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“Jonas builds reliable systems you can trust — not just quick automations.”

— Cedric, ISO Lead Auditor & Founder, Digitaal Schild

Case Study

Digitaal Schild

How a Belgian cybersecurity firm replaced fragile manual outreach with a production-grade outbound system — in just two weeks

Overview

Industry: Cybersecurity & NIS2 Compliance

Location: Limburg, Belgium

Company Size: 2–10 employees

Timeline: 2 weeks

Digitaal Schild helps Belgian SMEs improve their cybersecurity posture and comply with NIS2, a regulatory environment where accuracy, evidence, and trust matter.

They already had:

  • A clear market
  • A clear offer
  • Strong domain expertise

What they lacked was a reliable execution engine to turn public signals into safe, scalable outbound.

The Challenge

It worked — until it didn't.

  • Lead sourcing and outreach were highly manual
  • Automation relied on a patchwork of tools
  • Small changes could silently break flows
  • Outputs were inconsistent and hard to audit
  • AI copy risked feeling generic or uncontrolled
  • Scaling meant more work and more risk, not leverage

For a cybersecurity firm operating in a regulatory context, this created unacceptable exposure around:

  • Deliverability
  • Data completeness
  • Evidence quality
  • Process trust

As Cedric put it:

“If the logic isn't deterministic and the outputs aren't consistent, you end up with a system you can't fully trust.”

The Goal

Build an outbound system that:

  • Can run in production
  • Makes explicit decisions, not assumptions
  • Stops automatically when data is incomplete
  • Produces outreach that is controlled, consistent, and auditable
  • Can scale without introducing new risks

Not a quick automation — a system you can trust by default.

The Solution

A Deterministic, End-to-End Outbound System

In two weeks, we designed and implemented a production-ready outbound workflow, built around one core principle:

Only act when the evidence is strong enough.

Instead of chaining tools together, the system was designed as a clear process with gates, stop conditions, and routing logic.

Inside the System

How the Workflow Works (High-Level)
1. Structured Company Intake

The system starts with a tightly defined company list:

  • Correct industries
  • Correct company size
  • Correct geography (Belgium & Netherlands, intentionally scoped)

This ensures the system only evaluates companies that are relevant by design.

2. Evidence-First Technical Screening

Each company is evaluated step by step using public technical signals.

Crucially:

  • The system checks only what's necessary
  • It stops early as soon as a strong finding is identified
  • No unnecessary scanning, no guesswork

If evidence is incomplete or unreliable, the system refuses to proceed.

3. Deterministic Risk Classification

Based on the signals, each company is assigned a clear risk category, such as:

  • Acute exposure
  • High risk
  • Medium risk
  • Secure

If the system cannot reach a confident conclusion, the company is excluded entirely — no outreach based on partial data. This prevents false claims and protects credibility.

4. Automatic Routing, Not Manual Decisions

Once a company qualifies:

  • The system automatically routes it into the correct outreach path
  • Campaign intent is chosen deterministically (security notice vs. informational)
  • No human judgment calls, no ad-hoc exporting

The output is a clean, structured lead, ready for outreach.

5. Finding the Right People

For each qualified company, the system:

  • Identifies the most relevant technical decision-makers
  • Limits volume intentionally (quality over quantity)
  • Carries full context forward so every contact "knows":
  • Why they're contacted
  • On what basis
6. Controlled, Non-Generic Copy Generation

Instead of free-form AI writing, outreach is assembled from:

This ensures:

  • Predefined subject lines
  • Proven intro blocks
  • Situation-specific findings
  • Intent-matched CTAs

Variation exists — but it's controlled and repeatable, not random.

This ensures:

  • Consistent tone
  • No "AI-sounding" output
  • Full auditability of what gets sent
7. Clean Handoff to Sending Tool

Only when all conditions are met does the system:

  • Assemble the final message
  • Route it into the correct campaign
  • Upload it automatically

If something is missing, nothing is sent.

8. Simple Ongoing Operation

To scale the system, the team only needs to:

  • Increase the company intake limit

Everything else — screening, classification, routing, copy, and upload — happens automatically.

The Result

Immediate Impact

  • Dramatically less manual work
  • Consistent, trustworthy outreach
  • No silent failures
  • No uncontrolled AI output
  • A system the team can rely on without second-guessing

Cedric summarized the impact clearly:

“This improved our day-to-day operations immediately. Less manual work. More consistency. And a process we can scale confidently.”

Before vs. After

Before
  • Manual, fragile outreach
  • Inconsistent outputs
  • Hidden operational risks
  • No production-grade guarantees
After
  • Deterministic, auditable outbound system
  • Explicit stop conditions
  • Controlled copy
  • Scalable by design — without sacrificing accuracy or trust

One-Line Transformation

Before: Manual, fragile outreach with inconsistent outputs and hidden risks.

After: A production-grade outbound system that is scalable, auditable, and trustworthy by design.

Who This Is For

Teams who:

  • Operate in regulated or high-risk environments
  • Care about accuracy, evidence, and deliverability
  • Want systems that hold up in production
  • Prefer trust and control over quick hacks