Tamara Berkers, new managing director at Onetrail TPN: “Looking for growth in a renewed organization in 2021”
On January 1, 2021, Tamara Berkers officially assumed the role as Onetrail TPN’s new managing director. This was also the starting point for various organizational changes, with which Onetrail entered 2021. These innovations are all part of a growth plan that Tamara has had in mind for some time already. This plan was partly implemented in 2020 and will be continued in 2021.
Which organizational changes are involved?
Tamara: “To begin with, I am taking over Onetrail TPN’s full operational management from Jeroen Moonen. Jeroen remains closely involved in the company through his new role as portfolio manager at our shareholder TSS. Jeroen will further work on shaping Onetrail’s business unit CIS and also help in the team within TSS that deals with acquisitions. He already indicated some time ago that he wanted to be less involved in operational matters and was looking for a coaching role. I was asked to take over his role, to which I replied enthusiastically yes.”
“In the end, Onetrail runs through my veins. I have known the company inside out since 2010 and after spending some years in Aruba, I returned in 2016 to become the sales manager. I’m now really looking forward to using all the experience I have gained. In addition, I have benefited greatly from the fact that we are part of TSS. At TSS, I have been able to follow various master classes in HR and finance and they have shared many best practices with us. This has been very useful for my ambitions for Onetrail.”
A renewed organization
The appointment of Tamara coincides with a reshaping of the activities in the field of customer service, support, and product development, so that they better reflect what customers need now.
“You should not call a customer only if you want to sell something”
Tamara: “We have set up a new customer care department with two separate parts: one aimed at supporting our day-to-day services, which involves more than just technical support, but also proactive customer contact, and one that focuses on customer questions about a specific problem that requires consultancy. This new department is headed by Sandra de Vries and will ensure that we know even better what keeps our customers awake and what they need. We realize this among others by offering them fixed points of contact. We also want to strengthen informal contacts with customers.”
“In 2020, we noticed that many customers had to work very hard to keep everything running. For some customers, the pandemic led to a lot of extra activities and for others it was just the opposite. You can find that out by just giving them a call and asking how things are going now that the world has completely changed. We experienced this in 2020 and we will continue to work on it. You should not call a customer only if you want to sell something. In addition, we will also continue to work on our focus on product development in 2021. Cor Zijlstra will continue to take the lead here. Last year, we started involving customers in product development through our customer panels. We definitely will continue this 2021, also in view of the enthusiasm among customers to collaborate with us on this.”
More ease of use and less complexity
One of the specific targets in the field of product development according to Tamara is to reduce the complexity of the Onetrail products.
“We definitely want to look at broadening or offer in order to take on our role within the entire chain”
Tamara: “We want to offer customers more user friendliness and we want to connect them more quickly. Our network has an incredible number of possibilities. The trick is to align this to what is now needed in the market. It’s clear our network with its 12,000 participants has enormous potential. It now still plays primarily a role in the middle of the supply chain. We definitely want to look at broadening it in order to take on our role within the entire chain. Think of manufacturers and the emergence of marketplaces. Furthermore, we plan to expand in Europe. Many Onetrail customers are active in Europe and with a local office we can service them ever better.”
“All in all, we look towards the future with much enthusiasm. Hopefully, we will be able to speak in person again in the course of 2021. One on one or at a customer day. I’m already looking forward to that!”