Case study: Noordhuis

“For specialized audiovisual solutions we gladly call upon Epatra”. That is what Iwan Prij concludes. Iwan has worked for Noordhuis for over 20 years, a full-service office supplier. “We are a regional player in the north-east of the Netherlands. We have four branches, with our headquarters in Meppel where, among other things, the department for the sale of audiovisual solutions is located. Iwan Prij is an account manager for audiovisual solutions at Noordhuis. “The Audiovisual department is largely active in education. But we also do projects in healthcare and in the business market.”

The audiovisual department deals with very diverse audiovisual solutions. “At the moment, however, we primarily deal with touch screens.” Traditionally, the focus was more on the beamer, for example in classrooms and meeting rooms. “Now we actually only see beamers in very large halls or auditoriums. Much more know-how is involved and other skills are needed for the installations. In such cases we are very happy that we can call upon Epatra! We partly have the knowledge, but the development in this market is very fast. We are too small a company. We simply cannot keep up”

The project management is different for each project

Iwan is very positive about the project management by Epatra as well as about their contact person, Sander van Duren. The degree of project management differs per project. Sometimes they are a technical discussion partner who are very personally involved with the client. “Sometimes Sander comes along to explain things personally to the client. That is really great, because he has so much technical knowledge”. Other times, Iwan is the one who contacts the client and then sends Sander information, with or without photo material. “And then I get to hear their advice and they make an offer, which I send to the client. 9 out of 10 times it becomes an assignment.”

Iwan is not only positive about the client contact, but also about the installations. “The nice thing about Epatra is that they can also install it immediately. They have a lot of knowledge and just know everything about the ancillary technical issues. They do it every day and are very professional.”

For several Years

Noordhuis has been doing business with Epatra for years and many projects have already been completed. Iwan himself now has experience from four projects with Epatra. “And that went very well every time. There was always very pleasant contact and if something needed to be adjusted, the installers were also prepared to brainstorm and give advice.”

Noordhuis’ clients share this positivity. “We have very satisfied clients, even if an external party does the installation. We often say in all honestly: this is so specialized, we have a very good partner for that. And the client is happy to receive professional guidance.”

The great thing about working with Epatra is that your own knowledge is also expanding. “I just learn a lot from the contact with Sander. For example, we now often do the inventories ourselves and then we receive a quotation from Epatra based on our collected client information. In this way we can do the sales process ourselves and the installations as much as possible, too. As it gets more complex, we outsource it to Epatra.”

Noordhuis is very positive about the collaboration with Epatra for various reasons. “We are extremely satisfied with the business we do with Epatra. We would certainly recommend that. The assortment of Epatra is good. They provide expert advice and show that they have knowledge of the latest solutions in the field of audiovisual resources. Furthermore, they have swift and pleasant communication and offer good sales support. We are very satisfied with their professional installations.”