24 Feb Adsysco makes the Netherlands more social with software. Dirk Winkel explains how.

Nice of you to answer a few questions, Dirk. It is the month of Valentine’s Day. Did you surprise anyone on that day?

Valentine’s Day: I don’t do that, it has become a commercial thing, just like Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. Nonsense!

This newsletter is about the small gesture. Can you remember a moment when someone with a small gesture moved you very much?

Sure, but maybe differently than you think: when my daughter smiles or bursts out laughing, I’m touched because she’s having a good time. Fortunately, there are many such moments.

You work for the company Adsysco where software is made. In the past years that we have worked together, we have come to know you as an enthusiastic man with enormous experience in the world of welfare organizations and volunteers. I think you also travel all over the Netherlands to talk to people. How come? Can you explain what exactly AdSysCo does?

AdSysCo is an automation company in the social domain with customers in welfare, healthcare and recently libraries. We make software to support the primary processes: collective activities, voluntary efforts and individual customer support. Thousands of professionals and volunteers in the social domain work with our solutions every day. If we add up all our customers, there are approximately 3.5 million people in the databases in the Netherlands. These customers are located all over the country, so I travel many kilometers.

What is your role within the Pharaon PlusBus study? What do you hope to find out?

Within the study, we make the customer portal available to the participants. Through this portal, participants can inform themselves about the PlusBus outings and sign up for them. They can also share experiences with others through this portal. The customer portal is intended to strengthen the digital connection between the organization and participants. It is a personalized communication channel that allows the organization to inform their participants about activities (and other news) in a customized manner. For example, if Mrs. Nijboer is interested in trips to museums and exhibitions, then she will receive that information and others will not. We hope to discover whether the customer portal around the PlusBuses meets a need or how the use is experienced and can possibly be improved.

Our last question is always the same. Our studies are about healthy and happy aging. What do you do to take good care of yourself?

Actually a little too little, although I amply meet the 10,000-step requirement, I can regularly be found on the golf course, I ice skate in the winter and in the summer I cycle every day at 6 o’clock in the morning (straight out of bed, yes). I also hardly eat carbs and I drink a lot of water. But when it comes to movement, I need to take it up a notch.

Haha, you call that too little exercise?

Well, there is enough exercise in itself, but kilos have to be lost. Maybe I should then restrict the intake, but life is so delicious ?