TOP 10

COMPANIES A

BOUT THEIR

SUCCESS WITH THE

SOFTWARE FA

CTORY

Top 10

Reference

cases4

Top 10

Reference

cases5

Content An introduction 7

Hydroflex HydraulicsCompany profile 10

Reference case 12

Sligro Food GroupCompany profile 16

Reference case 18

K onink lijk e ZeelandiaCompany profile 22

Reference case 24

K S ProfielCompany profile 28

Reference case 30

WilaCompany profile 34

Reference case 36

Robert van der Linden,

Hans Keukenschrijver

and Victor Klaren

>>

Precious WoodsCompany profile 40

Reference case 42

Royal Huisman ShipyardCompany profile 46

Reference case 48

Theodoor Gilissen Bank iers Company profile 52

Reference case 54

ProfextruCompany profile 58

Reference case 60

P1Company profile 64

Reference case 66

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Reference

cases6

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Reference

cases7

In practice many companies appear to

struggle with their IT The required soft-

ware modifications are risky or impos-

sible, there is a lack of knowledge or the

time-consuming changes are no more

than inefficient makeshift measures in a

system that has become unmanageable

In short, the outdated central information

system has become a restraining factor

This does not apply to the businesses in

this booklet We have prepared ten cases

of organizations, where Thinkwise Software

has deployed the Software Factory over

the past years These are companies from

different branches, large and small and with

or without their own IT development team

However different they may be, they also

have something in common: they were

curious, they were open to new techno-

logy and have carried out pilot projects

They all saw how the Software Factory

from Thinkwise worked on their own sys-

tem, with their own data and their own

lay-out The management, the IT depart-

ment and the end users They found that

the system could be developed quickly

and it was indeed very easy No more time

and energy consuming maintenance, but

an ICT system that creates new possibili-

ties for the business

>>

‘The business world has been

rapidly changing during the past

twenty years. Internet, technologi-

cal innovations and new legislation

have had an enormous impact on

business. Management is changing

at a rapid pace, which means that

IT support must keep in line with

new business needs. How do you

deal with this as a company?

An introduction

Our secret: the Thinkwise Software Fac-

tory, which automates the develop-

ment process This model driven soft-

ware development system allows you to

rapidly integrate, develop and customize

applications Outdated systems can be

modernized, irrespective of the underly-

ing technology The speed of software

development is five to ten times higher

and maintenance, in particular, is greatly

simplified With your ICT innovation you

will therefore make a sustainable saving

on your costs and increase your com-

petitive power

We would like to thank the ten selected

companies for telling their success sto-

ries in this booklet In each interview

you will read about their ambitions, the

challenges they encountered and the

ICT solutions they chose

Perhaps this will inspire you to learn more

about the Software Factory

We wish you much reading pleasure!

Thinkwise Software

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Reference

cases8

Top 10

Reference

cases9

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Reference

cases10

“The newer versions of

the Software Factory in-

clude very rich functional

screens, for which the

standard is actually more

than sufficient.”- Arjan Jonas

IT manager at Hydroflex

Hydraulics

Top 10

Reference

cases11

Hydroflex Hydraulics delivers to divergent

target groups With its comprehensive

range of products the company is a part-

ner for electrical contractors, producers

and technical distribution businesses

Hydroflex Hydraulics delivers to the ship-

building, coachwork and machine building

industry, cold storage, agriculture, cleaning

technology, the petrochemical and off-

shore industry

This modern and ambitious company

supplies many goods from renowned

producers directly from stock to the

customers To offer an even wider range,

Hydroflex Hydraulics has an advanced

assembly workshop for the assembly of

high pressure hoses This department

has been organized in such a way that a

switch from routine assembly to large serial

production can be made within minutes

Hydroflex Hydraulics has many years of

testing and rinsing experience They carry

out both static and cycle tests and can

supply test reports and certificates

From their logistics centre in the Nether-

lands daily shipments are delivered not

only to customers in the Benelux, but also

much further afield Hydroflex Hydraulics

has its own delivery service and goods

transport and a special emergency sprint-

er All this makes Hydroflex Hydraulics a

versatile, professional and service orient-

ed company

Hydroflex Hydraulics in Oud-

Beijerland has been active in the

Benelux since 1968 as a stock-

keeping technical wholesale

company and offers a wide range

of hydraulic accessories. All prod-

ucts and services are first rate and

are produced and designed ac-

cording to the current standards in

the present-day hydraulic sector.

