About us

The Truman Scout Story

In 1995  Jan de Ruiter gave up his job as a computer programmer at an entertainment laser company to start a retail business in computers and consumer electronics. As a tech lover with a strong passion for retail it was something he had dreamed about for years.

“There’s something magical about retail. Every morning when you open your shop’s doors and turn on the spotlights, it’s showtime for you and your team. Its like slipping into a role with only one goal; delivering an awesome shopper experience for the people that have chosen to visit your store.

With his roots in software development, and knowing what powerful software can do to help run a business, he soon noticed that there’s wasn’t any good software on the market that integrated all processes in the BTO computer business. After business hours, he started building a fully integrated process management software for his business, which took him about 3 years of obsessive programming to get version 1 out. It didn’t take long before other business owners showed interest in the software he had built.

Although his retail business was booming, he sold his shops in 2002 so he could fully focus on software to help businesses actually run their business. The client base slowly expanded to distributors and manufacturers of (consumer) goods and eventually field marketing agencies. They were facing different challenges that needed different solutions.

In 2012 a new company was started. The first product that was developed, focused on getting shopper insights on the shop floor using iPads in a kiosk setup. Clients were mainly manufacturers of consumer goods and field marketing agencies. In 2014 a strategic partnership with Hamilton Bright, the leading field marketing agency in the Benelux, was formed. It was a match made in heaven and brought invaluable insights in the problems market leaders face to get their products on the shop floor exactly the way they want.

As obsessive observers, Jan and the Truman Scout team quickly noticed that there was a dire need of systems that truly benchmarked the performance of shopper marketing activities, evaluate field marketing agencies and justify marketing budget. This is how Truman Scout REX, short for Retail Excellence, came to life. REX is not just benchmarking tool, it also generates missions for field forces and monitors ROI of marketing budgets.

Today, more and more market leaders in consumer electronics and FMCG are using Truman Scout REX as a true decision-making tool.

Meet some of our team members

Kimberley Tegelaar

Business Consultant

Jan de Ruiter

Managing Director

Thije Prins

Program Manager

Lieuwe Prins

Software engineer

Natasja Schoonen

Business Intelligence Specialist

Brunhilde Faas

Project Manager

Bas Kardinaal

Front-end development