we make ourselves.

Advice matters as much as trust

If you are sitting in China or the United States and setting up a building in the
Netherlands, the problem is not only that you cannot be here. It is that you have no way of
knowing what the rules are, what is normal practice, what a landlord will accept, or which
of the quotations in front of you is the one that will cause trouble later.

That is the part we take off your hands. We have been doing this for foreign clients for
more than twenty-five years, so we know which questions to ask before you have to. We will
tell you when something in your specification does not fit this market, when a cheaper option
carries a risk that lands on you rather than on the installer, and when the thing you have
been told is impossible is actually straightforward if you ask the building owner
differently.

You do not need to become an expert on Dutch regulations. You need one company that is,
and that tells you the truth about what it finds.

The real problem is not technical. It is trust.

If you are running this from another country, you cannot walk in and look. You do not
speak the language, you do not know which rules apply, and you have been told to find a
company that can handle it. Everything after that depends on whether you can trust the people
you picked.

We have worked this way for twenty-five years. Once we are working together, we do not let
go halfway. What we promise, we do — and that is not a slogan, it is the only thing that
matters when you are not in the building.

Sometimes that means being creative rather than saying no

Four things that have actually happened, because this is what “we will sort it out”
looks like in practice:

• The internet connection had a twenty-week lead time. The client could not
  wait twenty weeks to open. We put in a temporary connection so they could work, and swapped it
  over when the permanent line arrived.
• The equipment was not available in the right colour. We have our own spray
  booth. We sprayed it.
• A part was not made in the length that was needed. So we made it
  ourselves.
• A specific bracket did not exist anywhere. We printed it in 3D.

None of these are heroics. They are what happens when the people doing the work are allowed
to solve the problem instead of filing a change request. It is also the reason our dates
hold.

Fire regulations: the risk nobody tells you about

This is the part where a foreign client is most exposed, because the rules are Dutch and
the liability is yours.

In the Netherlands, cable that runs through a building falls under the European
construction products regulation (CPR) and the Dutch standard NEN 8012. Those decide which
class of cable is allowed where. It matters because cable burns, and because cable running
through a ceiling void is a path for fire and smoke from one compartment to the next.

You do not need to know any of this — that is exactly what you hire a company for.
But you should know one thing: if the wrong cable goes in, you are responsible.
Not the installer. The building owner and the occupier. In the worst case a building can be
closed.

There are companies in this market that win the job by quoting the cheapest cable. The
quotation looks better and the risk lands on you, months later, when an inspector or an
insurer asks the question. We have seen it.

So we do it the other way round. Before we quote, we do a scan of the
building and the routes, and we tell you which cable class your situation actually requires
and why. Where cabling passes through a fire compartment, the opening is sealed with a rated
system and that is documented. If our quotation is higher than another one, ask what class of
cable is in the other one. That is usually the whole difference.

Working at height, and the certificates that go with it

Pulling cable in a warehouse means working at height, on lifts and in aisles that are
often still in use. That brings its own requirements: certified equipment, certified people,
and a method statement your safety officer can accept. Our engineers are trained and certified
for it, and we plan the work around your operation rather than the other way round.

Companies that already work with us this way

The clearest answer to “can you handle this from abroad” is what we already do. These are
real projects, and the client was usually not the one standing in the building.

• Hanjin — a Korean company opening a Dutch site. Internet, cabling,
  network, WiFi and firewall arranged end to end while the decisions were being made in Korea,
  finished a week before the staff arrived.
  Read the case.
• Iron Mountain — new locations in four countries,
  cabled and measured to the same standard, so a fault in any building traces back to a specific
  outlet. Read the case.
• Transdev — a working bus depot: fibre dug in, technical cabinets
  inside and out, sensors, intercom, alarm and over forty cameras. We also supply people there
  when they simply need hands. Read the case.
• Aeres — a campus with classrooms, a workshop and a livestock barn:
  fibre in the ground, wireless bridges where digging was not an option, and fourteen cabinets.
  Read the case.

And the work that never becomes a case study

A large part of what we do is capacity for organisations that run their own IT and need
people on the floor in this country.

• Boskalis — IT projects worldwide: cabling, workstation fit-outs and
  internet installation, wherever they need it.
• Railway stations — network cabling and WiFi access points on a
  project basis, plus engineers for workstation fit-outs and support when new offices open. It
  is broad work and it is the kind we enjoy most.
• Witte Kruis — engineers on site, intercom, access control, system
  management, fire alarm panels, alarm systems and WiFi networks.
• Connexxion — fire alarm and alarm panels, camera installation, and
  hands-on support for installing and maintaining the cabling.

If your organisation has its own IT team but no people here, this is the arrangement that
usually works: you keep control, we are the ones in the building.

Thirty-five people, all on our own payroll

We do not work with hired-in labour. Every engineer is employed by us, which sounds like a
detail and is not.

It means we know each of them: what they are good at, what they have done before, and which
of them belongs on which job. When we promise something, we are promising with people whose
work we know, not with whoever an agency sends on the day. A specialist goes to the job that
needs a specialist.

With a team of thirty-five we can run substantial projects properly: technically specialised
where that is needed, coordinated from one place, affordable, and against a full project plan
rather than a rough intention. If you are deciding whether to trust a company with a building
you cannot visit, that is the part worth checking — not the brochure, but whether the
people doing the work actually belong to the company you signed with.

Recent work

Our own projects, in the kind of buildings this page is about.

See more of our work

Who you will be dealing with

You get a person, not a ticket number. These are the people who pick up the phone and who
come to look at your building.

Call 036 52 98 447 and ask for one of them, or
send a message and tell us roughly what the building is and what has to
happen in it. We answer in English.

Working with us as an international client

One thing worth knowing if you are used to other markets: in the Netherlands the permanent
cabling run is limited to 90 metres, with 100 metres allowed once patch cords at both ends are
included. Specifications written for the American market often quote 300 feet, which is 91.5
metres and not the same number. We check that before anything is ordered.

We deliver documentation you can send to a head office without translating it first. A
measurement report from a Fluke tester reads the same in any country: length, attenuation,
crosstalk, pass or fail per link, with the margin. You do not have to take our word for it,
and neither does your auditor.

What determines the cost

We do not quote a price without having seen the situation, because without that we would
either overcharge you or promise something we cannot deliver. What drives the number: how many
outlets, the distance from each one to the cabinet, whether existing routes can be reused,
whether the ceiling is accessible, whether power over the data cable is needed, and whether
the building is in use while we work. That last one is often the biggest single factor.

And then there is the part you cannot see on a drawing: what the landlord will allow. That
is where a conversation saves more than a discount ever will.

Talk to an engineer, not a call centre

Call 036 52 98 447 or send us a message, and one of our own people will
get back to you. Tell us roughly what the building is and what has to happen in it; we will
tell you what we would do and what it depends on.

Contact us