Company profile: Hydroflex Hydraulics

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Reference

cases12

IntroductionEvery company and organization benefits

from a streamlined operation The ICT in-

frastructure forms an important basis to

achieve this Hydroflex Hydraulics, based

in the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland, has

already been running a perfect operation

for many years, partly because the com-

pany dares to take the necessary steps in

ICT That has been the case since its very

beginnings The continuous endeavour to

achieve efficient operating procedures, in

combination with the use of cost-saving

resources, found a response at Thinkwise

Software in Apeldoorn They provide the

underlying ICT environment with their

Software Factory

The ambitionHydroflex Hydraulics is a small, healthy

company that places the bar at a high

level both internally as well as externally

Daring choices are followed by common

sense and determination This already

started with the foundation of the com-

pany, around forty years ago ICT turned

out to be an indispensable part of the

operations

Arjan Jonas, IT manager at Hydroflex Hy-

draulics: “We dare to take decisions and

will also work with young businesses In

1999 we opted for a software package

from an upcoming supplier The software

was not yet fully completed, but that’s

how things go sometimes Unfortunately

that supplier went bankrupt in 2002 and

that was a problem for us It was not re-

sponsible to continue to work with that

software package You cannot operate

without a software package, so we were

forced to look around for another solution

We then came to the idea of contacting

Victor Klaren, who we knew from his

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Reference

cases13

time at this company, before he had left

them In the meantime he had become

the Technical Director of Thinkwise

Software We approached him with the

question of whether he could offer inter-

mediate support in the event of calami-

ties And then he came up with his new

solution This was the very first version of

the Software Factory and we were consid-

erably impressed ”

The discussion took place at the end of

2002 and at the beginning of 2003 Hy-

droflex Hydraulics started working with

the Software Factory

The approachA developer from Thinkwise came

to Oud-Beijerland to help with the

development of the applications,

because Hydroflex Hydraulics wanted

to carry out the development of the

software itself in-house

ChallengeHydroflex Hydraulics had need of an entirely new, perfectly working and

easily modifiable software package that matches the philosophy and method

of working of the organization

SolutionAll business applications and peripheral systems were replaced and

re-developed with the help of the Software Factory

Benefits• Developfast,cheapandsimplecustom-builtapplications.

• Agoodinsightintotheentireapplicationthroughtheuseofmodels.

• Easilyimplementbusinessideasintheapplication.

• Inchargeinyourownhouse,independentmodificationofapplications.

>>

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Reference

cases14

Within a year everything was dealt with,

including data conversion tests, and at the

beginning of 2004 the finished product

was completely ready for use To everyone’s

full satisfaction Jonas: “Through time we

have continuously grown with the new

versions Initially we started with model-

ling the application with the Software

Factory, but then manually adjusting the

created screens The newer versions of

the Software Factory include very rich

functional screens, for which the standard

is actually more than sufficient ”

The generic character of the screens ap-

pealed to Hydroflex Hydraulics Jonas:

“You don’t have to search for functional

changes or examine what everything is

used for We continually develop towards

standard screens and that suits us fine We

have meanwhile replaced our complete

ERP package with the Software Factory

The only thing that we have not replaced

is our accounting module We didn’t think

it necessary to develop that ourselves

due to its straightforward character Our

development is simple: all logistic opera-

tions take place with the help of the Soft-

ware Factory application and the financial

transactions that arise from this are im-

ported by means of a specially developed

link into our accounting package And

that works perfectly ”

