Maarten van Essen has an extensive background in ICT combined with the construction industry. Now in his 'second phase' at real estate company Heilijgers (Amersfoort), he finds that it is increasingly about information applications and data quality. 'Technology has become commonplace, it comes almost out of the wall.' With a clear cloud-aside strategy in mind and MS Azure as its platform, Heilijgers additionally chose M-Files as the foundation for information management. Precisely because it is all about guarantees, quality clarity, efficiency, speed, clarity and grip on information flows.

Amersfoort-based Heilijgers is an enterprising and innovative real estate company that focuses on sustainability, digitalisation, diversity and connectedness. With smart accommodation solutions for living and working the company is working hard. Cooperation between the various parts of the organisation - but also with the chain partners - is central. So the company invests in smart information management solutions.

Complex information flows, extensive supply chain

Maarten van Essen, ICT manager: 'The growing amount of information, laws and regulations and working in chains are putting increasing pressure on organisations. Communicating between all those parties is becoming, therefore correspondingly more complicated. In addition, the number of (specialised) applications in use, nowadays often in the form of a SaaS solution. These applications often perform one particular function. The information is then usually stored within the SaaS solution, creating an extremely fragmented landscape. In such a landscape, you have to be constantly alert to keep a grip on your processes, information, investments and the supply chain.'

Van Essen: 'However, that information also offers great opportunities for the company. The more you know, the better you can assess the future estimate. Therein lies great added value. You can then steer your company better with decisions based on up-to-date and complete information.'

Volume of unstructured information grows

The amount unstructured information is growing visible as well. Van Essen: 'A lot of unstructured data, read documents, contain data that are often already in a database somewhere, such as in 4PS Construct. There was a need to display those unstructured data structure and use it in combination with structured data from other sources. to be able to use. It's all about the connection between that unstructured and structured information. Legally, we are also obliged to retain specific documents for a certain period of time and to keep them accessible. At the same time it is important for the operation to have the documents at their disposal when they need them. moment they need them. Behold our challenge.'

Numerous projects on network drives

 'We were looking for a system that allowed our people to quickly access the right information (structured and unstructured!) from every angle. the right information (structured and unstructured!) from every angle. from every angle. Even if it came from other sources,' says Van Essen.

In the construction industry, work is mostly done in projects. Per project, documents are stored for this purpose, usually organised by department organised. As a result - with several people - several versions of documents. That management should actually be done more at the level above the departments should happen. Now, searching for specific information became very difficult. Everyone after all, uses a different - own - naming convention.'

Information management versus document management

Heilijgers uses MS Office365. It was obvious obvious to start using SharePoint for its intended purpose, however, that did not happen not. Van Essen is very clear about that: 'It's not fast enough, it's not particularly very user-friendly and SharePoint (with MS Teams) is more of an advanced collaboration environment. That is substantially different from an information management environment. During discussions with GeONE on this, we came to the conclusion that M-Files is a much better option: no flat document management system, but a intelligent information management system. A small nuance, but a world of difference in practice. It is about all information, wherever it is and in whatever format.'

Enter right once, benefit infinitely

To show immediately that M-Files really works, Van Essen took the lead with the ICT department. 'We started with documents and after some experience, we transferred data from the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) from Topdesk to M-Files. This involved not only files, but also specifications of hardware, licence periods, etc. Essential information is now accessible to everyone, from their own perspective. The clever way M-Files is set up with the metadata makes the system very insightful and user-friendly. If you put some time in beforehand and enter the data properly once, you will have the rest of the information lifecycle cycle the benefit of. That is a compelling argument to get users on board get users along.'

Information instead of file

M-Files approaches everything as information rather than file. Therein lies its strength. 'M-Files is much like a so-called low code platform: it's mainly about configuration, which you then use to seamlessly connect to key business processes. The system is also quickly adaptable to change(ing) circumstances.'

Back-office links

M-Files obviously needed to link with the back-office applications. That was a requirement and in addition it had to have the standard document management functionality and be customisable, open and user-friendly. That proved no problem for M-Files. 'As a result employees can also use other sources to retrieve and consult information. to consult. That guarantees that people always use the correct and most up-to-date information.'

Added value GeONE

In it, GeONE's added value as a premium M-Files partner emerged. Van Essen: 'GeONE not only has a lot of knowledge experience with M-Files, but they also understand our business processes and what is what is important to us. They listen very carefully to what you say. Together We set up a step-by-step plan to ensure the roll-out went as smoothly as possible. as smoothly as possible. We then held sessions with the various departments to analyse to analyse the information on the network drives and base a concept design for M-Files on it. concept design for M-Files based on this. For each department and user group further customised the system and people were instructed. A good way to explain how it works is the example of online holiday booking a holiday. There you can create all kinds of filters to get through the entire offer faster. through all the offerings. You search based on certain properties (metadata), e.g. price, country, region, type of accommodation, etc.. Actually, it works the same way with information search: you are looking for a contract, from 2018, from customer X. If you have thought about the set-up, you can manoeuvre very quickly... That approach has greatly contributed to making this project a success.'

Follow-up with M-Files

If it were up to Van Essen, almost the entire intranet would switch to M-Files. 'This is possible because an Intranet has the same objective as M-Files: sharing information centrally. We are also going to use M-Files Process for the Heilijgers Quality System: a graphic representation of processes with processes with associated information/documents. This year, the staff departments will to M-Files, with a place in it for the permanent consultations. Next year it will be the turn of the project organisation. Van Essen: 'The linking of the working environment with M-Files, as the central link in the ICT landscape, means everyone has direct authorised access to information relevant to them. This kind of change mainly requires a mental conversion of the people. That takes some time, but when people experience the benefits they are quickly converted. From the start, we also brought along the MT of Heilijgers to experience the benefits themselves. Then it suddenly becomes very practical and tangible.'

Ultimately, M-Files should soon become the entry point for chain partners - suppliers, subcontractors, municipalities or other bodies et et cetera - to access information within Heilijgers. Van Essen is already the whole idea already ...