A still distinctly Flemish accent betrays the fact that we have gained a colleague from Belgium. Hendrickx has worked in the Netherlands for the past 20 years and finds the working culture here very pleasant, even though he still lives in the Burgundian South. “I’ve worked for years as a strategy consultant in the business sector, in government and also in education.” Over the past few years, Hendrickx has seen the inside of many an educational institution as interim director: The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Avans University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, University of Amsterdam and University of Applied Sciences Windesheim. “And now TU/e as well. Although this past year, I’ve been around the university for one to one and a half days a week to work on SQUAD and supervise the merger of DML and IMS into the new service department LIS (Library and Information Services, as of January 1, 2023).”

The search for a permanent director has yet to begin. Hendrickx’ appointment as interim director was due to the need for continuity. “Certain processes have to be kept going. Luijten left during the SQUAD transition. If you want to find a new director now, your time is short. It might be better to take a little more time and appoint an interim director in the meantime. Plus, I am already familiar with the organization as well as the SQUAD transition and have led the same type of transition in Amsterdam.”

Hendrickx has a background in business administration. “I studied business engineering, a somewhat technical degree program within the field of business administration. I chose to pursue a specialization in information systems. I’ve always had a passion for IT, despite taking quite a long detour working as a consultant. Eight years ago, I got back into the IT world.”

Where do we go from here?

“We may be officially launching LIS on January 1, but that doesn’t mean the transition of SQUAD is complete. I think it’ll take another year and a half to further improve the department. As part of this process, we’re using a lot of coaching to get people settled into their new roles. We’re going to work in a more agile way and separate functional management from competence management. So SQUAD will continue to play a major role in my work. Of course, digitalization is also very important: the Big Bets Digitization Strategy. And the third pillar is cybersecurity. That is an issue that has been on the rise for some time now. And our cyber resilience at TU/e has increased, but so has the threat, so this is something that continues to demand attention.

Hendrickx has a clear vision on digitization: “digitization should not be limited to the IT department. It’s something that concerns the departments, services and the entire governance as well. Everyone should contribute to the process. At the same time, you notice that IT sometimes bites off more than it can chew, and that comes at the cost of performance. Therefore, it’s important to prioritize as IT department and to stay sharp. That’s also part of the SQUAD transition. A few examples are the service hubs at the departments, the appointment of competence managers, or the clear distinction between content (via product area leads) and employee competencies (via competence managers).”

Separating content from competence

“What I dream of, of course, are big steps in digitalization and cyber resilience, but with an eye toward SQUAD, I hope that a year from now, our teams will feel safe enough to start discussions within their teams about their own competencies, both personal and team competencies. What new technologies are coming our way? What do we still need? I want the teams to have the courage to discuss this amongst themselves and to put their own training and development needs on the table. To dare to be vulnerable and say ‘our team isn’t capable of this yet. We need to bring someone in or one of the team members has to develop this competency.’ That brings us back to the issue of dividing attention between content and competence, as I mentioned earlier with regard to SQUAD.”

Staff shortage

Of course, the staff shortage in the Netherlands also exists in IT, although it is not so bad at Hendrickx’ department: “It’s certainly an issue here at LIS as well, especially for the highly specialized IT positions and data stewards, but we’re also putting a lot of effort into it and the results are visible. We’ve had quite a few new colleagues join us recently.”

Bart Luijten – director of IMS until December 1, 2022 – joined TU/e on October 1, 2020. “During my time at TU/e, I worked on two main tasks. The first was to draft a digital strategy for the university. This included the so-called Big Bets, i.e., the most important strategic themes, as well as the digital architecture vision and the right management structure (governance) to implement the strategy.” Hendrickx will continue to work on that strategy, as mentioned earlier. Luijten’s second major task was “to further develop the central IT service IMS into a modern digitization service. Under the banner of SQUAD, the new LIS service was created, which brings together the technical and the data aspects.” Luijten has been involved in this project since the beginning of SQUAD.

Luijten looks back on a successful time at the university: “The most important milestone is that, in the two years I had the privilege of working at TU/e, we were able to make great strides in both areas and that combined, they will ready TU/e for a digital future. Frank will make an excellent successor because he knows the plans and has the knowledge and experience to properly guide the implementation. He has a clear vision of where the priorities lie. My number one tip to him is to take good care of the people at LIS, and the people at LIS will take care of the rest....”