“Looking back we can say that during the

entire conversion we have applied the

philosophy and structure of the previous

package as the starting point From that

basis things are re-built and developed

further The views of the end users are es-

pecially taken into account If you listen

to them and then apply the results in the

applications according to your own judge-

ment, then you can only benefit from this

You can easily carry out a modification

and present it to the end users This is the

manner in which we now work with the

Software Factory We have finished it off in

such a way that we are now able to do all

the interesting things with it”, says Jonas:

The result“The ICT infrastructure at Hydroflex Hy-

draulics works just as perfectly as the entire

operation”, says Hans Keukenschrijver,

Commercial Director of Thinkwise

Software He makes no bones about his

admiration for the efficient and cost-

saving manner in which the company

works “The quality aspect is deeply

engrained in the structure of the com-

pany Very solidly I find it an honour that

the Thinkwise Software Factory has made

a contribution to this right from the start ”

Arjan Jonas, in his turn, is also very posi-

tive about the contact with Thinkwise

“We already knew Victor Klaren of course

for many years and we have their

developers here in house The contact

has always been enjoyable and this

creates a good relationship and also trust

There has always been excellent support

from Thinkwise, but in the meantime we

have built up sufficient knowledge to be

able to develop ourselves Certainly with

the new Software Factory It contains so

many tools that make development work

far easier We no longer think back from

the finished product, as we once did We

now think first from the model I find it

very enjoyable to work with For us the

Software Factory is a fantastic invention ” ◆

Top 10

Reference

cases15

“For us the Software Factory is a fantastic invention.”- Arjan Jonas

IT manager at Hydroflex Hydraulics

Top 10

Reference

cases16

“We can also perform this

ICT transformation and

standardisation with the

help of our strategic part-

ner Thinkwise Software”

- Maurice van Veghel ICT director of Sligro Food Group

Nederland BV

Top 10

Reference

cases17

The Sligro Food Group was founded in

1935 as a wholesaler in margarine, fats

and oils In 1946 an expansion of the as-

sortment followed with foodstuffs, where-

upon in 1961 the first Sligro self-service

wholesaler was opened This formed the

basis for the present network of 45 Sligro

branches across all of the Netherlands

Through the combination, over many

years, of take-overs and autonomous

growth, which surpassed the total market

growth, the Sligro Food Group has grown

into a player that is active in all the major

segments of the food retail and food ser-

vice markets in the Netherlands

Customers have available over 60,000

food and food related non-food products

In addition, many services are offered in

relation to this, for example, in the area of

franchising

There is intensive cooperation between

the separate business activities within

the Sligro Food Group For example, there

is collective purchasing, combined with a

direct and detailed margin management,

continuous tight cost control and a com-

mon integrated logistic strategy

The group synergy is further promoted

by the development of common ICT sys-

tems, collective real estate management

and through management development

at the concern level

Food retail and food service

companies, which focus them-

selves directly and indirectly on

the Dutch market for the inner

man, are active within the Sligro

Food Group. This takes place with

Food Service as a wholesaler and

with Food Retail as wholesaler

and retailer.

Company profile: Sligro Food Group

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Reference

cases18

IntroductionIn the past Sligro especially focused its ICT

on the functionality and ‘keeping every-

thing running’ Nowadays elements such

as functionality, efficiency, effectiveness

and commercial opportunities are the mo-

tives behind Sligro’s IT initiatives This also

applies for the field organization and the

Food Service Regional Sales Managers To

optimize the cooperation between the

field organization and the back office

and to better streamline the provision of

information to management, Sligro de-

veloped the Field Organization Support

Model (BOM), Sligro’s CRM application

The ambitionMaurice van Veghel, ICT director of Sligro

Food Group Nederland BV, has a clear view

of the core values which he stands for with

his ICT department: entrepreneurial, cost-

conscious, eager to learn, driven and on top

of things “ICT can make a contribution to the

exploitation of commercial opportunities,

also in the world of food retail, food services

and logistics”, says Van Veghel “However

that does demand a complete change, both

on the ICT side as on the business side of

Sligro We have to make the transition from

technology to customer focused And we

have to work proactively: and stay ahead of

the game How are we going to do that? In

the first place by IT leadership and by creat-

ing support throughout the organization,

but also by performing our own software

development We make use of IBM Power

Systems (System i) servers They are often

still provided with the well-known ‘green

screens’ That also needs to change as well

End users demand it We can also perform

this ICT transformation and standardisation

with the help of our strategic partner Think-

wise Software ”

