Why one of Europe's biggest care providers chose Smartlockr

“I’m heading the help desk. I go into the heart of problems and make sure the help desk delivers. I offer solutions to any and all employees, ranging from something as simple as a pc mouse to a secure and fully fledged work environment. That, in a nutshell, is my job.”

We sat down with Niki van den Eynde, ICT Delivery Service manager at Korian, which warrants high quality elderly care from more than 50 locations throughout the Netherlands.

“We actually have another 120 locations in Belgium, where I’m from. Korian Holland is part of the Korian Group, one of Europe’s biggest healthcare providers for the elderly.

The number of Dutch locations is expected to rapidly grow the coming years, yet the Netherlands has only recenly joined the Korian Group. As such our search for a method to communicate securely and easily kicked off fairly recently as well.

An additional factor was that of Dutch laws mandating secure emailing, right around the time Korian set foot in the Netherlands. It led us to compare a number of providers and Smartlockr compared most favourably.

A year ago Niki also worked at Korian, though his job then was that of System Administrator. It was a role that gave him a front-row seat to the onboarding of Smartlockr.

"The Smartlockr onboarding for me was a very positive experience. Initially I’d get a weekly call to discuss the progress and to see if there were any issues requiring attention. To this day I am regularly in contact with your Technical Support Engineer whenever he checks to see if everything’s running smoothly, or if I have any questions.”

"I also find that whenever we have any tech related questions, they’re always being handled quickly and adequately.”

Have you ever worked with other email solutions?

“Only at the very beginning, when Korian took off in the Netherlands at locations that were already working with other solutions for secure emailing. During that time I often found myself calling support. It was a wholly different experience from the support I get at Smartlockr, but let me leave it at that. Additional issues had to do with pricing and the fact their portfolio didn’t quite match our needs.”

Do you remember what tipped the scales in favour of Smartlockr?

“To be fair it was one of my colleagues, the Operations Manager we had back then, who made the decision. But I think we established a good relationship in which Smartlockr actively pursued a problem to our solution, something other parties were lacking in.”

The next question makes Niki laugh: is it very different for a Belgian person to engage in a dialogue with a Dutch provider?

“It’s definitely something else. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s a very different way of communicating.”

What’s the experience your colleagues have using Smartlockr?

“Currently there’s about 200 people using Smartlockr, soon to be 250 or even 300. We’ve been using it for a little over a year now. Back then we sent the manuals from your website to everyone, which resulted in little to no questions."

"I rarely hear anyone about any issues with Smartlockr, but I can see our employees use it a lot."

Of course securing an email requires a few extra steps, but nothing anyone would consider a showstopper. I get the impression people rather like it, because it makes them realise they’re sending emails both efficiently and securely.

Considering these are all healthcare professionals, generally not the IT minded type, this is quite extraordinary. At times we do get some feedback from the recipients’ side. These are predominantly older people, also not intrinsically geared toward working with software solutions. However, once you explain it exists to protect their security, they are quick to understand the how and why.”

Lastly, if you were to grade Smartlockr, what grade would that be??

“A 9.5 out of 10!”

See for yourself what Smartlockr can do for your organisation. Simply follow the link below to plan a free demo and see Smartlockr in action!