Magazine

Everything that is wrong with Excel (and why we still use it)

2022-01-03

Driver’s seat First, Excel is the go-to tool, in any industry at any time, and especially in finance. Excel is the archetypical End-User Computing (EUC) tool – it is readily available and relatively easy to use and by combining data transformation capabilities and transparent user interface, it …

Thijs van der Valk

Strategist

Custodians: what has changed since the 17th century?

Custodians
2021-11-29

In 1602 the Dutch East India company was the first company to offer its shares to the general public. This turned out to be a huge step in financial history as it was the world’s first Initial Public Offering, or in short: IPO. The buyers of shares themselves had no proof of ownership until in 1606 the city messenger of Enkhuizen, Pieter Harmensz, bought a share of the VOC.

Thijs van der Valk

Strategist

How financial institutions can benefit from a RACI matrix

Fintech
2021-11-01

Most of the time, the applications we build for institutional clients are a means and not the goal. The goal often involves a bigger transition for our clients, meaning changes to existing processes, roles, and responsibilities. Assigning responsibilities and creating a sense of ownership can be a challenging process. That’s why, in my line of work as a Solution Engineer, I like to combine process workflows with a RACI matrix.

Backend
Solution Engineer

My communication journey

People
2021-05-31

Everyone who grew up in the nineties, is brought up with the stereotype about developers, system administrators or IT specialists; they are brilliant with computers and can fix your IT problems but are a little bit quirky and difficult to communicate with. I’m here to tell you otherwise, everyone can communicate effective. Like any skill, communication takes practice, courage and some knowledge. Still, it is a great tool for developers to create better software and get noticed for creating great solutions.

Backend

Five easy accessibility quick-wins for UX Designers

Accessibility
Development
UX
UI
Design
2021-01-20

As UX Designers we oftentimes put ourselves in the shoes of the end-user during the creative process. However, when it comes to designing for end-users with impairments we UX Designers tend to drop the ball.

Founder

What I learned from creating a WebRTC POC

Development
Process
2021-02-25

Have you ever wonder how Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or any other web-based tool for conferencing is able to do what they do? Our Back-End Developer Casper Broeren wrote an excellent article on the topic to help you get started!

Backend

Bitcoin; yea or nay?

2021-02-01

VI Company is not your run-of-the-mill kind of company. We are a bunch of smart, independent go-getters who are always on the lookout for opportunities to grow and learn. We do things differently and aspire to simplify financial markets together with our clients and partners. Therefore, we also …

Founder

Fundamental research into low-code pt. 2

low-code
Process
innovation
research
2021-01-26

In this second part, I will continue to explain how we were able to gather information about each of our selected technologies in a comparable way. I will also explain more about the rapid prototyping we undertook and the results of the experiment. So, without further ado, let us continue where we left off!

Backend
Solution Engineer

Fundamental research into low-code pt. 1

low-code
Process
innovation
research
2021-01-14

Ongoing attempts to drive innovation in the financial markets have been undertaken both within and outside of VI Company. In this article, I share the details of our fundamental research into low-code. I'll provide you with insights into our approach, experiences, and the final results.

Backend
Solution Engineer

How to model Business Logic using Configuration

Development
Data
Process
2020-11-26

Representing a business’ domain in code is a common task for developers everywhere. Often the same approach is chosen: code everything. But what could be an alternative method to structure the technical side of things?

Backend

Why we built our very own virtual kudo card creator

Culture
Design
People
Projects
2020-11-12

At VI Company we foster a culture in which we take time and effort to recognize each other’s contributions and successes. On some occasions, it’s as simple as a face-to-face ‘thank you’ from one colleague to another. On other occasions, we write each other a ‘kudo card’. But what if that is no longer possible because of a pandemic?

Founder

How can we bring innovation and digital transformation to financial markets?

