Flexible but robust Project forecasting At Boskalis Netherlands

More structure

"Project management is our core business," says Carlo van Noort, at that time CFO of Boskalis NL. This division of Boskalis focuses on civil engineering within the Netherlands. "We do all kinds of projects, from large to small. These infrastructure projects are always different, and each project has its own budget-control report."

For these forecasts, the project controllers use Excel. "The process was not very efficient," says Erik van Deursen of Boskalis NL. "We ran into a lot of duplicate operations, and wanted to improve the integrity of the reporting. In Excel, anyone can modify anything, which sometimes results in formula errors." "In addition, there was no central storage of the data," adds Rody van den Bosch of Boskalis NL. "Our mailbox was our archive."

As a result, the construction division is looking for a complementary tool. "We wanted to anchor the forecasts in a more structured environment. Excel is very user-friendly, so people started using all kinds of variants," Carlo explains. "We also wanted to further anchor the link between the project tool and the financial system; with a direct link to the basic data so you can look through from the reports to the financial transactions behind it."

Boskalis Group is working with SAP BPC for consolidation, which includes the results of the project forecasts. "We were looking for the missing link between the source system, Excel and SAP BPC," Erik says.

Flexibility within frameworks

Boskalis NL chooses Vena Solutions. "Vena brings us the desired structure for project management," Carlo explains. "Within the culture of a construction company it is sometimes quite difficult to bring discipline into the organization, Vena helps with that. The strength of Vena is that it turns the Excel spaghetti into a structured environment."

At the same time, there is a lot of freedom for the project controllers. Carlo: "In choosing Vena, we thought from the users' point of view; they still get the Excel look & feel, but with picket lines that indicate how we think we can best manage the projects. Within these frameworks we give flexibility in the work per project."

"The strength of Vena is that it turns Excel spaghetti into a structured environment."

Choices

A number of conscious choices were made during the set-up. "We looked for a good balance between the wishes from Boskalis NL and freedom for the project leader; how does he want to manage the project?" explains Benno van Ingen, closely involved in the implementation of Vena as a consultant at Finext. He was also involved in setting up the overall SAP BPC. "Flexibly setting up a data model, that actually contradicts each other," Benno continues. "What helped enormously is that the users were involved from the beginning. They were even decisive in the package selection."

Thoughtful choices were also made around the integration from Vena to SAP BPC. For example, uploading from Vena to BPC is done via a flat file. "Technically, we could also automate this," Benno explains. However, the focus with Vena was on project control. "We wanted to get the forecasts, reports and workflow right first; after all, we only do the uploading to BPC four times a year," Erik explains.

Quickly operational

The additional platform quickly delivered the desired results. "The new situation was quickly accepted by the users; the environment hardly changes, but you get additional possibilities," Rody says.

"There's more understanding of the process, so I spend less time during the closing."

The use of the 100-plus budget-control reports is now structured through Vena. "There is more insight into where you are in the process," says Erik. "As a result, I myself spend much less time during closeout." "The errors in the forecasts are caught earlier," agrees Rody. "The closure runs more smoothly; the user already encounters his own errors. This also allows us a different focus; we don't have to look for the errors in the reports, but can look at what is happening in the project."

Carlo, Erik and Rody are also positive about the collaboration with Finext. Carlo: "The cooperation went very pleasant, also because of the knowledge that was already present at Finext. They pointed out a number of factors to us and quickly got the tool operational. We also want to do the follow-up phase together with Finext."

The role of project controller

The Vena platform helps to properly fill the role of project controller. "The role of project controller is changing. The environment in which we operate as Dutch infrastructure companies is complex; we work with small margins of about 3 to 4%. The difference between profit and loss on a project is therefore small, this requires detailed control of the project," says Carlo. "The strength of this tool is that it turns the Excel spaghetti into a structured environment, enabling the desired project control."

Carlo expects much more from Vena than just project management. "I personally think we are at the forefront. This is the basis; we have the financial numbers in an environment where we do everything in one consistent way. In the follow-up phase, we want to include the qualitative information as well, so that it actually becomes a tool that belongs not only to the project controller, but also to the project team and project managers. We want to move from a control report to qualitative information that the project manager can use for his project control. For example, traffic light reports for control of the design process, of safety and of contract issues such as extra work orders."

User-friendly and structured

"Bottomline, Excel is the most user-friendly and used tool worldwide. Excel can do a lot, but it also gives people a lot of freedom. The strength of Vena is to develop a structure precisely in that user-friendly environment. This allows us to provide frameworks around how we want to work," Carlo concludes. All in all, this ensures better project management for Vena.