10 years Riege Software in the Netherlands

Becoming the Digital Standard in logistics

The success story of Riege Software in the Netherlands began over 30 years ago, when Henk and Martin co-founded a company called Westlake Systems BV, later CargoMate BV, that provided a software solution for freight forwarders in the Netherlands. After selling the company in 2004, they got in contact with Johannes Riege, the founder of Riege Software and creator of Scope and decided to join the Riege family by opening a branch office in the Netherlands in 2011.

Although the transport management system Scope was mainly focused on air and sea freight at that time, some Dutch customers were exclusively using the customs modules in the first few years. Therefore, the first priority of the Riege team in the Netherlands was to make these customs modules fully compliant for the Dutch market.

Welcoming new team members

In 2012 Nardo Bezemer joined the Dutch team. Nardo also looks back on a long career in freight forwarding and has worked with Henk and Martin for many years before joining Riege. Soon after Nardo, Matanja van der Wart came in. Matanja has a strong knowledge of software for freight forwarding companies, therefore she was happy to join the support team. A little less than a year later, Nora Termorshuizen touched down in the Riege NL team. Nora also has a freight forwarding background as she worked for many years at a freight forwarding company at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport before joining Riege in the Netherlands. Less visible but not unseen, Aranea Boorsma takes good care of HR and Finance in the background.

Digital solutions will mark the future

There has been a noticeable increase in the demand for digital solutions, which are able to connect different systems in the past few years, especially in terms of data sharing and electronic data exchange between different companies. “If you look at the interchange of data between the forwarders and their customers, you will find increasing numbers of data exchange and an increasing demand for a solid connection between systems. Connecting systems is one of the most requested features a freight forwarding software needs to be able to provide right now,” Martin Bos says. By removing the problem of having to switch between systems, Riege offers the perfect solution for seamless and borderless data exchange.

The challenges of a pandemic

In 2020 Corona was all over the place. The impact it has on worldwide economy, on our daily lives and especially on freight forwarding is enormous to this day. Despite the difficulties of an ongoing pandemic, there were hardly no noticeable changes with existing customers for Riege in the Netherlands. Against all odds, they have succeeded in gaining 20 new customers, ranging from small to middle-sized companies in 2020. The only difference is that most of the company’s employees work from home nowadays. Henk Boorsma, co-founder and managing director of Riege Software International BV says, “Our customer’s branch seems to handle the Corona situation pretty well. We see more users working from home, splitting their freight forwarding teams into people working from the office and people working from home, in different shifts.”

A glimpse into the future

In March 2021 Riege Netherlands is introducing its new office in Bodegraven. This strategically well-placed office is situated nicely between Amsterdam’s Airport Schiphol and the Port of Rotterdam. Throughout the past ten years, Riege has established a solid position as a provider of freight forwarding software on the market in the Netherlands and is looking into a bright future. “We will cross the magical line of more than 150 companies using Scope with over 1,500 users in the Benelux in 2021, the year that we will be active in the Benelux for ten years,” Henk Boorsma says.

Together with CargoHub and Inholland, Riege Software is currently working on a new digital platform for Schiphol Airport. The upcoming CDM program will offer the possibility to reduce waiting times for trucks, improve the scheduling and coordination of transports, and speed up handling at the airport. Due to the introduction of a new legislation, the last few years have shown a significant rise in the number of businesses transitioning to e-invoicing across Europe. Dutch Riege customers will be able to send and receive UBL invoices without delays likely with the next update in Scope. The new feature in Scope enables a frictionless and secure exchange of electronic invoices using the standard UBL format.