Development
innovation
low-code
2020-10-29

The world around us is constantly changing. Like any other healthy business that operates in the financial markets, we strive to keep up with the needs and desires of our clients. This motivates us to think about the products and services we offer, and the technologies we use. Our business development and operational teams do so by evaluating our existing products and services, while our innovation lab does so by experimenting with new technology.

Backend
Solution Engineer

How to reduce technical debt and avoid technical bankruptcy

Technical debt
Development
2020-10-23

Technical debt is like taking out a loan. But instead of money, you take a loan on quality. You choose an easy solution to rush things out of the door. Maybe because you want to get some real-world experience with a solution first, or maybe you are faced with a deadline. If you do not take the time to repay your technical debt, you eventually reach technical bankruptcy.

Alexander van Veelen

Backend

7 reasons why we love VI Company's culture

Culture
People
Organization
VI Company
2020-10-01

What is “it” that makes VI Company’s culture so beloved amongst colleagues? Check out our 7 reasons why we love our company’s culture!

Founder

Low-code, high-impact: From scratch to version 1.0 in two weeks.

Development
innovation
low-code
2020-09-03

Low-code, high-impact: From scratch to version 1.0 in two weeks.

Sjors Spoorendonk

Frontend

Working with FluentMigrator

FluentMigrator
Development
Database
2020-07-07

Why would you use FluentMigrator? Is it any good? Can it be used for your project? Read all about it, and learn from Casper Broeren's experiences!

Backend

A bar chart, how hard can it be?

Data visualization
Design
Development
2020-06-23

At VI, we deal with data visualizations a lot. A while back, when a client asked us to visualize some percentages, we said: sure! As always, we brainstormed about what kind of chart would make the most sense. We discussed a few options and eventually settled on a bar chart. This article describes how a chart perceived as very simple turned out to be far more complex.

Frontend

Quarantine Insights

Organization
People
2020-06-02

What was once a sudden societal upheaval that radically changed the way we work and interact, remote working is nowadays part of our daily routine. But how has this change affected our company’s culture and people? In order to find answers, we sent a survey to our colleagues. Their responses confirmed some of our initial assumptions, but others were swept off the table.

Founder

In layman's terms: ISO & ISAE

ISO
ISAE
Security
Organization
2020-04-17

Most of us understand ISO and ISAE are important. Yet, many of us have difficulty explaining why these things are important. To help you get a better understanding of these things we sat down for an interview with our Security Officer Roland van der Geer and asked him to explain it to us in layman's terms.

Founder

Why no-code-platforms are no-guaranteed-win solutions

#development
2020-01-10

Recently trends like no-code or low-code are coming into being. Slogans such as "Develop applications rapidly and intuitively through visual modeling" and "Making it surprisingly easy, fast, fun and impactful." As much as I like to see people taking part in the software building endeavor, I don't think that this trend is a guaranteed win solution. What is so alluring to no-code? Well, I think people have this misconception the only thing developers do, is generating code. By solving the code part, we can save time, money and frustration.

Backend

Why VI Company works with two environmentally-friendly data centers

2019-11-27

In today's world, sustainability is increasingly important. At VI Company, we want to contribute our bit to the environment, as we have always cared about it a lot. Therefore, we've worked hard to ensure our office is sustainable.

Founder

Quote experiment: VI Company's quest for a faster solution

Database
Development
2019-09-23

Time-series data requires an adequate database that remains fast, even when requesting information about multiple years. To meet our clients' needs in this regard, we embarked on a quote experiment to select a better, faster solution.

Founder

VI Company's retrospective: looking back to double down on improvement!

2019-09-04

What's the use of sitting down as a team to look back on every two-week sprint? Allow us to elaborate how you can benefit from our retrospective.

Kirsten Groenendijk

CFA®-fundamentals
Project lead

Keep the rhythm going: how VI Company 'oils the machine!'

2019-08-21

How we make sure VI Company remains a well-oiled machine? Simple: we've adopted a system called EOS. What is it and how do we use it?