Top 10

Reference

cases19

Sligro went in search of a solution to sup-

port this process Although Microsoft

Dynamic CRM was well received by the

business, the Sligro ICT department was

somewhat less enthusiastic about it The

problems lay, in particular, in the large

amount of customization required in Dy-

namics, the interfaces with Sligro’s Power

Systems (System i) and the dependence

on Microsoft

A proposal was made to have Thinkwise

Software develop a demo application, so

that the business could make a choice

between the various alternatives The

demonstration from Thinkwise was very

well received, because the application

on the System i was integrated with Ex-

change, Sharepoint and PDAs The choice

was made: the new software would be

developed with the Thinkwise Software

Factory

ChallengeSligro Food Group wanted to make a complete change, both on the ICT side

as well as on the business side, to exploit commercial opportunities

The solutionWith the help of the Software Factory the choice was made for the develop-

ment of a Field Organization Support Model (BOM)

The benefits• Highqualityoftheapplicationandafactorof15lesssourcecodeto

be maintained

• SeamlessintegrationwithOfficesystemssuchasMSExchangeand

Sharepoint

• Improvedprovisionofinformation:allcustomerinformationisstored

centrally and available on-line, via mobile devices

• Structuralimprovementofthecustomerfocus.

>>

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Reference

cases20

The approachIn October 2009 Sligro took the decision

to start developing the Field Organization

Support Model (BOM) with the Thinkwise

Software Factory, says Luuk Oers, Project

Manager for BOM at Sligro “With the de-

ployment of an extra SQL Server we were

able to carry on development on our

existing IBM Power Systems platform ”

The development project for the BOM ap-

plication was started in-house by Sligro

with the help of the Thinkwise Software

Factory

This software development robot au-

tomates the development process and

can be deployed among other things to

modernize System i (iSeries) environ-

ments, such as are in use within the Sligro

Food Group In the Software Factory the

electronic drawing (the so-called Meta

Solution Definition) lays the foundation for

the automated development process of

database, business functionality and user

interface The advantage of this meth-

od is that changes in the specifications

automatically lead to modifications in

all three of these layers The application

therefore automatically remains consistent

Through the continuous development

of the Software Factory, Thinkwise users

are able to incorporate the newest

methods and technologies with retro-

spective effect into their applications

“Sligro has its own development depart-

ment”, tells Victor Klaren, director of Think-

wise Software “Thinkwise Software is the

tooling supplier to facilitate Sligro in this

In fact Sligro performs ninety to ninety-

five percentage of its development itself

in-house We occasionally provide sup-

port with specialised questions ”

The resultAgenda management, the planning of

appointments, is an important com-

ponent of BOM For this purpose a link

was created with Microsoft Outlook

Van Veghel: “We can provide the Food

Service Regional Sales Managers with

the latest information through the con-

nection with their personal PDAs” All

customer data can be retrieved through

the integration with the IBM Power Sys-

tems (System i) Links were also made

with Microsoft Sharepoint to be able

to manage documents from BOM on a

Sharepoint site In this way everything

can be administered at one central location

“There are actually three links”, says

Klaren “The contact persons are main-

tained in BOM and are transferred to

Exchange, appointments always go to

and fro, and the e-mail runs via Exchange

These are also registered in BOM, partly

for archiving, but also for business intel-

ligence purposes such as the analysis of

appointments The whole forms a very

user friendly CRM application that is pro-

vided with all facilities ”

