David Temmerman · Introduction to CloudNation

Concept, goal & vision

One mission, built from two companies that now move as one

CloudNation plus IG&H each bring their own strength to this. Together they form the starting point for everything in the plan that follows: not two mission statements side by side, but one direction.

Concept What is already there Mission

Concept

AI first, with two decades of cloud underneath

CloudNation puts AI first: AI agents, automation, a team that works with AI every day in its own job. Under that sit twenty years of cloud native experience on AWS, Azure, GCP. Cloud migration slowly moves to the background, AI takes its place, one deal at a time. Enable, empower, deliver stays the promise, only now with an AI product line that already runs in production, not only in slides.

IG&H combines consulting with technology. They know financial services, retail, healthcare from the inside, with the boardroom contacts that come with it. Together it becomes one platform: IG&H sets the AI strategy at the board table, CloudNation builds it, runs it in the cloud. From boardroom to production, under one roof.

CloudNationAI first, cloud native underneath: AWS plus Azure plus GCP, enable, empower, deliver

IG&HConsulting plus technology, financial services, retail, healthcare, strategy plus execution combined

TogetherAn end to end AI plus digital transformation partner, from plan to production, at scale

What is already there

CloudNation is an AI company with cloud underneath

The direction is clear: the focus moves away from infrastructure toward AI, with the infrastructure coming along as the foundation underneath, deal by deal. The plan does not need to invent a proposition, it needs to sell the one that exists.

Own IP with proof in production

The Enterprise AI Agent Orchestration Framework, self developed, live at real customers with measured results, the base under most of what CloudNation sells. Next to it the AI Gateway, the AI Maturity & Growth Framework with the maturity scan as the entry point, a reusable pension knowledge model.

Propositions with a delivery track record

AI Strategy Lab, Prototyping in a Day, AI Foundation plus Gateway, the CCoE recurring AI service model, AI FinOps, the AI Augmented Way of Working. Every one of them has paying or funded clients today. One off delivery already turns into a continuing relationship.

Team, partners, compliance in place

A dedicated AI team under Tim Roelse, building the IP plus delivering client work with the same hands. AWS Premier Tier plus AI Competency, Microsoft as the most used platform, a direct partnership with Anthropic. An AI compliance policy, AI ready contracts, EU AI Act work done ahead of time.

What this means for sales

Two things stand out

The traditional cloud work at the largest accounts is now AI accelerated, so the upsell conversation is already open there.

The land plus expand pattern already exists: a small first engagement, a clear path to a larger one
In one case sourced by CloudNation, with IG&H joining the delivery team afterwards
That is the model, it only needs to be repeated on purpose

Mission

From PowerPoint to production

Too many organisations get stuck in plans plus slide decks, while the real complexity only starts at execution. Our combined mission is to close that gap: realise cloud plus AI transformations that actually run, in production, at scale, in complex environments, without the customer losing control over their own data plus governance.

From CloudNation

Very strong AI offering, from the infra layer all the way to the business layer
Multi cloud depth across AWS, Azure, GCP, built by engineers who deliver it themselves

From IG&H

Sector knowledge plus boardroom relationships in financial services, retail, healthcare
Strategy connected to execution, so the plan plus the delivery are never two separate tracks

Combined

One promise to the customer: strategy plus execution from one partner
Modernisation without losing control over data plus governance
Growth measured in transformations that run, not decks that get approved

Continue to my proposed approach

My proposed approach

Six steps to a sales machine built on people, process, technology

This is my starting point, not the final plan. The final plan is built in the first 60 days, together with you. What you read here is the direction I bring, in the order I would tackle it.

Where we start 1 Priorities 2 Sales organisation One flow, one CRM 3 Automation 4 Partners 5 Pipeline 6 Everyone sells

Where we start

An honest look at the organisation today

These are the observations behind the plan, drawn from what I have seen myself plus the conversations I have had so far. Not a judgement on anyone, a plan needs an honest baseline to build from.

Commercial model change

The organisation comes from a model built more around resourcing plus MDF funded design plus build projects, not around owned commercial accounts.

Process flow and deal focus

Without an accountable sales owner per account, deals are hard to follow up. The process around a deal needs the same attention as the deal itself.

Hardly any focus on new business

The lack of structure plus the absence of a new business plan mean new logos rarely get dedicated attention today.

