5G Hub and Strict join forces in cooperation agreement  

5G Hub and Strict join forces in cooperation agreement  

The agreement details the use of each other’s relationships, networks, and expertise. It also predicts the use of 5G Hub’s space and facilities and the joint organization of events and seminars. The mutual strengthening agreement was signed by both parties in a virtual ceremony. Gert-Jan Elzinga, representing Strict, and John Zijlmans, on behalf of the 5G Hub, explain the core ideas of the alliance and what they intend to reach with it.    

The 5G Hub is an ecosystem of parties getting together to promote and find new, creative uses for 5G. Now, the center has signed a partnership with Strict, an independent consultancy company with a passion for making technology work for people and organizations. Gert-Jan Elzinga, Strict’s Director and Managing Partner, explains that this partnership is extremely interesting for the company since it is an opportunity to liaise with both existing and new contacts. He describes the 5G Hub as “a melting pot of innovators and new ideas. A marketplace and a wide array of knowledge and product partners.” In his view, being part of an ecosystem is the best way to achieve innovation: “I like the idea of working together on the development of new concepts in such an environment. Co-creation is also a bit of a buzz word. However, that’s how innovation works. I see it already happening,” he declares.  

John Zijlmans, Key Account Manager for VodafoneZiggo, highlights 5G Hub’s role as a platform to develop the ecosystem together: “[the 5G Hub] is not a technology center or demo center, but it’s a place to bring parties together and discuss and experiment use cases leveraging 5G capabilities.” For him, Strict adds market knowledge and a connection with enterprise customers to the 5G Hub values. “We are aiming for strategic discussions with enterprises in order to understand what is required and what strategy to evolve to for being relevant,” he says. John believes that the combination of the two parties is very favorable and points out that the collaboration brings the enterprise dimension into the 5G Hub context, which should lead towards creating a better ecosystem jointly.”  

Both parties have an interest in industry 4.0 and in health sectors. Their starting point, as Gert-Jan explains, “is figuring out how we can help industry 4.0 industries or hospitals to make their dreams come true.” As he analyzes, much has been talked about 5G, but that might not be the core of the matter: “It’s about making technology work. And to take the next step towards a bright future for all of us. That’s where it starts.” Complementing his partner’s ideas, John says that there is a need for creating awareness for those industries and means to demonstrate what is possible. “There’s a lot of talks around the possibilities for the healthcare sector. Remote surgery is one good example. When we have the combination between new technologies and real needs tweaked and refined, we can also start to look for more possibilities, instead of continuously repeating the same examples.”  

With the agreement, the parties aim to help solve social challenges, such as the overloaded and very expensive healthcare sector. As Gert-Jan explains, “we’re spending approximately 18% of our GDP on healthcare, which is an incredible allowance.” Their plan, therefore, is to aid in improving it, making medical services more accessible for those who really need it, in an easier, more effective, less costly way. As such, out of the partnership with the 5G Hub, Strict would like to “discover business needs or social needs and work in this ecosystem together to figure out what you can do to get a grip on them,” Gert-Jan explains.   

As a way to measure the success of the coalition, John mentions delivering a concrete use case – or cases – and deploy/validate it. He envisions that Strict’s customers will, eventually, also bring their ideas into the discussion and have inspiration and co-creation sessions together. He believes this will bring them “new insights and benefits in exploring 5G, so they can use the capabilities to apply digital optimization of their processes.” Agreeing with his partner, Gert-Jan believes that the best outcome for this collaboration would be working on an effective result, such as creating a great use case, one that could make a difference and solve a social issue. For him, as “the ecosystem proves its value, new concepts can come into place, and people really profit from that. That’s the biggest dream.” He adds that he is looking forward to discovering new ideas, new business needs, and enabling new business concepts: “if we can do that, and make it work, and work on references, real cases, it’s very powerful.”