Project control as the core of successful project management

Collaboration without system boundaries

Complex GWW projects are not just about engineering and execution. Equally important is how you manage progress, risks, documents and collaboration. Primaned has specialized in this for nearly forty years. The company developed from a software supplier into a full-service partner for project management, explains Managing Director Paul Vogels.

Whereas many competitors limit themselves to one discipline or operate too broadly as ICT integrators, Primaned deliberately chooses to focus. Vogels: “We want to be the specialist in project management. Full-service, but in this domain. People, processes and tools: that triangle is our starting point. By doing so, we contribute to better managed projects in the GWW and beyond.”

Project management is the analytical part of project management, he explains. “Everything you can calculate: schedules, risks, document flows and collaboration in contracts. Where others often do that on the side, we have made it our business.” With offices in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, and partners in Belgium, France and beyond, Primaned serves much of Europe. From Germany, for example, it also facilitates Austria and Switzerland.

Primaned has five specialized business units. From the software branch, project-oriented packages are implemented, always with an emphasis on cooperation and transparency, Vogels explains. The company also advises via consultancy on processes, IT design and contract forms. Because there are hardly any official training courses for professionals in project management, Primaned set up its own academy where colleagues and clients attend training and further education.

The BI & Data Analytics division develops dashboards and works with AI and data-driven steering to make projects more insightful and predictable. Primaned also has a team of its own planners, project managers, document controllers and risk analysts, operating under the label PROCON Professionals. “These are temporarily available to clients on projects and within organizations,” Vogels explains.

Primaned often works for large clients and has delivered hundreds of implementations and projects over the past decades. Think of assignments for Rijkswaterstaat, ProRail, NS, RET, GVB and the municipality of Amsterdam. But also grid managers such as TenneT and Gasunie. In addition to clients, Primaned, together with PROCON, also supports contractors such as BAM, Dura Vermeer, Heijmans and Strukton.

An important trend is the development of new forms of contracts, such as KOST+. “This is being used, for example, for the Van Brienenoord Bridge,” says Vogels. “The idea is that more and less work is not pushed into the sphere of risk, but is settled transparently. That creates trust and clarity for client and contractor.”

With specific project software, Primaned supports collaboration between parties. Discussions about whose system documents or schedules are in are thus prevented. Vogels: “Our philosophy is that the system belongs to the project, not to one party. In this way, access and insight are always guaranteed, even in case of conflicts or changes of partners and project members.” As a full-service provider, there is an appropriate solution for every phase. “We always look at where an organization stands in the maturity of project management,” Vogels says. “Sometimes unifying processes is the first step, sometimes training, sometimes software. And often it's the combination. Our strength is that we make that analysis and take the client step by step. For us, full-service is really from A to Z in the realm of project management.”