Founder
CFA®-fundamentals
Management Team

New hardware for our hosting services: only the best is good enough!

Hosting
2019-08-05

VI Company invested in new hardware. What does this mean for you? And is on premise better than the cloud? Absolutely. Especially in this branch!

System administrator
Head of hosting and infrastructure

Mastering the subtle art of unit testing

Development
2019-07-31

Accompanying your code with proper unit tests has numerous benefits. It provides protection against regression, provides documentation, and helps you to write better code. If you want to take full advantage of these benefits you need to have high-quality unit tests. This article tries to provide rules and guidelines which can help you to write better unit tests and eventually, better software.

Alexander van Veelen

Backend

Operations and Sales: how VI Company tackles the eternal 'epic battle!'

Process
2019-07-22

Operations and sales are eternally at odds. How can you solve the chicken-and-egg problem and ensure a healthy battle? VI Company shares its experience!

Marloes van Uffelen

Operations
CFA®-fundamentals
Management Team

GIT workshop Fronteers

GIT
2019-07-18

In May, Casper and a few other colleagues attended a Fronteers Git workshop "Getting to grips with GIT". Want to know what they learned and why they were the lead speakers worst nightmare? You can read on the website.

Backend

AI and machine learning: the 'what,' the 'how,' and your benefits explained!

Machinelearning
Development
2019-06-19

Who hasn’t heard the terms 'AI' and 'machine learning' by now? In this blog, we'll explain the technology as well as how it can work for you.

Founder

Proactive monitoring: how VI Company rolls up its sleeves for customers

Monitoring
2019-07-08

Our motto: 'Solve an issue before it's occurred.' What tools do we use to achieve that goal?

Jorrit van Giffen

FRT
Service manager
CFA®-fundamentals

Working with a remote team for an intercontinental client

Remote
2019-06-12

For almost two year, Sophia was the project lead of two blended teams in The Netherlands She was skeptical about it when she first started but now states "it's the most awesome team I've worked with".
In this article she shares her experiences and explains how she and her team managed to set up such a great collaboration.

Founder

Off to DockerCon: our knowledge-packed trip to Barcelona!

DockerCon
Development
2019-06-05

In December, three of us packed their bags and hopped on a plane to attend DockerCon Europe in Barcelona. The result: lots of answers to burning Docker questions, which we instantly put to use.

Backend
Solution Engineer

Clean code: why you should prefer to 'keep it clean!'

Development
2019-05-22

Contrary to what you might think, the term 'clean code' is not only up the developer's alley. It can be incredibly useful to you, too. Let's consider the opposite for a moment: badly written code can cause lots of problems, especially in the long run. At some point, it will be impossible to …

Alexander van Veelen

Backend

What's the added value of domain-driven design?

domain-driven design
2019-05-08

Communication gaps between developers and clients are quite common in software development. How to bridge them? Through domain-driven design!

Niels van der Rest

Backend

Tackling increasing complexity: bring it on!

Projects
Process
2019-04-24

Complexity is a given in our field. The rapid succession of developments results in an ever-changing technological environment. Furthermore, our clients operate in the financial and investment management industries, which grow more and more complex due to market changes – such as new regulations that take effect on a regular basis.

Founder
Management Team

Why VI Company got ISO-certified... voluntarily!

ISO
2019-04-10

Getting ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certifications can be a hassle of sorts. Therefore, it's quite unusual for a relatively small fintech company with approximately 40 employees to embark on the ISO journey, voluntarily letting itself be vetted for a full year.

Founder
CFA®-fundamentals
Management Team

Composition over Inheritance and JavaScript

Development
2019-04-10

You might have heard of the “composition over inheritance” principle. It encourages developers to choose object composition over inheritance.

Frontend

Alloq Portfolio Management is live!

