How Otherside at Work strengthened software quality and security with continuous insight from Sigrid®
At a glance
Software quality (average) | Improved from 3.1 to 3.4 stars; all new developments now around 4 stars |
Developer engagement & ownership | Dev teams actively monitor Sigrid scores, treat improvements as collective pride |
Business-IT alignment & governance | Shared quality/security metrics, portfolio-wide KPIs, and transparent decision-making |
Introduction
Otherside at Work helps organizations create healthier, more sustainable workplaces. Founded in 2003, the Dutch software company supports employers and service providers with digital solutions that improve employee well-being and reduce absenteeism. Today, Otherside’s Xpert Suite platform processes sensitive occupational health data for over two million people across the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium.
Operating in such a sensitive domain means that software quality and data security are non-negotiable. To meet the needs of the customer, every line of code must meet high standards for maintainability, resilience, and compliance. To ensure continuous insight into their software’s quality and security, Otherside at Work partners with Software Improvement Group (SIG).
This collaboration focused on establishing a measurable, transparent, and continuous approach to software quality and security across multiple systems and development teams.
The challenge: Ensuring secure, maintainable software in a sensitive domain
Processing medical and occupational health data requires exceptional discipline around software quality and security. Otherside at Work runs its full environment in a private cloud to retain full control over data locality, access, and lifecycle — but maintaining long-lived systems at scale introduces new challenges.
Modular systems handling sensitive data
Otherside’s platforms support diverse workflows and handle information that is both valuable and vulnerable. Ensuring maintainable, resilient code across multiple interconnected systems is essential for compliance, security, and performance.
Operating in a private cloud environment
Running a private cloud gives Otherside full transparency and control, but it also increases the responsibility for managing security, dependencies, and long-term architectural health across their landscape.
Need for continuous insight into quality and risk
As the platform evolved, Otherside needed consistent visibility across teams, technologies, and systems, including the ability to track progress over time, identify risk earlier, and make improvements without slowing innovation.
“The value of medical data on the black market is enormous. Protecting our clients’ data is our highest priority.”
– Stef Roskam, CTO, Otherside at Work
Working with Software Improvement Group
Otherside’s relationship with SIG began with a one-off ITDD engagement and quickly evolved into a long-term partnership built on continuous software portfolio governance using Sigrid®.
Portfolio-wide quality insight
By onboarding their core systems into Sigrid, architects, IT leads, and management gained an objective, consistent, and comparable view of their IT portfolio — including build quality, architecture, security, and performance.
Actionable guidance for teams
Sigrid’s prioritized recommendations enabled Otherside’s teams to focus on the most impactful improvements. Developers who were initially curious about their scores soon began actively working to raise them, using Sigrid as a shared reference point. This shift enables clear prioritization and a renewed focus on what matters most when it comes to achieving shared outcomes across the business.
Embedding continuous improvement into development culture
Over time, quality became a collective goal. Teams celebrated incremental improvements, using Sigrid’s visualizations to demonstrate progress and motivate further refinements.
“We immediately saw the value of having objective insights into the quality of our systems. The management dashboard in Sigrid helps us make software quality and security measurable, which allows us to improve incrementally, step by step.” – Stef Roskam, CTO, Otherside at Work
Results: Improved software quality across all systems
The average software quality score increased from 3.1 to 3.4 stars, with all new development consistently around 4 stars, reflecting stronger maintainability and architectural discipline. These scores reflect reduced risk, faster innovation, and safer, more efficient progress.
“We love being able to see the results of their work quantified. When a system moves from 3.1 to 3.3 stars, it’s something we genuinely celebrate.” – Stef Roskam, CTO, Otherside at Work
More engaged, motivated development teams
Sigrid’s transparency and continuous measurement helped establish a culture where engineers proactively manage quality, track their own progress, and take pride in improvements.
Proactive security and architecture governance
Continuous analysis across systems surfaces vulnerabilities and risky dependencies earlier, reducing rework and helping Otherside maintain a secure-by-design posture while modernizing key systems.
Business–IT alignment through shared dashboards
Using Sigrid’s Management Dashboard, leadership gains a clear, portfolio-wide view of software quality, security, architecture, and technical debt — translated into business-relevant KPIs. The dashboard helps answer three fundamental questions for management:
- Are we in control?
By comparing the quality of the IT portfolio against industry benchmarks, leadership can assess risk exposure, effectiveness, and overall control across systems.
- Are we moving in the right direction?
Progress over time is made visible, showing whether improvement efforts are delivering meaningful impact and whether teams are investing effort where it matters most.
- Are we focusing on what really matters?
Objective metrics reveal how resources are being spent and whether initiatives align with strategic priorities around quality, security, and productivity.
By using this shared dashboard framework, leadership can connect day-to-day engineering work with broader business and security objectives. This offers confidence that improvement efforts across teams are focused on the areas with the highest impact, while development teams have clarity on how their work contributes to long-term quality, resilience, and risk control. This shared visibility helps ensure that technical decisions consistently support Otherside’s strategic priorities as their platform continues to evolve.
“Our collaboration with Otherside at Work shows how data-driven software assurance drives real business value. It’s not just about compliance or reducing risk, it enables teams to consistently deliver high-quality software that strengthens the organization’s competitive edge.” – Joep Mertens, Commercial Director, SIG
Looking ahead
Otherside at Work continues to expand Sigrid across more systems and teams, embedding continuous improvement into product development and governance. As their landscape evolves, transparent quality and security metrics help ensure every system remains reliable, maintainable, compliant, and ready for the next stage of growth.
“Our goal is to deliver reliable, secure, and maintainable software for our customers, today and in the future. Sigrid helps us get there, and our teams are proud of the progress we make together.” – Stef Roskam, CTO, Otherside at Work
Ensure your software is always two steps ahead
Strengthen software quality, security, and portfolio governance with Sigrid®. Turn code-level insights into better decision-making for clear business KPIs and continuous improvement across teams.