A new generation of software in project monitoring

And that is badly needed, according to Rienk Nieuwland. As productowner development team Metacom Projects (with brainchild Cost Control) and in his role as solutions architect within the customer organization at Van Meijel, he observes that contractors are taking on a different role.

"In the past, it was the client who wrote the specifications in which everything was pre-written and it was the contractor's job to provide the capacity, personnel and equipment and execute the job. Today, the contractor has increasingly become the directing party. Capacity is often hired and, as a result, a contractor is much more risk-bearing. To address that role, a different information requirement must be met."

'In control' with Cost Control

Project-based organizations want (and need) to manage projects. The management aspects of Money, Quantity, Time, Organization and Information are important. Often supplemented by the aspects of Quality and Risk. Nieuwland: "From a traditional point of view, the financial process (Money) was leading in project control, but nowadays that is no longer sufficient. Of course, the financial process is necessary to take stock of the financial situation once in a while, but to be 'in control,' the information must be in order at the monthly, weekly or even daily level." But the management aspect Money is too slow to get a grip on your project, which then comes at the expense of timely signaling and adjusting the process. If you're going to enter into a procurement contract, you want to know quickly whether you're going to gain anything from it, whether money needs to be added, and where the risks are that you need to consider.

Get a grip on your projects

There is so much going on in the market that makes it increasingly critical to digitize. "Yet it is not so difficult to convince the market of the necessity," says Nieuwland. "From management there is often already a need for transparency and unambiguous implementation of reports where relevant figures are quickly available. It is sometimes challenging to get customers to take the step to digitization. But that's where we support them." Nowadays, every construction company uses all kinds of Excel files to monitor a project.    

"Excel is very flexible, but it also has risks. For example, it is quite laborious, different users can look at different files and errors can creep in. With Cost Control -an innovative product in which we offer the flexibility of Excel but remove the risks- you regain control of your projects. Cost Control focuses primarily on the management aspect Money, without losing sight of the aspects Quantity and Risk. Ideal for optimizing the control of projects in progress both at management and operational level."

User-friendly and approachable

Nieuwland explains that Frans van Meijel (father of the current management consisting of brothers Theo and Peter) noticed the need for a separate system for project monitoring. "He found it important to be close to the people who have to work with it. Simple to use and approachable with a minimal number of buttons that do exactly what you expect. Cost Control thus fits in with this time and the needs of the individual organization and the individual users. Whether this be executives, work planners, buyers, project leaders, people from finance & control or even financial directors. Everyone experiences it differently, even though it is in the same application and everyone works with the same data. And that is optimal cooperation within one project," concludes Nieuwland.