“There have been a number of reasons

why we have purchased the Thinkwise

Software Factory”, says Hugo Jaspers,

head of IT at Sligro “One of the reasons

was the time that we needed to develop

our applications in RPG, this was far too

time consuming We wanted to develop

software faster with Thinkwise From our

own research it now appears that the

productivity with Thinkwise Software is a

factor of four higher Quality is an aspect

that is actually even more important

That has become much higher, because

there is less code written: approximate-

ly 1/15 of the code in comparison with

RPG In addition the code is generated

automatically Improvements that, for in-

stance, take place later in the functional-

ity of the integration with the graphical

user interface, are made available with

retrospective effect in all our systems

Finally, with the Thinkwise Software Fac-

tory, we are now able to provide our ap-

plications with tremendously rich func-

tionality BOM is proof of that!” ◆

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Reference

cases21

“With the Thinkwise Software Factory we are now able

to provide our applications with tremendously rich

functionality. BOM is proof of that!”- Hugo Jaspers

head of IT at Sligro

Top 10

Reference

cases22

“The final objective of our

search for a new develop-

ment environment was to

renew the entire ERP envi-

ronment, but then step by

step. The Thinkwise Soft-

ware Factory was the solu-

tion that fitted perfectly”

- Dick Geuze ICT Development Manager at

K onink lijk e Zeelandia

Top 10

Reference

cases23

At Zeelandia everything revolves around

quality, innovation and inspiration This

basic assumption is given substance by

translating knowledge into opportune

solutions and ideas for the customer The

wishes of the baker are a central priority

Innovation forms the core of the Zeeland

strategy In the modern R&D department

and test bakery all knowledge is collected

about new processes and techniques This

results in innovative products that closely

match with market and consumer trends,

and offer new opportunities for the Dutch

baker

Furthermore the knowledge is translated

into cost reducing solutions Every product

is examined from both the baker’s as well

as from the consumer’s point of view to

determine the correct mix of technical at-

tainability and commercial opportunities

Zeelandia spreads the principles of sound

Dutch entrepreneurship far across na-

tional borders Bakers in more than

seventy countries work with Zeelandia

products In Europe the Zeelandia prod-

ucts are mostly sold via subsidiaries and

joint ventures Sales outside of Europe

also take place via distributors and agents

The Royal Zeelandia Group is a fast

growing Dutch family business

that focuses entirely on raw

materials for the bakery trade. The

company has been recognized

as a reliable supplier of quality

products for more than a hundred

years and specializes in the

development, production, sales and

distribution of bakery ingredients.

Company profile: K onink lijk e Zeelandia

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Reference

cases24

IntroductionZeeland supports a large number busi-

ness activities with ICT and has its own IT

department at the head office in Zierik-

zee Since the company operates interna-

tionally, ICT is deployed for the national

and international branches with standard

and in house developed custom-built

applications

Until recently Zeelandia developed all its

applications in a custom-built system in

RPG on the IBM System i platform, but in

recent years they have been acquainting

themselves with modern development

environments A search that finally led to

the use of the Thinkwise Software Factory

The ambitionAlready in 2003 Zeelandia decided to

start looking at new, modern devel-

opment environments Dick Geuze, ICT

Development Manager at Koninklijke

Zeelandia: “We consider that RPG is

coming to the end of its life Especially

when it concerns integration with Win-

dows and with the web We also ran up

against limitations in our development

capacity We noticed that the ageing

technology had repercussions on

school-leaving developers, who had

little to no affinity with RPG The lack of a

graphical shell played an important role

In short, reason enough to renew ”

Between 2004 and 2006 an extensive

selection of tools took place and Zee-

landia investigated various solutions

Various screen scrapers and develop-

ment environments were examined The

conclusion of the investigation was that

the tools were often developed in a tradi-

tional manner with all the disadvantages

that brings, such as long development

Top 10

Reference

cases25

times, high maintenance costs and long

learning curves

“In the end we have not pursued any of

these solutions, because there was too

much specific knowledge required”, says

Geuze “The final objective of our search

for a new development environment

was to renew the entire ERP environ-

ment, but then step by step The Think-

wise Software Factory was the solution

that fitted perfectly ”