Marketing is not account based

Today's approach is general rather than targeted. Account based marketing looks like the far stronger way forward, as the marketing tab sets out.

Existing customers, no clear owner

Existing customers do have a commercial contact, but that contact is not directly accountable for the account. The AWS business in particular runs largely without dedicated sales behind it.

A growth opportunity in recurring services

Room to grow recurring services, managed FinOps for example, on top of the continuous consulting work already in place, rather than staying one off.

What is already there

A strong foundation to build the plan on, with AI as the spearhead

None of the above takes away from what CloudNation already has. The plan does not start from zero, it starts from an AI proposition that already runs in production, with two decades of cloud underneath it.

AI as the spearheadOwn IP live at real customers: the Enterprise AI Agent Orchestration Framework, the AI Gateway, a proposition per step on the maturity ladder, a recurring CCoE model. This is what we lead with, this is what opens doors

An AI team that builds plus deliversA dedicated team under Tim Roelse that builds the IP plus delivers the client work with the same hands. The commercial interface with this team is where discovery, prototype plus hand over get their structure

Cloud underneathDeep, proven capability across AWS, Azure, GCP, trusted by customers to run production workloads. The landing zone under every AI step, never a separate sales motion

Hyperscaler standing plus AnthropicAWS Premier Tier plus AI Competency, Microsoft as the most used platform, a direct partnership with Anthropic. Ready to be turned into a structured partner motion with AI as the opener

Customer relationshipsLong standing relationships built on delivery, even without a clear commercial owner behind them today. At the largest accounts the cloud work is already AI accelerated, so the upsell conversation is open

The IG&H platformSector knowledge, boardroom relationships plus scale that were not there before. The route to carry an AI led strategy from the boardroom to production

Colleagues who know the accountsPeople who already understand the customers better than any new hire ever could, the ones who put the AI proposition in front of them first

Sales people plus process

Where accountable change comes in

The offering changes, so the way of selling has to change with it. This only lands with focused sales people, focused to sales, not shared with delivery on the side. Accountability gets built close to the deals, in the field, not managed from a distance.

People plus process first

Sales starts with accountable people plus a process that carries them. Both get the focus before tooling, before headcount. Everything else in this plan builds on that.

A changing offering asks for sales plus presales

Propositions, recurring services, AI are sold differently than resource based projects. It asks for a sales role that qualifies plus closes, next to presales that translates the proposition into the customer's business. Today both sit with the people who also deliver.

Two processes to assess

The new business process plus the change request process. How a lead becomes a deal, how a change at an existing customer becomes an opportunity. Both get assessed in the first 30 days, then rebuilt where needed.

Accountable sales is a skill we build together

Carrying a number, owning a deal, following up on time: that is new for most colleagues here. That accountability gets built on the job, in the account plan, in the focused review, in the customer meeting, side by side.

Priorities first

Four priorities before the plan

A plan only works when the ground under it is solid. These four come first, they shape every focus area that follows.

IG&H relationship first

A dedicated go to market plan for the IG&H relationship itself, built together with stakeholders on both sides. The integration question is part of the commercial plan, not a separate track.

Alignment on three levels

Strategic: top management endorses the plan. Tactical: middle management owns the follow up. Operational: sales plan plus account plans executed as a process, tracked in the CRM, measured on five KPIs.

Listen first, faster this time

Conversations across the organisation first, with the customer leads, the AI team, the alliance function, IG&H. Build the plan, convince stakeholders one by one, then communicate on a regular rhythm. Specific to CloudNation, never a generic template.

Eat our own dogfood with AI

Automation in processes rather than adding people. Sales on steroids through strong processes plus the right tooling. The Framework, the Gateway, the AI augmented way of working run inside CloudNation first, so the proof point is CloudNation itself.

Roles in wave 1

Sales organisation: the team already here, with two owners on top

No new organisation chart, the team is already here. Two owners on top who work in sync, the player coach plus the managing director. A pair of hands underneath that supports everyone in between plus grows as revenue grows. The P&L plus the future hire plan is something I look forward to aligning together in the coming conversations.

Top 10 plus strategic

Co-sell with account managers on new business. Dedicated management support with a strategic, tactical, operational plan per customer. Focus on growth, integration, alignment with the IG&H platform.

Mid market

Owned by customer leads inside their cloud or functional team, in cross sell mode together with account management. Customer leads get training on the selling motion plus product knowledge.