Strategy
Fintech
Development
2019-04-03

VI Company launches Alloq Portfolio Management with launching customer PGGM. A robust SaaS-platform for the investment management industry to replace sub-optimal stand-alone tooling. A product by VI Company and supported by KPMG.

Founder
Management Team

Guilds at VI

Development
Guilds
Organization
2019-01-02

Knowledge sharing between developers in a fun and effective manner can be a challenge. In 2018 we started to improve this within VI. Introducing: The Guild system.

Backend

What I liked and disliked about F#

Development
2018-09-03

This year I moved and while unpacking I found this book in my collection which I kind of forgot; 'Real World Functional Programming with examples in F# and C#' by Tomas Petricek and Jon Skeet.

Backend

Hey new dads, let's take a baby holiday!

People
2018-07-13

Last month my daughter was born and what a revelation it was. I decided to take a baby holiday after the birth of my daughter. I would like to share my experience and hope that it inspires you.

Backend

Three ways to protect your website users against CSRF attacks

Development
Security
2018-06-12

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is a widely exploited vulnerability in websites where malicious requests are transmitted from a user who is trusted by the web application. CSRF attacks target state changing requests, not theft of user data since the attacker has no way to see the result of the request.

Alexander van Veelen

Backend

From Christmas present in the blockchain to massive bug bounty

Responsible Disclosure
Blockchain
2018-03-21

Last year we discussed our Christmas present and how we created and distributed it. However, there was one more thing we were working on that we were not allowed to talk about until now. It was a system flaw we found for an online crypto currency exchange while working on our Christmas present.

Jesse Lakerveld

Security engineer

Our Christmas present in the Blockchain?

Blockchain
2017-12-18

By now, I guess you know what Bitcoin is. And maybe you even know the distributed ledger technology behind it: the Bitcoin Blockchain. The big competitor is the Ethereum Blockchain. This year we provide clients and colleagues with a Christmas present that is wrapped in the Ethereum Blockchain.

Founder
Management Team

Christmas Present in the Blockchain (technical approach)

Blockchain
2017-12-18

This year at VI Company we decided to do something different regarding the Christmas gifts we give to colleagues, relations and friends. Instead of the usual umbrella or chocolate we came up with the idea to give Ether, a cryptocurrency running on the Ethereum network. This article will shed some light on how we technically managed to register gifts in the blockchain and distribute them to the receivers.

Backend

GDPR: What it is and the steps VI Company is taking toward being compliant

Regulatory
2017-12-15

This article describes in a few simple steps how VI Company will become compliant with GDPR. Originally set up as an internal document, now an article that might be interesting for other service providers and as well clients, relations and anyone that deals with privacy sensitive data.

Founder
Management Team

Cryptocurrency - The Money of the Internet

Blockchain
2017-09-28

Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum. These are just three cryptocurrencies of the hundreds that are taking over as ways to pay online, all fighting to become the most popular. But what are cryptocurrencies and why do they exist?

Backend

Introducing our new shareholders

People
2017-08-02

For over 10 years we operated VI Company with a plain-vanilla shareholders set-up. As of last month, we have a third shareholder: our colleagues at VI Company. A brief explanation of why and how we did this.

Founder
Management Team

Accessibility, Why Bother?

Accessibility
Design
2017-07-12

Lately, accessibility is getting more awareness. That's a good thing if you ask me. But there are still plenty of misconceptions standing in the way of a truly accessible web.

Frontend

Our first dotNed meeting

.NET
2017-07-03

On Thursday 22nd of June, we held our first dotNed meeting at VI Company. DotNed is the Dutch user group of .Net This organization strives to spread the knowledge regarding the .Net platform.