The approachIn 2007 contact was made with Thinkwise

Software Subsequently in 2008 various

meetings were initiated, an extensive

workshop was held on site and there was

even a reference visit organized At the

end of 2008 the agreement between Zee-

landia and Thinkwise Software was com-

pleted Seven pilot projects were defined,

ChallengeZeelandia wanted to modernize the entire organization and equip its own

software factory step by step with user friendly software

SolutionZeelandia defined seven pilot projects that were developed for a year to-

gether with Thinkwise Zeelandia could then experience that the Thinkwise

applications are accepted and that it is user friendly, workable software The

ERP environment is now largely being replaced by the Thinkwise Software

Factory

Benefits• AutomaticdevelopmentofapplicationsforWindowsaswellastheweb.

• Retentionofknowledgethroughre-useofexistingapplications.

• Basicversionsarealreadyavailableforthebusinessafterafewdaysfor

evaluation and acceptance

• Phasebyphasetransitionwithmodelledconnectionstotheexisting,‘old’

RPG environment

>>

Top 10

Reference

cases26

which would be developed together with

Thinkwise during one year A final test,

firstly to gain even more certainty, but

also as a good introduction to Thinkwise

for the various departments within Zee-

landia

“It clicked immediately with Thinkwise”,

Geuze tells “The Thinkwise Software Fac-

tory concept greatly appealed to us It is

not only tooling that we can use, such as

NET, but there has already been a great

deal of thought given to the development

framework, for example with pre-defined

templates Through this users are able to

quickly produce applications according

to the definition of their data model Al-

though these have not yet been completed

with business rules, the applications can

be built and demonstrated quickly to the

organization This gives quick insight into

the functional specifications and into the

wishes of the end users We were already

very enthusiastic about this in the first

pilot with Thinkwise ”

The first project that was tackled was the

Recipe Service, an application that re-

cords the recipes of the products for the

bakery and which also provides insight

into them via the web Since this applica-

tion is deployed internationally, this pilot

was immediately also a test for the web-

enabling of the application and for the

multi-language function in Thinkwise

Along with the Recipe Service application

Zeelandia developed six other applica-

tions in the Thinkwise Software Factory

during the pilot phase Projects that were

all rounded off successfully

The resultZeelandia has developed various applica-

tions with the help of the Thinkwise Soft-

ware Factory A good example of its use

is the support of local marketing plans

with a software application With this

new application, which is available for

all Zeelandia branches via the web, the

management can gain insight into the

market position of the Zeelandia subsidi-

aries Each international branch is obliged

to use the application, so that corporate

can gain insight into the international

state of affairs

Geuze: “Thinkwise Software Factory is

tooling that also runs on the IBM System i

platform and supports DB2 for the System

i So the DB2 knowledge of our employees

is not lost Furthermore we can transfer to

the newly developed applications, with

connections to the existing, ‘old’ RPG

environment This therefore involves

minimum risk Thinkwise has included

the recording of requirements at various

levels in their tooling, this is then used to

be able to complete the development of

the application We are able to equip our

own software factory with the advantage

of standardization The documentation

and uniformity are also important ad-

vantages Applications are developed in

an unambiguous fashion and everything

is recorded in a central system that pro-

vides insight for everybody So this is also

an enormous step forward in continuity

for Zeelandia ”