Long tail

Occasional touch base, self service plus automation first. Managed through AI assisted customer engagement so nobody falls through the cracks.

New business

A focused approach around a named target list: the sectors we want to enter plus the comparable companies of existing customers. Owned by the hunter motion, fed by reference selling, partner leads, IG&H introductions. One account based plan per sector, fast follow up on every lead.

IG&H customer base

Large strategic projects at the IG&H clients, named upfront as its own track. Sold together with the IG&H partners who own the relationship, the AI proposition as the engine, CCoE plus recurring services behind it. Its own go to market plan built with both sides, its own target list, its own pipeline in the shared CRM.

Player coach, together with the managing directorIn sync, with a clear split: the relationship with IG&H sits mainly with the managing director, the player coach does the focused sales underneath. The managing director actively sells along plus follows the pipeline plus the five KPIs together with the player coach. Fewer reporting meetings, one shared view. The player coach owns the plan, carries the top accounts, runs the hunter motion, chairs the focused review, keeps the plan alive on both sides

Customer leads2 FTE, active inside the delivery teams, coached plus managed from sales through one to ones. Commercial owners of the B accounts in cross sell mode, on the A accounts they carry the run, the renewals plus the co-sell. Each works out an active account plan together with me. I look forward to getting to know the maturity of these people

Partner managerAn active sales role, measured on revenue. Day to day co-sell with Microsoft, AWS, Anthropic plus every partner that brings business. With the limited sales capacity we have, he runs the partner sourced deal to the end himself, we work out how the other sales get involved correctly on incoming leads. A revenue target like every other sales seat, so the P&L gets made. The new partners come in through the group alliance function

AI sales, Azure specialistThe existing Azure sales, reshaped into the AI sales role with Azure as specialty. Leads with the AI propositions, cloud underneath. We want that focus, but with this experience plus these years of service it matters enormously to take this person along in the full story, with the same buy in as everyone else

AI sales, AWS specialist (TBH)A second AI sales seat, doubled up next to the Azure specialist, with AWS as its specialty. Knowing both clouds well is hard, the lingo is a language of its own, so we focus each seat on one. Fills the gap on the AWS side, where there is no sales of its own today

Internal hunter plus sales adminSupports everyone above: CRM hygiene, fast follow up, inside sales on the target lists, the hands we need when process plus systems change. Can be a shared resource or external. Starts small, grows with revenue

One flow, one CRM

One flow from lead to hand over, in one CRM, in four blocks

That the processes get integrated with IG&H is my assumption, not a decision I have heard yet. If that is the direction, I would rather take it along in one go than build a CloudNation flow first plus migrate it later. We manage on the customer journey, not on the pipeline: where is each customer, does it get the attention that fits its potential.

CRM integrated with IG&H

The pipeline lives where IG&H lives. One record per customer, one set of stages, one dashboard for both sides.

Accounts, account plans, every lead, the price book in one place
Up plus cross sell at IG&H clients visible to both teams
Partner leads from the group alliance function land in the same flow
Settled in the first 30 days

New business process

How a lead becomes a deal, the same way every time.

Detect: fast follow up standard on every channel, logged the same day
Qualify: business problem, sponsor, budget or funding, moment
Own: one owner per deal, from qualification to hand over
Weekly focused review on the customer journey

Stages with commitments

Six stages, a commitment before every next step, never a feeling.

Lead, discovery, prototype, validated proposal, close, hand over to CCoE
A proposal only goes out validated with the customer: scope, price, funding, capacity
AI team joins at discovery plus prototype, customer lead takes over at hand over
Owner plus commitment per stage, written down once

Bid team plus sync with other teams

Large deals get a team, opportunities at existing customers get a door into the flow.

Technical plus bid team per large deal: architects from Azure, AWS, AI, a delivery lead, sales as owner
Bid or no bid at the start of the proposal stage, not at the end
Change plus upsell stay with the customer leads plus People & Process, small requests via the AI layer
Large or new scope enters this flow as an opportunity, core sales owns the deal

Step 3

Account management automation

People, process, technology, working as one stack. The customer lead stays the human face, an AI layer carries the routine, the price book keeps everything consistent.

