Smart ERP for the GWW

Projects are becoming larger and more complex, which also increases the risks. More and more responsibility is placed on the contractor. A wrong estimate can have major consequences for the contractor, especially considering the thin margins in the industry. Monitoring costs and revenues versus budget is therefore of great importance. With 4PS Construct, a company keeps an overview and stays in control, so it can make timely adjustments when necessary.

Having and keeping a grip on a project starts with a good working budget, according to Marcel van Noord of 4PS. "Making agreements on which items will be monitored and recording obligations gives a good insight into the expected costs. This prevents surprises afterwards, resulting in a negative result quickly. Important in this is that the hours are recorded daily/weekly at the source (read: on the project), because nowadays the hours worked form a large part of the total budget. By forecasting the expected result in a timely manner, in many cases it is still possible to intervene in time during the project. Finally, properly recording additional and less work is an important aspect that can determine the final result of a project."

Dike Reinforcement Lauwersmeer Dike.

Microsoft Dynamics

For the contractor, it is very important that the above processes are well organized in the organization. 4PS offers a modern platform based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central that can support these processes. Van Noord: "Many contractors have provided input over the past twenty years to help us develop a powerful tool that provides control over projects. More and more contractors in the GWW industry are therefore choosing this modern platform that is fully available as a cloud solution." Such is the case with Jelle Bijlsma BV, a GWW company from Friesland with 150 employees active in infra, earth moving, dredging, transport, green maintenance, soil recycling and concrete construction. Several years ago, the family business had its own app developed to log the deployment of people and machines in real time down to a detailed level. "This app only linked to our old ERP system to a limited extent. Reason enough to look for a professional and modern ERP," says Jelle Coen Bijlsma.

Marcel van Noord

Closer to projects

"The choice quickly fell on 4PS Construct, mainly because of its ease of use and the fact that it is a Microsoft application," Bijlsma continued. "The latter means that as an end user we automatically hitch a ride on any improvements that are made. So the ERP system constantly remains at a high level. Moreover, the system is very similar to other Microsoft Office applications. That makes our employees triggered to use all options and functionalities. Thanks to 4PS all project data is available in detail and we can accurately monitor where we are in danger of going off track and make adjustments. We are much closer to the project in terms of financial data and are not faced with faits accomplis afterwards. Another big advantage is that we have been able to reduce the flow of paperwork to zero. Nothing gets lost anymore, paperwork no longer has to pass through various desks, because everything is neatly and neatly digitized in one system. That saves time and minimizes the chance of errors."

Bridge Tjalleberterkrite in Tjalleberd.

Standardize

Bijlsma: "We are currently working on a large hydraulic engineering project for the Friesland Water Board in which we are replacing a number of large pumping stations. Almost all disciplines within our organization are involved in this. With 4PS we can monitor the complex project much easier than before. Incidentally, we are constantly running about thirty to forty different projects simultaneously. Thanks to 4PS we know via one clear dashboard immediately what is going on and where we may need to make adjustments. So we are always in control."

Jelle Bijlsma has just completed a growth phase through the acquisition of another company. "We have also been active in concrete construction since last year," says Bijlsma. "The risk of growing in size and complexity, is that you might lose grip. Standardizing all internal processes is necessary to be able to take the next step in time."

Curious about what 4PS can do for you? Marcel van Noord would love to meet your organization!