The evaluation after the pilot year in 2009

was very positive Currently in 2010, Zee-

landia is developing at full steam with the

Thinkwise Software Factory Geuze: “The

pilot projects had the objective of prov-

ing to our organization that the Thinkwise

applications are accepted, that it is soft-

ware with which people can work in a

user friendly manner, and that it satisfies

the requirements and expectations of the

users” It has been very positively received

by the end users and the developers also

reacted very positively We are unani-

mously of the opinion that the Thinkwise

Software Factory is a very good tool A

perfect addition to what we now already

have The intention is now to replace most

of our ERP environment Furthermore we

can also now use Thinkwise perfectly for

applications that make use of informa-

tion that is locked up in our ERP system

We can therefore offer a complete solution

for the Zeelandia organization That we

can also call in Thinkwise people for the

development of our applications if we

face capacity problems, is the icing on

the cake!” ◆

Top 10

Reference

cases27

“We are unanimously of the opinion that the Thinkwise

Software Factory is a very good tool. A perfect addition

to what we now already have”- Dick Geuze

ICT Development Manager at K onink lijk e Zeelandia

Top 10

Reference

cases28

“The Thinkwise Software

Factory doesn’t focus on

programming, but on

business modelling. Since

you start with modelling,

you can already see at an

early stage approximately

what the end result will

look like, without having

already invested many

hours in development”

- Sander Esk es Finance and Organisation

Manager

Top 10

Reference

cases29

During its fifty year existence KS Profiel

has undergone strong growth and de-

velopment The objective at the start was

the trade in and production of steel cold

rolled profiles Until 1978 it was still only

trade, after that production also started

Bodywork and construction were subse-

quently added at the end of 1980, mak-

ing it necessary for the company to ex-

pand Due to strategic take-overs in 1996

and 2007 KS Profiel now produces strip

steel and cold rolled profiles from vari-

ous types and qualities of steel

Along with the profiles and the strip steel

the company also develops systems KS

Profiel has three modern factories for this

purpose, an up-to-date engineering and

design department and its own tooling

shop The company now has available

three sliting lines, nineteen profiling lines

for welded and/or punched standard and

special profiles and two decoil lines Every

factory has its own specialization and

delivers worldwide

Kontinex Staal B.V. – in popular

speech KS Profiel – was founded in

1975. The family company started

at that time as a distribution busi-

ness and is now a manufacturer of

strip steel, cold rolled profiles and

plating materials. The KS Profiel

products are used, for example,

in the building trade, furniture in-

dustry, warehouse construction,

building of portable units, green-

house construction, steel con-

struction, body work and trade.

All products are made-to-measure

for the customer.

Company profile: K S Profiel

Top 10

Reference

cases30

IntroductionAlmost all standard ERP packages are

focused on converging business pro-

cesses, by which different components

or ingredients are combined into one

product But what if your business

process is divergent and you produce

different finished goods from one raw

material? KS Profiel could not manage

with standard software and decided to

develop an ERP package itself with the help

of the Software Factory from Thinkwise

The software was developed and imple-

mented within one year, at a fraction of

the costs that would have been incurred

with the choice for standard software

The ambitionJacco van Helden has worked at KS

Profiel since his graduation at the end

of the 1980’s The systems analyst has

worked in more or less all departments

and understands the company processes

through and through It is then no wonder

that Sander Eskes, the Finance and Organ-

isation manager, asked him to think about

a re-design of the business processes and

the associated ERP software

Van Helden: “We grew quickly, but our

processes were still focused on a small-

scale approach Furthermore, we are very

customer oriented, which means that

if a customer calls with a rush order, we

do out best to help him They would plan

such an order in between running orders,

with the consequence that the whole

planning shifted It was just like a sliding

puzzle If things went well, we solved the

puzzle, but it occasionally happened that

through a rush order other orders could

not be delivered on time In short, it was

necessary to bring more structure into

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cases31

our processes, so that we could improve

our planning and increase efficiency ”

In 2004 the search started for an ERP

package that could support the newly

designed processes, that was flexible and

could be modified to the continuously

changing processes Van Helden and

Eskes came across Thinkwise Software,

the supplier of a software development

tool with which non-IT personnel can

themselves develop customized software,

supported by at most one or two

Thinkwise software engineers They were

immediately convinced of the concept

“The Thinkwise Software Factory doesn’t

focus on programming, but on business

modelling Since you start with modelling,

you can already see at an early stage

approximately what the end result will

look like, without having already invest-

The challengeAfter enormous growth KS Profiel was ready for a new design of the business

processes with the associated ERP software Due to the nature of the business

processes the company could not manage with standard software

The solutionKS Profiel decided to develop an ERP package itself with the help of the Software

Factory from Thinkwise The software was developed and implemented within

one year, at a fraction of the costs that would have been incurred with the choice

for standard software

Benefits• Modellingoftheapplicationiscarriedouttogetherwiththebusiness.

