NetRom Software was founded in 1999 and over the past 23 years has grown into a mature digital product engineering organization with nearly 500 employees (95% of whom are computer science graduates), 4 offices and more than 70 customers in 8 countries. We spoke to CEO, founder and board member of the Dutch Romanian Network Han in ‘t Veld about NetRom Software, Romania and how everyone can come visit the new campus in Craiova.

The history of NetRom Software
NetRom started in 1999 in Romania with import and export organization, which was very soon replaced for a software organization. Only 6 years later we opened our first (sales) office in the Netherlands. Thinking back to those early years, doing business in Romania was of a very different order than it is today.

Entrepreneurship in Romania was really pioneering back then! Many amenities that are taken for granted now were not available then: banks were open only 2.5 hours a day and you sometimes stood at the counter for hours to arrange things. What was there then and has been there all along: Intelligent, enthusiastic and committed employees who helped bring NetRom to where we are today.
15 of the 20 developers from the very beginning are still involved with NetRom and have since moved on to management positions. In addition, we have more than 100 employees who have been with us for more than 10 years. They are the heart of NetRom! The average Dutchman does not connect concepts like Loyalty, work ethic and commitment with Romania, but fortunately our mostly Dutch clients now know better.

Business climate
The favorable developments of the business environment in Romania in general, and the maturing of the IT industry specifically, have been the breeding ground for NetRom’s growth. Long-term goals & sustainable relationships with all of our stakeholders have always been at the forefront of this, and we are pursuing this way of doing business in the future as well.
The new NetRom campus is an important component of this. It’s simple: if you want to serve clients with state-of-the-art software product engineering, you’ll have to make sure you bring in and keep local IT talent. After all, knowledge and skill walks on 2 legs. In 2013 we began creating conditions that facilitated this, but the seeds of building our own campus (with our own company restaurant & free meals, employee-only car wash, sports facilities and the NetRom Academy) were planted much earlier.
We are taking advantage of that now. Many competitor companies are also inventing all kinds of bells and whistles for their staffs due to the extremely tight labor market over the past few years. That’s a little late. At NetRom, the principle of Employee first = Customer first is almost literally in our DNA.

Virtual tour
We would like to invite you to visit the NetRom Campus and see what kind of business you can build in Romania. You can now take a virtual tour where you can have coffee with Han, see the NetRom “Wall of Fame,” or just walk around the modern buildings.
The virtual tour can be viewed on the computer, but even more fun is to do it through VR glasses.
Would you like these sent to you? Then send an email to marius@netrom.nl.

Campus Overview

  • 000m2 area
  • 000m2 of office space (of which 3900m2 already built)
  • Car wash, in-house company restaurant, NetRom Academy
  • Total investment: 10 million euros