Backend

Nice looking system emails with MJML

Design
Development
2017-05-09

There are a ton of ways to receive your email: in Outlook '13 on your PC, in Mail on your iPhone, in Gmail's webmail client on your Galaxy Tablet or any other possible combination. It's a jungle of devices and clients, all with their own rules and constraints. This makes creating nice looking …

Frontend

Something different from your usual line chart

Data visualization
Design
2017-05-02

Fronteers , the Dutch society of frontend developers, organised the workshop Creative Data Visualisation Techniques and I attended together with my colleagues: Bart-Jan , Pim , Ruud , Sebastiaan and Tim . Take some time to sit and think about what works best before you act. Nadieh Bremer Brief I …

Founder

Introduction to Nethereum Blockchain in dotNetCore

.NET
Development
Blockchain
Fintech
2017-03-21

The first era of blockchain can be viewed as Bitcoin only and no smart contracts. Nevertheless, the second era of blockchain is showing to be more promising. With more blockchain platforms besides Bitcoin, it’s showing more mature and blockchains have more possibilities. The Ethereum blockchain is …

Backend

How to mitigate the risks of Robo advisors

Investment
Fintech
2016-11-18

The rise of the robo advisor Using a robo advisor to automate the asset allocation of investments via a computer algorithm is big business that is rapidly gaining ground. It's set to disrupt the global wealth management industry. Business Insider UK forecasts that robo advisors will manage around …

Founder
CFA®-fundamentals
Management Team

Should I be worried about my DIY-Excel behaviour?

Process
2016-08-22

Your awesome IT department is too backlogged with work regarding the latest MiFID II obligations to discuss the practical problem you need to deal with… should you wait? You can't. You love Excel. It's just so easy to extract and link data files from third party systems (Bloomberg, Simcorp, ...) to …

Founder
Management Team

How to code a pie? A designer’s adventure in C#

Data visualization
Development
2016-09-13

First things first Before we start writing C# code, let's see what we're dealing with so we have a rough idea about the classes and methods we'll be needing. The pie chart consist of several slices and a container: Every slice has a a value and a name Every slice has a color Every slice has a begin …

Frontend

How to code a pie? A designer’s adventure in maths and SVG

Data visualization
Development
2016-08-31

When I encountered a simple pie chart a while ago, I got interested in code again. The chart took quite a while to load and I was presented with a loader in the meantime. I wondered why that was necessary and it turned out a huge Javascript library was needed to render one simple chart. This seemed …

Frontend

Why you shouldn’t let your manager judge you

Process
People
2016-08-18

Constructive feedback, given at an appropriate moment. Now that’s something you can work with. Performance reviews are usually done top-down and well after the moment you can still do something with the given feedback. This way you’re stuck with a one-sided view, without the possibility to do …

Founder

How to avoid prototyping pitfalls and maximize results

Design
Process
Testing
2016-07-22

It is unclear what a prototype is It is not surprising that there are multiple views on what a prototype is. There are, after all, multiple purposes for which you could use a prototype. This however, emphasizes the importance of making choices of what to develop in a prototype. The first question …

Management Team
CCO

6 reasons to switch to .NET Core

.NET
Development
2016-07-11

Last week Microsoft released the long awaited first version of ASP.NET Core. To prepare for this release, my colleague Joost and I attended a two-day workshop hosted by Damian Edwards and David Fowler at NDC Olso . As the new framework is not a successor to the widely used .NET Framework, but …

Alexander van Veelen

Backend

5 tips to become a great Product Owner!

Process
People
2016-06-06

If you know what Scrum is you’re probably familiar with the term " Product Owner ". These days there are more and more Product Owner vacancies and there are a lot of retraining courses. Becoming a good Product Owner takes effort and is of great importance for the success of your project. To be …

Founder

SRP Interview Kees de Koning Part II

Investment
People
2016-03-16

In the second part of our profile on VI Company – the Rotterdam based fintech firm which has developed a market data platform for Boerse Stuttgart Cats, a trading platform for Berne Exchange (BX), website portals for ING and Think ETF and an online trading game for RTLZ , amongst others – co-owner …

Founder
Management Team

SRP Interview Kees de Koning Part I

Investment
People
2016-03-16

Kees de Koning , co-owner and founder of VI Company, has had a keen interest in the financial markets for as long as he can remember. He started investing from an early age, already trading stocks and shares in secondary school, together with Tim Oskam , who shared his passion for the financial …

Founder
Management Team

Fintech: Resistance is futile – or is it?

