From onboarding to indispensable: ZAS shares its experience

Cybersecurity has become a critical priority for all organisations, especially hospitals. With thousands of employees, complex medical systems, and sensitive patient data, robust security is not a luxury but an absolute necessity. The Ziekenhuis aan de Stroom (ZAS) group collaborates with Takto to enhance its digital resilience. In this testimonial, Ken Bontinck, Manager of the IT Security Office at ZAS, shares how the partnership began, how the integration of the Takto consultant progressed, and why this approach has proven to be a significant added value for his team.

Cybersecurity in healthcare has been receiving more attention lately. Why is it crucial for an organisation like ZAS to address this proactively and structurally?

The recent media attention around cybersecurity mainly highlights why incident response is so critical. For an organisation like ZAS, this is not a theoretical discussion. We are a very large organisation with more than 10,000 employees, and everyone has their own perspective on security. What you see and experience on a daily basis is extremely diverse. Alerts from various systems are constantly going off, and someone needs to monitor and analyse them in a structured way.

What makes cybersecurity in a hospital fundamentally different from other sectors?

In some ways, a hospital can be compared to industry, because you deal with a lot of operational technology: elevators, technical installations, and so on. In the medical sector, we refer to medical operational technology. These systems often receive less maintenance and sometimes cannot even be monitored because it would void the manufacturer’s warranty, which of course poses risks for patient safety.

On top of that, you are dealing with doctors, a very specific group with enormous responsibility towards patients. They work under high pressure and have little time to deal with technical security matters. A hospital is also a public place, comparable to a train station: people can connect to the Wi-Fi and attempt to access the network. All of this makes the environment particularly complex.

Over the years, we have worked with many different consultants, but what really makes the difference here is the guidance. It directly contributes to the consultant’s success in their role.

You have probably worked with various kinds of external IT support. What makes Takto stand out compared to previous collaborations?

Over the years, we have worked with many different consultants, but what really makes the difference here is the guidance. It directly contributes to the consultant’s success in their role. With traditional consultants, you often see that they are quickly left to their own devices with minimal follow-up. The consultant we have today through Takto; you’re not getting him back (laughs).

The social context also influences the situation. It’s not a strategic concern, but in practical terms, it makes a real difference. We clearly observe the added value, particularly within the IT department.

What expectations did you have when starting this collaboration, and how have they evolved?

To be honest, our expectations were quite modest. Everyone has experienced a colleague who required more guidance or had more difficulty integrating into the team. When you hear about autism, you might quickly assume onboarding will be more difficult. We mainly needed additional people, but not additional problems.

Those expectations were entirely surpassed. The team would protest if the consultant had to leave today. It’s a perfect match. We would never have dared to anticipate that beforehand.

The consultant started at the end of March, and by the end of April, we already didn’t want to let him go.

When beginning a collaboration, it can be challenging to judge how quickly everything will run smoothly. How did you experience the onboarding and integration?

The guidance from Takto at the start was very helpful. Before the consultant started, there was a presentation on how to approach the collaboration, which initially raised more concerns than it resolved.

The consultant started at the end of March, and by the end of April, we already didn’t want to let him go (laughs). He quickly became indispensable. He is extremely focused and technically strong: after two weeks, in some areas, he already knew more than I did. He has the time and focus to specialise.

Over time, he has also begun suggesting improvements to his work on his own initiative. His role continues to evolve: nowadays, he concentrates heavily on incident response, but in the future, I see him developing into a security engineer role.

What have you learned as an IT manager from working with neurodivergent profiles in such a critical context?

What I mainly learned is that it absolutely works. In fact, it’s a real added value. Our expectations have truly been exceeded. We don’t want to let him go.

In some ways, the collaboration even works better than with “traditional” employees. Of course, up to a certain point, but as a complement within a team it works remarkably well.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

The Takto support team, both the account manager and the job coach, are very pleasant to work with. You can really tell it’s a social company, and that helps. The social aspect is genuinely embedded in the way they work.