CustomerOne known contact, a plan per account, fast follow up
Customer leadOwns the relationship, sells in cross sell mode, escalates what needs the core team
AI support layer
        Sales support, guided selling
Collection management, follow ups, pipeline health
Customer health plan monitoring
Project visits, engagement tracking
Time budget, resource allocation
Change request routing, processing

      
Price book plus service catalogThe foundation every quote, plan, dashboard is built on

Small or routine change requests

Customer self service, processed by the AI layer, visible to the customer lead.

Large or complex change requests

Escalation to the core sales team, handled as an opportunity with a plan behind it.

Step 4

Partners plus alliances: two tracks, one principle

Hyperscaler status is a commercial asset. Competencies, certifications, funding programs are tracked, maintained, defended. The principle is simple: alliances deliver demand, funding, positioning, sales qualifies, owns, closes the deal. Aligned with the group alliance plan, so the two never bite each other.

Group alliance functionOwns the vendor relationship, the program, the funding for the partners not yet filled in (Oracle, OutSystems, Relex) plus the new ones (Google Cloud, OCI, sovereign cloud). Strategic vendor management at group level.

CloudNation salesMicrosoft plus AWS are in place plus run well here, so they stay with us. The same goes for every partner that brings business to CloudNation, with the AI partner Anthropic (Claude) first in line. Sales delivers the day to day co-sell, the tactical plus operational cadence, the lead generation. The people working these partners stay at CloudNation, in the sales rhythm.

The dealEvery partner sourced lead, from either track, gets one named owner at CloudNation who qualifies, owns, closes it. Qualification follows one standard for everyone: the same questions, the same criteria, the same decision to go ahead or to stop. Same CRM, same stages, same focused review. The larger ones I would rather work together with the alliance managers, so every big deal also rebuilds the relationship with that partner.

Partner go to market

One plan per partner, reviewed twice a year, with a joint pipeline target. Partner specific offers built on delivery strengths already proven in production. Funding (MDF, POC budgets, migration programs) sits inside the account plans, owned by the partner manager. The plans agreed with each partner get followed up on two levels, IG&H as well as CloudNation, so both sides work from the same commitments.

Top management alignment

The relationship with each hyperscaler has to live at management level as well, not only with the partner manager. Someone from CloudNation leadership, together with IG&H, knows their counterpart at the partner personally, sits in the quarterly review with them, looks at the joint pipeline, the wins, what we commit to next. Where a relationship has gone quiet, we sit down together for a new joint plan instead of restarting the old one. Management staying involved is what keeps the partner involved.

AI as the opener

Every partner plan leads with AI solutions, that is what opens doors at the hyperscalers, that is where the funding sits. The same solutions run in our own demo environment first, so the proof point is CloudNation itself.

The concrete gap sits at AWS: no sales of its own today, only a partner manager who sells on the side. That is where the player coach steps in first, next to the partner manager, until the AWS motion carries a number of its own.

Step 5

Growing the pipeline

Low hanging fruit first, then a repeatable motion. Personal networks open the first doors, the existing customer base shows us where the next customers are.

Existing customerUnderstand what they do, their vertical, their business model. A customer selling bikes online becomes the template.

Comparable companiesSame vertical, same business model, anywhere in Europe. Italy, Spain, wherever they sit, they get approached directly.

Reference sellingReady made solution packages plus client reference stories. Client to client leverage carries far more weight than a cold approach.

Personal networks as a start

Every salesperson brings a network plus past references, useful for early pipeline. Keeping the network active is a baseline expectation, not a strategy on its own.

Network events as a spearhead

Staying away means staying invisible. Everyone sells at every event, formal or informal: a sharp one line pitch, the ability to engage a prospect, moving the conversation forward.

Target sectors plus fast follow up

A defined list of target clients and sectors, one account based marketing plan per sector, presence at the sector's national events. Every channel carries a fast follow up standard, mailbox included.

This prospecting track is specific to the Netherlands. It runs alongside the established business networks elsewhere, Germany for example, a different motion for a different market.

Step 6

Everyone sells

Account growth becomes a company wide effort. Sales stays owner of the process, every colleague becomes a contributor, with a game to make it fun.

Every colleague outside sales can bring in leads, contacts, clients, or actively support a sale
Points per lead, contact or client brought in, points for active involvement in selling
Points build toward a shared team target, never an individual score
Reaching the target is celebrated together: a team walking weekend or a payout, chosen the moment the target is set

Back to who I am Continue to marketing

Marketing

Marketing that opens doors for sales, one account at a time

Marketing at CloudNation is sales driven. Not a broad campaign hoping the right company sees it, but a targeted motion per account, per vertical, per sector, with IG&H carrying the corporate line above it.

