Managed services that wait for a match

From Leiden, Eurotransplant finds the best matching patient for every available donor organ. It covers 79 transplant centers in an area with around 139 million inhabitants. In 2025, 7,366 organs found a recipient through Eurotransplant. Doctors and coordinators must be able to rely on the systems at any moment, and Dennis and Rowdy notice that every day.

"When maintenance is scheduled, we cannot just start," says Dennis. "If a donor has to be matched with a patient at that moment, that always takes priority. We wait until the matching is done." Rowdy compares it with another client, a health insurer. "If the system goes down there, no claims get paid. If things come to a standstill at Eurotransplant, it can mean that an organ can no longer be matched. That really costs lives."

"Availability and reliability are not just technical goals here. They can affect people's lives."

Both have been involved from the start. When Qualogy took over the managed services about five years ago, the team mapped the entire infrastructure in two to three months: which components there are, how they communicate with each other and whether the licenses matched the setup. Along the way it turned out that the Dutch Transplant Foundation (Nederlandse Transplantatie Stichting) also uses the same infrastructure. Since then, Dennis has managed the Oracle Databases and clusters. Rowdy is responsible for all Oracle Fusion Middleware (the platform the applications run on) and is also service delivery manager. "With us, being pragmatic comes before thinking in boxes of roles and job titles," he says.

Looking back, they both name the same project: the hardware migration of about two years ago. The team moved all environments from an Oracle Database Appliance to new, custom-configured Dell hardware. "We built the new environment completely from the ground up," says Dennis. "Because I stayed involved in the managed services afterwards, I experienced everything, from the initial build to day-to-day management. I look back on that with pride."

For Rowdy it was above all a joint achievement. "It was not just an achievement of Qualogy, but just as much of Eurotransplant. We worked on it together and celebrated the success with a cake."

"It was not just an achievement of Qualogy, but just as much of Eurotransplant."

The choices made back then still pay off. The environment runs on an active-passive setup: there is always a second machine standing by. When the database software needs an update, the team temporarily moves the databases to that second machine. "That way availability for the client stays optimal," Rowdy explains. "Once one side has been updated, we bring the database back."

That setup came in handy during the first major round of updates. In most cases we were able to use this technique. By now everything has been upgraded, each time with as little downtime as possible. "We keep that in mind in everything we do. It has everything to do with the urgency of transplants."

Ask Dennis to describe the collaboration and he deliberately chooses three words: professional, personal and informal. "We know what we can expect from each other, but there is also room for personal contact. It is exactly that combination that makes it pleasant. We can easily find each other and look for solutions together."

Rowdy sees that the cultures fit well together. "They can be just as informal as we are, and just as formal." The short distance between Rijswijk and Leiden helps: the team visits regularly. Every month they discuss the reports in an operational meeting, and once a year they visit for a strategic conversation. "Last time with a few gevulde koeken (Dutch almond cookies)," Rowdy laughs. "We want to get to know the person behind the service desk portal. Then you can also act quickly when needed."

Meanwhile they are looking ahead. Security is becoming increasingly important, including for Eurotransplant's security department. "With AI, vulnerabilities are found and exploited faster," says Rowdy. "That means you have to patch much more often than before." The team is therefore working on a fixed procedure to roll out updates structurally, with the same attention to availability as always.

For Dennis, the most important lesson lies in that whole interplay. "Good managed services are more than technology. They require responsibility, care and good collaboration. Be proud of what you do, and realize the impact your work can have."