Who is ...?

Who is Tools for Research?

TfR is the company of Jan Ehrhardt. With more than 30 years in designing, developing and implementing solutions with focus on security and reliability.  Together with my broad network of professionals I develop these solutions based on Open Source software.

Jan Ehrhardt

Jan started his career with his MBA of the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) and as a manager in the post academic education, but found out that his heart lies more in developing software. Currently Jan is the infatigable developer of the most complex aspects of our applications: encoding and uploading videos from all kinds of cameras and for all platforms. He finds his most interesting challenges in developing applications that are internally very complex, but that show as very easy to the user.

Specialties: video-encoding, secure connections, digital surveys, databases, reporting with JQuery and solving puzzles!

* Our Dutch name is Kleine Stappen. "Kleine Stappen" is Dutch for "Small steps" since we believe that great changes always go by small steps.

Extended network

Tammo ter Hark

Tammo started as an industrial design engineer and ergonomist. He always approaches the world in a solution centered way and he loves "taming complexity". Tammo is the man for project management, usability testing and help with implementation of solution among user groups with little or no experience with IT centered solutions. After 22 years of working for large organisations at Hoogovens (currently named Tata Steel), ATOS Origin and TNO (Dutch Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), he started Tools for Research with Jan Ehrhardt in 2009. Carrying a bunch of experience he will help your organisation. We walk with small steps*, but we continue walking!

Specialities: functional design, Drupal CMS, LimeSurvey, project management, consultancy and implementation support

Peter Emil van den Berg

pixelliquid aka @PeterEmil or pixeldaddy / doh – depending on the community you’re in – likes to bent pixels to his will and create effective & awesome visuals for the interactive medium. When he’s not stuck behind a screen you can find him running around on the beach or the rugby field, or dishing out healthy food for his loved ones.

Arjella van Scheppingen

Arjella is an enthusiastic, dedicated researcher, consultant and trainer/teacher. In an accessible way, she helps companies to make meaningful steps. Unconstrained, but always using a strong substantive background. She is specialized in promoting self-regulation and social capital (cooperation, openness, trust) in organizations: themes that - in a rapidly changing (network) economy- are needed to ensure a sustainable safe, vital and optimal functioning of employees and organizations. Data (quantitative ánd qualitative) fuel this development. Provided that the data are relevant and are presented and used in an (visually) appealing and comprehensible way in the project.

Clemens Tolboom

Clemens is an enthousiastic and thorough developer. For Tools for Research he is a champion at:

  • Workflow through Grunt, Bower and Github
  • Digging in and solving nasty software problems
  • Making magic with Javascript

Clemens is not a story teller. His work speaks for him. Meet his work at:

http://github.com/clemens-tolboom 
https://www.drupal.org/u/clemens.tolboom

or just contact him: http://build2be.nl

Arie in 't Veld

Arie in 't Veld is an experienced project manager. Since 15 years, he works there, where content & IT meet. This enables him to connect with both alpha and beta-minded professionals alike. Applying an informal approach, he manages to bring structure to projects, teams, and information architectures.

Arie is a proponent of agile ways of working such as SCRUM. His experience focuses on the areas of IT-project- and program management, IT-consultancy, line management, and various board positions. To stay connected to the rapid technical changes, he regularly takes the keyboard himself, mastering CMS-systems, XML, OSC, and graphical applications ranging from After Effects via Premiere to Avenue & Syphon.

His 'guilty pleasure' comes from anything that has to do with sports, basketball especially, with the world of music/DJ'ing a close second.

Why Tools for Research?

We focus on:

  • finding smart solutions, together with the users
  • experiment to find new ways of working
  • use open source software to build innovative solutions
  • making it work in your organisation
  • delivering within time and cost contraints