Since 1982: how workplace automation changed

Newblend started in 1982 with software development and workplace automation, at a time when a computer on a desk needed explaining. More than forty years later the technology is unrecognisable. The customer's question barely is.

From machine to service

In the eighties it was about the machine: which computer, which software, how do we get it running. In the nineties the network was added, with servers in a utility cupboard and cabling through suspended ceilings. Then came virtualisation, and after that the cloud.

The shift underneath: from delivering things to delivering a working service. A workplace is now a package with management, security and agreed response times, not a box on a desk.

What really changed

Three things changed fundamentally:

• Security is daily work. A virus scanner used to be enough. Now detection, response and monitoring are a continuous process, 24 hours a day.
• The office boundary has gone. People work at home, at customers and on site. Identity has become more important than the wall around the network.
• Accountability comes with it. Customers, insurers and legislation ask for demonstrable measures. Technology without records is no longer enough.

What stayed the same

What customers want is still: that it works, that someone fixes it when it does not, and that this someone knows their situation. That is why we keep working with a fixed point of contact per customer and with our own engineers, even when that model looked less efficient than a ticket factory.

Also unchanged: the advice has to stand apart from what we want to sell. That was true in 1982 and with the rise of AI tooling it may have become more important still.

And now AI

The current wave resembles earlier ones: many promises, fast-moving suppliers, and customers who mainly want to know what it means for them. So our approach is the same as with the cloud migrations of ten years ago: start with the process, build something small that works, and make sure people use it.

What that delivers in concrete terms is on our page about AI & automation.

Where we stand

Three offices: Eindhoven, Breda and Antwerp. Customers from one to roughly 150 workplaces, in professional services, logistics, trade, manufacturing, retail and healthcare. ISO 27001:2023 certified and working in line with NIS2. And still a family business, now in its second generation.