Alignment with IG&H Formats Customers as ambassadors Two house rules

Alignment model

IG&H owns marketing, CloudNation brings the sales driven layer

I assume an integration with IG&H marketing is expected. We can facilitate that: IG&H owns the corporate story, CloudNation adds the sales driven account based marketing on top of it, built around the customer's own business. One story, no double work. What it does need is budget, together with people who have the time to do it. Account based marketing does not happen on the side.

IG&H marketingBrand, positioning, the corporate content calendar, the big stage, the marketing people plus the budget

CloudNation sales driven layerPer account, per vertical, per sector: the target list, the brief, the content need, the follow up. Executed with IG&H marketing, owned by sales

The customerReceives one coherent story, built around their business, from people they know by name

Formats

Formats, with conversion as the goal

Account based marketing is the foundation. That is how we approach new customers as well as existing ones: start from their business, pick the format that fits, work toward a next step. The five formats below are the examples, each one chosen because it converts, not only because it makes us visible.

Leader marketingOngoingPublic speaking, visible experts, thought leadership. The market associates a person, not only a logo, with the topic.

Lunch and learnsRecurring, low thresholdThe easy format to invite a customer or prospect into. Short, practical, hosted by our own experts, repeated on a fixed rhythm.

Executive eventsVP levelSmall, targeted, aimed at the decision makers of the A accounts plus the target list. Quality of the room over size of the room.

Webinars plus workshopsOur conversion engineSmall sessions with high end prospects, always on a clear agenda tied to their business. This is where CloudNation leads in converting: a prospect leaves with a next step, not with a brochure.

Network plus sector eventsIG&H leads, we attendThe big network events are the IG&H stage, we attend them plus sell on the spot. Sector events, conferences, celebration days of the target sectors stay a commercial priority for us. Staying away means staying invisible.

Partner events with Microsoft plus AWS keep running on their funding (MDF, POC budgets), as they do today. IG&H marketing executes the event, we bring the topic plus the offer, we follow up the leads directly.

Customers as ambassadors

Turn customers into ambassadors, that is how we scale

The fastest growth engine we have is a customer who talks about us. Not because we ask, but because they feel seen. Co marketing with customers is therefore a strategic track, not a set of nice gestures: a plan for every A plus B account that turns attention plus appreciation into references, introductions, a shared stage.

Attention plus appreciation

Every A plus B account gets a rhythm of below the line plus activation actions: moments where they feel valued as a person, not only as a contract. Small, personal, consistent. This is the foundation, without it nothing else in this block works.

Ice cream carCandy appreciationsChristmas treeSeasonal momentsBirthday plus milestone momentsOn site activations

A shared stage

We put the customer in front, we stand next to them: joint lunch and learns, a customer speaking at our executive events, a reference story written with them, a joint webinar on their business case. Their success becomes our proof.

From ambassador to growth

An ambassador opens doors we cannot open alone: references in their vertical, introductions to comparable companies, a warm word at their peers plus their board. Every ambassador feeds the account based prospecting track, that is how one satisfied customer becomes three.

One co marketing plan per A plus B account, aligned across multiple stakeholders on the customer side as well as internally, owned by the account manager, supported by the marketing seat in core sales, measured on references plus introductions generated.

Two house rules

What every marketing activity has to respect

Fast lead detection across all channelsEvery channel carries a fast follow up standard, mailbox included. No lead or opportunity sits unanswered. Detecting leads early plus speed of follow up become a tracked habit, not a good intention.

Specific to CloudNation, never a templateEvery content asset, every event, every co marketing plan is built for a named customer, vertical or sector. If it could be sent to anyone, it is not ready.

Back to my proposed approach Continue to growing the team

Growing the team

Process plus tooling first, then people, in the order the business can carry

The ideal team is not built in one hiring round. It grows in three waves, each one paid for by the results of the previous one. The first one is paid for by the shift: strategic alliance management plus marketing move to IG&H, that frees room plus budget for the sales seat. Depending on budget plus the size of the business, the waves speed up or slow down, the order stays the same.

