In August 2022, three prominent testing companies – Bartosz, PTWEE, and Squerist – took a major step: they decided to join forces. Their shared ambition? To create a leading collaboration in the Dutch testing market, while each company retained its culture and autonomy. This collaboration gained an extra dimension in December 2023 when the Test Automation Group, consisting of deTesters, TestCoders, and TechChamps, joined the group. After two years of fruitful cooperation, it was time to give the powerful combination of six organizations a name: Sofius.
Creating more value together
Sofius originated from a strong need to create more value together, both for our customers and employees. In a market that is increasingly consolidating, we are simply stronger together. With our shared knowledge and expertise, we can serve customers more broadly and better. At the same time, through Sofius, we can offer our employees more opportunities and development possibilities.
“Sofius originated from a need for partnerships of strong, independent, and knowledge-driven companies where people are central.”
Shared drivers, different specialisms
It is no coincidence that these six labels specifically joined forces. Our paths crossed regularly over the past ten years, and this always resulted in pleasant collaboration. The drivers are aligned, and the relationship between us is positive, with mutual respect for each other’s work. Vincent: ‘Although software testing is our shared core business, we complement each other well with our own specialisms.’ This diversity makes the collaboration powerful and versatile.
Collaboration, not Integration
Although there is intensive collaboration, the six labels operate independently and maintain their own teams, culture, employment conditions, and ‘way of working’. Vincent: ‘We do not believe that integrating company cultures and ways of working is successful by definition. Sticking a new name on it and continuing completely as one organization has never been our ambition.’
However, the different labels have defined overarching core values for Sofius. These cultural values are primarily what connects us across the organizations.
“With Sofius, all labels create more possibilities for their own employees and more opportunities for their customers, while retaining their independence and distinct identity.”
The Advantages of Sofius for the Labels
Sofius brings many advantages to the labels. For example, the economies of scale provide greater commercial impact, such as when winning tenders or collaborating with suppliers. Additionally, Sofius facilitates knowledge sharing across the labels, allowing employees to learn from each other and benefit from each other’s expertise. With this, we can support our customers even better with software quality issues. Moreover, by working together, each label gains access to a larger client base, resulting in a greater chance of securing even more enjoyable and diverse assignments.
In short, with Sofius, we are stronger, we learn from each other, we serve our customers even better, and together we form a powerful market leader.
Do you have questions about (the creation of) Sofius or would you like to learn more about the individual labels? Do not hesitate to contact us.
