This year, Be Informed celebrates its 20th anniversary. It’s a chance to look back at the ideas that started the company, the challenges that tested them, and the people who helped carry them forward.
For this conversation, we sat down with Gartjan Grijzen, our Chief Technology Officer. Twenty years on, he’s still working on the challenge Be Informed set out to solve: helping organizations understand the rules behind their work and turn them into processes they can manage and change.
1. What were some of the biggest challenges in building Be Informed during the early years?
The biggest challenge was making a complex idea understandable and useful.
When we started in 2006, organizations were focused on getting control of their data, processes, and IT infrastructure. But one thing was missing from those conversations.
“But nobody talked about rules.”
That meant we had to explain the problem before we could explain our solution. People didn’t necessarily realize what was missing.
And explaining the idea was only the beginning. We had to build a product that could handle complex rules and regulations, while still being usable for people who weren’t experts in the platform.
Trust mattered just as much. We worked with governments, banks and other large organizations, where our software could play an important role in daily operations. Customers needed to trust what we built and the people building it.
We had a big vision, but we also had to deliver something that worked for customers. Finding that balance between vision and practical steps has been a recurring challenge throughout our twenty years. I think it still is today.
2. Do you ever find it difficult to transmit your working values to your team?
I’ve always been quite open with my team about what I’m trying to achieve.
For me, it starts with explaining the goal. Once people understand where we want to go, we can talk about what that means for their work and the task in front of them.
If you start with only the task, people may know what to do, but they don’t always have the context to make their own decisions.
I want my colleagues to understand the bigger picture so they can challenge an idea, make a judgment, and help us find a better way.
I take the same approach with customers. I’d rather be open about a difficult problem than pretend everything will go smoothly, as I said: “It won’t be a smooth ride.”
There will always be unexpected things along the way. Talking about them honestly is part of how you build trust.
3. Which achievements make you most proud when you reflect after these 20 years?
I’m proud that the problem we identified twenty years ago still matters.
Organizations need to understand the knowledge behind their rules and processes. They need to know what changes when a rule changes. That was the issue we set out to work on, and we’ve stayed with it.
It hasn’t been a straight journey. We’ve had to rethink ideas, solve problems we didn’t expect, and improve the platform as we learned. But we’ve kept our eyes on what we wanted to achieve.
It means a lot that some customers have stayed with us for many years and that our work helps them in their daily operations.
I’m proud of the people at Be Informed too. My colleagues don’t just agree with an idea because someone suggests it. They ask questions. They want to know whether we could do it better.
We trust each other enough to have those conversations, and that helps us deliver what we promise to customers.
4. Have you experienced any setbacks that made you rethink how you approached something?
Many. Learning that your own way of thinking isn’t everyone’s way of thinking was one of the first.
I’m an architect, so I think in boxes and arrows. When I want to understand something, I draw a model. That way of thinking influenced how we designed the early tools.
Then I began working with legal experts, who work with text. I could see why they approached things that way, but it was completely different from how my mind worked.
It brought home something simple: “Not everybody can read models.”
We had to take that seriously if we wanted people to use the product.
Some things turned out to be harder than we first thought. In 2008, we believed a business design could be turned straight into a working application.
It wasn’t that simple. We had to figure out what was missing and change our approach. There were other difficult moments over the years, but we kept going and learned as we went.
You can spend a lot of time thinking about what you should have done differently. But you can’t change what happened.
At some point, you have to ask where you are now and what the next step should be.
5. Is there a customer success story you’re especially proud of that really represents Be Informed?
I wouldn’t pick just one customer. What I’m proud of is seeing customers gain control of a complex process and become able to change it more quickly.
One meeting has stayed with me. A consultant was sitting with several experts who all worked with the same process. Within fifteen minutes, they were disagreeing about how it worked. Each person had a different view.
So they began drawing the process together. As they put the steps and constraints on the board, they could see exactly where their understanding differed.
By the end of the meeting, they had agreed on the process. They could also see where it needed to be flexible for different situations.
I like that kind of moment. You start with people who aren’t sure they’ll agree, and you end with something they understand together.
It also shows why the people doing the work need to be involved in building the solution. They should be able to look at it and tell us when it doesn’t reflect what happens in practice. That gives them a real say in the system they’ll use.
Looking back at 20 years of Be Informed
Technology has changed enormously since Be Informed began, and so has the team. Yet Gartjan’s focus has remained consistent: understand the customer’s real problem and create something they can genuinely use and trust.
For him, those twenty years are just as much about the people behind the work. Colleagues who challenge ideas, customers who bring their expertise, and teams who work together to solve difficult problems.
That way of working comes down to a simple principle Gartjan has carried with him throughout the years: “If we make a promise, we keep a promise.”