Zoom in first Three waves Growing the people we have Growing the culture

Zoom in first

Nine topics I want to talk through before the waves

The waves below are my proposal on paper. Before anything moves, there are nine topics I want to sit down on with you, understand properly, then talk through. The answers set the pace of the waves.

Budget, P&L, future hires

What is the budget behind sales, what does the P&L look like, how much room is there for future hires, in which order.

Maturity of the customer leads

Where do the customer leads stand today as commercial owners: who is ready to carry a B account, who needs training first.

New business process

How does new business run today, from first contact to signed deal: who qualifies, who quotes, where does it get stuck.

Change process

How are change requests handled today, from a small change at a customer to a large one that needs a new proposal: who decides, how fast.

Upsell process

How does upsell happen today at existing customers: who spots it, who owns it, how does it land in the pipeline.

Product development roadmap

What is on the roadmap for product development, what comes first, which of it is ready for sales to sell, when.

Existing service catalog

What sits in the service catalog today, what is priced, what is missing, how it links to the price book we want as the foundation.

Contract set

Which contracts are in use today, what is standard, what gets negotiated every time, where the paperwork slows a deal down.

Way of working

How the team works together today: sales with delivery, with the customer leads, with IG&H. Meeting rhythm, handovers, who talks to the customer when.

Three waves

Align with what exists, then grow it

The starting point is not a blank page: it is the organisation as it stands today. Every wave aligns what is already there before it adds anything new, so the team moves from today's setup to a fully aligned one step by step, never through one big reorganisation. AI powered sales sits at the centre from wave one, because that is where the efficiency has to come from before headcount does.

Wave 1

Align the base, power it with AI

Process before people. The foundation for everything that follows, built on what the organisation already has.

ABC segmentation, account plans per customer live in the CRM
Customer leads trained as commercial owners of the B accounts
Presales coordinated from sales, capacity from the Azure, AWS, AI teams
Internal hunter plus admin in place, the hands for the process plus system change, growing with revenue
Specialist sales on AI in place from day one: the AI support layer, guided selling, the automations that make the base run far more efficiently
Price book plus service catalog in place as the foundation underneath it
Focused review, fast follow up standard on every channel

Wave 2

Add the specialists

Depending on budget plus size: dedicated seats where the pipeline already proves the need.

One extra sales or account manager, the moment the pipeline carries it
Partner manager carrying a number inside the sales team on Microsoft, AWS plus Anthropic, the group alliance function opening the new partners
Account based prospecting per vertical as a repeatable motion

Wave 3

Scale the motion

The machine runs, now it gets wider, not heavier.

New sectors entered through target lists plus sector events
Joint business with IG&H on the broader platform
Long tail fully AI assisted, customer self service for routine requests
Growth in headcount only where automation cannot carry the load

Growing the people we have

The biggest growth sits in the colleagues already here

Customer leads, engineers, project people: they already know the customers better than any new hire will. Growing the team starts with growing them.

Training for customer leads

The selling motion: cross sell together with account management, when to escalate
Product knowledge across the service catalog, so every conversation can lead somewhere
Working the account plan in the CRM as a process, not as admin
Guided selling with the AI support layer, the routine handled, the relationship kept human

Enablement for everyone

The sharp one line pitch, practised until it comes naturally
How to engage a prospect at an event, how to hand a lead to sales the same day
Reference stories plus solution packages, ready to use in any conversation
Coaching from the core sales team, an open door, credit where it belongs

Growing the culture

One team, one family, one target

The gamified referral motion is not a gimmick. It is how account growth becomes a company wide effort, with a celebration at the end that everyone earned together.

Points per lead, contact or client brought in, points for active involvement in selling
Points build toward one shared team target, never an individual score
The reward is chosen the moment the target is set: a team walking weekend or a payout
Reaching it gets celebrated together, that is the moment the family feeling gets built

Back to my proposed approach Continue to about me

Who I am

Twenty years of building ecosystems, partnerships, commercial teams

I am David, based in Ghent, Belgium. My background is partnership strategy, ecosystem building, commercial leadership. I grew up commercially at Combell during its high growth phase, learning how a hosting company scales without losing its family feel. At Sentia I built the AWS plus Microsoft partner ecosystems from the ground up, right through to the Accenture acquisition.

My time goes to customers, partners, the people who make the deals happen. Internal meetings that do not move a customer or a deal forward, I avoid as much as I can. Politics I hate: say what you think, to the person it concerns, then get on with it.