Strategy
Fintech
Process
2016-03-10

According to McKinsey, fintech start-ups numbered 2000 in February 2016, compared with 800 in April 2015. In addition, the past five years has seen $23billion of venture capital and growth equity deployed to fintechs globally, with $12.2 billion deployed in 2014 alone. This is a sector renowned for …

Founder
CFA®-fundamentals
Management Team

Seven lessons issuers can learn from CFD brokers

Strategy
Fintech
2016-03-24

The answer came out a bit harsh. Why? The client (and other clients) can feel the pressure of the growing CFD business and could feel threatened by it. Okay, if we can’t beat them (yet – local regulators are working on that) let’s join learn from them. Call CFD brokers less regulated, bad, or call …

Founder
Management Team

Innovation that will improve your company in four steps

Strategy
Fintech
2016-02-09

In every workplace people keep saying that they are innovative, but how many ideas and changes actually see the light of day? I think it’s safe to say way too little. Generally innovation is poorly facilitated. People are afraid to go out on a limb, to take risks . This ensures that nothing changes …

Founder

Why focusing on ROI for your business case could backfire

Process
Fintech
2015-11-16

Sounds like a promising start to this story doesn’t it? The sad thing, however, is that most ideas did not see the light of day since no budget was filed for it last year. Of course this is just a story, but it reflects what happens all around us. And it happens a lot! Though the necessity for …

Management Team
CCO

Getting ready for MiFID-II & MiFIR

Regulatory
Strategy
Fintech
Process
2015-09-25

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), which we now call MiFID-I, was announced during Frits Bolkestein’s term as European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services (1999-2004) and came into force on January 1st, 2007, on the eve of the crisis that hit financial markets …

Founder
Management Team

The persona is dead, long live the persona!

Process
Design
2016-01-21

The personas hang there for a while, sometimes someone stops and takes a look, and after a couple of months the poster ends up in one of the drawers next to the brand book. Despite of all the effort, no-one really cares. So what are the most common reasons personas fail in the real world? The …

Founder

How to empathize with (y)our customer

Process
Design
2016-04-07

To understand a business, you first need to understand the language of the trade. Developing a rich common vocabulary helps in understanding the system more deeply and thus leads towards a better interaction between the customer and the company. This resolves one of the biggest issues that …

Founder
CFA®-fundamentals
Management Team

Vertical rhythm: the Holy Grail of front-end development

Design
Development
2016-01-21

View the demo or the Github page. Grids have been around for quite some time in print. Applying the same technique in the browser is a complicated and time-consuming task. There are a lot of factors and formula's to which all elements should comply. Our solution is SASS-based and does all the …

Founder

The EZPZ Flexbox Grid might be just the grid for you

Design
Development
2016-01-21

Which browsers are supported? Before I even dive into the specifics of the grid, I am sure you are wondering which browsers are supported, since it's a Flexbox grid. Currently it works in all modern browsers out of the box. Older browsers like IE10 can be supported by using Autoprefixer to generate …

Frontend

Automated testing with Entity Framework takes some Effort

Testing
Development
2016-01-21

Edges of abstraction A typical code base consists of several components or units that work closely together. Each unit has its own responsibility. With the right amount of abstraction between these units (e.g. interfaces, dependency injection ) we can isolate each part and put it to the test. We …

Niels van der Rest

Backend

Why we use Backbone.js

Development
2015-10-02

Not a framework It’s a library, not a framework. This means it’s small, relatively easy to learn and doesn’t restrict or force you in a certain way of working. Just read the Getting Started about the underlying philosophy: In an ecosystem where overarching, decides-everything-for-you frameworks are …

Founder

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