We believe that real progress happens when people align around purpose, trust, and shared outcomes. Working alongside customers in high-stakes, high-complexity environments has taught us a fundamental truth: success isn’t something you hand over—it’s something you build together. Over the past decades, we’ve grown into trusted experts in cloud, data & AI, software, and security.
Our guiding principle is clear: 100% customer satisfaction.
It’s not a stretched goal. It’s our only KPI. Why? Because when satisfaction is 100%, value is real. And value, not velocity, is the true measure of progress in a mission-critical world. That’s why we don’t treat relationships as transactions. We treat them as long-term investments.
This mindset—building together, owning the outcome, and committing fully to what the customer values—has shaped how we work. To ensure this mindset scales across teams and customers, we knew it needed more than intent—it needed structure: that’s why The Value Playbook was created by Pleun de Goede.
Drawing on in-depth internal research by Pleun de Goede and Ilja Heitlager, real-world experience, and direct customer feedback, this playbook turns our relational philosophy into a practical framework. It guides our teams in understanding what drives loyalty, how trust is built, and how a shared vision of the future creates outcome-driven partnerships.
This isn’t a theory. It’s how we work. It’s how we grow. And it’s how we help our customers move forward—with clarity, confidence, and results that matter.
Trust and shared purpose—not only technology—drive business progress.
The research behind the vision
Our Value Playbook wasn’t born in a boardroom. It was built from the ground up since the start of Schuberg Philis.
We researched what made our strongest partnerships succeed—through structured conversations with colleagues, deep dives into customer relationships, and qualitative studies tracing how trust, satisfaction, and loyalty are truly built over time.
We looked for patterns in moments of success and transformation. We analyzed not just what we delivered, but how we delivered it—how we showed up, collaborated, listened, adapted, and aligned.
The research revealed something essential:
The quality of our relationship is what enables the quality of our outcomes.
From those insights, we shaped a simple model: loyalty lays the groundwork, a shared vision builds the bridge, and results-driven partnership is where it leads.
Loyalty: The foundation for value
At the heart of our customer relationships is loyalty. Not as a byproduct of satisfaction, but as an intentional, measurable outcome made up of three interrelated forces: trust, commitment, and satisfaction.
Trust
We build trust through personal connection, transparency, and a strong cultural fit. Customers trust us when they sense that we understand them—not just their IT landscape, but their organizational values, business realities, and unspoken challenges. We build that trust by listening first, showing up consistently, and delivering with integrity.
- What the research shows: Trust is strengthened when customers perceive a personal bond, when we demonstrate competence, and when openness and honesty guide every interaction.
Commitment
Commitment is more than dedication—it’s shared engagement. It shows in how deeply we immerse ourselves in the customer’s world, how proactively we collaborate, and how consistently we follow through. It’s about showing we’re not just here to do our job—we’re here to do the job together.
- What the research shows: Commitment is driven by mutual interaction, shared working, a stable relationship over time, and the perception that we’re all in—technically, operationally, and emotionally.
Satisfaction
Satisfaction is the outcome of aligned expectations and meaningful delivery. But in our work, it’s more than a happy moment—it’s a measure of strategic relevance.
Customers are satisfied when we deliver quality that fits their goals, when we solve the right problems in the right way, and when we adapt to evolving priorities.
- What the research shows: Satisfaction is influenced by how well we understand customer goals, how clearly we define shared objectives, and how consistently we deliver quality across service, application, and support.
Loyalty = trust + commitment + satisfaction
This equation isn’t symbolic—it’s structural. Our teams think about relationships proactively and systematically. And it creates a shared language for diagnosing what’s working and where we need to deepen the relationship.
Shared future vision
But loyalty isn’t the end state—it’s the launchpad. Once that trust is in place, we can shift from delivering what’s asked to co-creating what’s needed: a shared future vision.
A shared future vision isn’t a roadmap we hand to the customer. It’s something we develop with them, through workshops, open-ended conversations, design sprints, and mutual reflection. It’s where our industry knowledge, technical expertise, and business curiosity converge.
And it only works because of the trust and commitment already in place.
- What the research shows: Customers only engage in shared visioning when they already feel a strong relationship—when they trust our intentions, feel heard, and are satisfied with the service delivered so far.
This is where our most fundamental principle kicks in: “Diagnose before you describe.” We resist the urge to rush into solutions. We don’t describe what we can do until we’ve deeply understand the customer’s challenges, goals, and context. That diagnostic mindset isn’t a step—it’s our operating philosophy.
Business outcome-driven partnerships
When we get all this right, something rare and powerful emerges: a business outcome-driven partnership.
This is where we stop measuring progress in features delivered or tickets closed—and start measuring it in strategic outcomes achieved.
Together with our customers, we define what those outcomes look like: market adaptability, customer experience, compliance-by-design, time-to-value/market, resilience. We build toward them—combining technical mastery with relational fluency.
- What the research shows: Business outcome partnerships emerge when both parties share vision, co-own success metrics, and operate in a space of mutual trust and accountability.
This is the highest level of partnership—and it’s where we aim to operate with every customer. Because this is where the real value lies: when IT isn’t just aligned with business strategy—it’s driving it.
One KPI. One standard.
Throughout it all, we hold ourselves to one standard. The only KPI that matters:
100% customer satisfaction.
That might sound ambitious. But it’s a strategic principle. Because in mission-critical environments, anything less than total satisfaction puts value at risk. When satisfaction is total, loyalty follows. Vision follows. And outcomes are delivered with trust and velocity.
The Value Playbook is not just a model. It’s a mindset.
It’s how we build. It’s who we are. It’s how we deliver progress.
It’s how we move forward—together.