What drives me: people, clarity, long term over short term. Give me a team that trusts each other, a clear set of expectations, a shared destination, then results follow.

CombellCommercial roles during the scale up years, ecosystem plus channel

SentiaBuilt the AWS plus Microsoft partner ecosystems, up to the Accenture acquisition

Cloud plus hyperscalersYears of hands on experience with AWS, Azure, the partner programs behind them

Based in Amsterdam during the weekDutch speaking, at home in the Benelux market, comfortable across Europe

How I work

Three principles you will notice from the first week

One team, one family is not a slogan for me. It is the way of working: people before process, clarity before speed, trust before targets.

Listen first, then communicate

I start with conversations, not conclusions. First I want to understand the business, the people, the accounts, the partners. Only then do I build a plan, convince stakeholders one by one, then communicate clearly on a regular rhythm so the plan stays alive.

Clarity on expectations

Everyone deserves to know what is expected of them, what they can expect from me, how we measure progress. No surprises, no hidden agendas. Clear roles, clear targets, clear follow up in the CRM.

Support people on the journey

Growth is a journey we take together. I coach, enable, remove obstacles. I celebrate wins as a team, I take responsibility when things go wrong. Sales is the owner of the process, everyone else is a welcome contributor.

Vision, mission, the acquisition

Alignment comes first, then the commercial plan

CloudNation now belongs to IG&H. That changes the playing field: new shareholders, a broader platform, new customers to serve together. I see the integration question as part of the commercial plan, not as a separate track. Before we talk numbers, we align on vision plus mission: what CloudNation stands for inside IG&H, where we want to be in three years, what we say no to. Once that is shared, priorities follow in three pillars.

People

Customer leads trained as commercial owners of their accounts, in cross sell mode with account management
Microsoft, AWS plus Anthropic co-sell inside the sales team, carrying a number, visible on both sides of the partnership, the group alliance function opening the new partners
Sales per proposition, AI first, cloud underneath, one small core with a player coach on top

Process

Account plans per customer, executed as a process, tracked with data in the CRM, measured on clear KPIs
A go to market plan for the IG&H relationship itself, built with stakeholders on both sides
Account based marketing as the leading motion, aligned with the IG&H corporate marketing line

Technology

A price book plus service catalog as the foundation for guided selling
An AI support layer for customer leads: sales support, pipeline health, customer health, change requests
Eat our own dogfood: CloudNation demonstrates internally what it sells externally

Predictable growth from the existing base, new business through the IG&H platform, a sales machine built on process plus tooling rather than headcount.

I ask

Patience in the listening phase, trust in the long term over the quick win.

My first 90 days

Listen, build, move

Three phases, each with a clear outcome. The rhythm is deliberate: I would rather start a little later with everyone on board than start fast with half the team behind me.

Days 1 to 30

Listen

Conversations across the whole organisation, no plan yet, only questions.

Meet every colleague, every customer lead, every alliance lead
Visit the top accounts together with their account managers
Understand the IG&H vision, the stakeholders, the integration expectations
Map the Microsoft, AWS plus Anthropic motion, align with the group alliance function on the new partners

Days 31 to 60

Build

The plan takes shape, specific to CloudNation, never a template.

Sales plus marketing plan for the existing base, upsell, new business, partnerships
Go to market plan for the IG&H relationship, built with both sides
Account segmentation, roles, targets, KPIs per customer
Convince the stakeholders one by one, adjust where needed

Days 61 to 90

Move

Plan agreed, communicated, first results visible.

First account plans live in the CRM, weekly pipeline review running
First quick wins from the existing base, first joint partner opportunities
Communication rhythm in place: monthly update, quarterly review
First AI supported sales process running internally

After day 90

The plan becomes the way we work: reviewed every quarter, adjusted with data, celebrated as a team when targets are met. One team, one family, one direction.

What I ask of you

A few things that make the start a good one

I bring energy, experience, a clear way of working. What I need from you fits in five lines.

Reach out to me directly

Openness in the conversations, tell me what really goes on
In the coming conversations: align the P&L plus the hiring organisation together, so we start with the same numbers plus the same team in mind
Honest feedback, early rather than late, to my face rather than around me
Patience during the listening phase, the plan comes after the questions
Energy once the plan is agreed, then we move together

Back to growing the team Back to the start