• Low investment incomparison to the implementation of a standard ERP

package

• More valid business cases through a manageable and fast development

process

• Goodinsightintocostprices,planningandforecast.

>>

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cases32

ed many hours in development”, says

Eskes It is his firm conviction that this

ensures a far better connection with

the business “Because you can already

demonstrate something at an early stage,

the business can form a picture for them-

selves of the functionality that they will

receive You can actually demonstrate

something instead of just talking about

it If the business is satisfied with the

process model, data model and the

screens you can then get to work with the

specific business functionality ”

The approachIn 2006 KS Profiel started with a test of

the Relationship module The test period

was equally important for Thinkwise, says

commercial director Hans Keukenschrijver

“By modelling a part of the application at

an early stage, the organization sees what

its application will look like The develop-

ment process and the look and feel of the

finished product are immediately clear

and the mutual expectations are known

beforehand ”

The test was a success At the end of 2006

both companies therefore started with

the construction of the complete ERP

suite They approached this step by step

“You must split such a project into smaller

pieces and examine for each department

which functionality they need”, says Van

Helden

“A major part of that work had already

been done, because when the manage-

ment said yes to customized software,

they also immediately said yes to a thor-

ough process and organization change

This resulted in a better separation of

functions and a better division of respon-

sibilities The organization change and

development of the ERP package actu-

ally went hand in hand Both processes

had the objective of increasing the ef-

ficiency and gaining better visibility into

the consequences of certain decisions in

production If you have that insight, you

also have better visibility into the cost

price and you can make a good planning ”

In the new process sales indicate in which

week the products have to be delivered

Purchasing has to ensure that the raw

materials are available on time Produc-

tion has the freedom to adjust the plan-

ning within a window of, for example, five

working days “If, for instance, someone is

ill, then production can decide for them-

selves to bring forward another order”,

tells Van Helden Exceptions to this stand-

ard course of events are, of course, always

possible but now there is room for this “If a

certain order must absolutely be delivered

on a specific day instead of in a specific

week, it is now much easier to adjust the

remaining planning ”

The resultIn the meantime the basic package, that

is called KS4All, has been extended with

various additional functions and Van

Helden is still nowhere near to being fin-

ished “There are still another 21 projects

on my list One requirement, for example,

is to start working with barcodes, so that

we can introduce tracking & tracing into

production At the moment we still stick

hand written stickers on the rolls of split

coil and the finished goods We also want

to give customers access to information

about their order via Internet

There are countless possibilities to fur-

ther develop KS4All A business case al-

ways forms the basis of every decision to

develop specific functionality These

business cases are compact and only

incorporate the investment in time and

money necessary to build a piece of

functionality and the cost savings or extra

income resulting from this

“The good thing about this way of

developing is that the investment keeps

pace with the benefits We don’t have to

make any large one-time investments,

we develop step by step and there-

fore always quickly earn back this low

investment”, says Van Helden

“Furthermore, you decide for yourself how

long the development takes If you have

a good understanding of the process you

want to support, then developing the

software takes no time at all ”◆

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cases33

“We don’t have to make any large one-time investments, but

we develop step by step and therefore always quickly earn

back this low investment”, says Van Helden”- Jacco van Helden

Systems Analyst at K S Profiel

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Reference

cases34

“We now have far greater

control over the entire

process. We are ready for

the future with a clear

look and feel”- Hans Willemsen

General Manager at Wila

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Reference

cases35

From a purely traditional forge Wila has

specialized itself along the way into a pro-

fessional high-tech company with unique

products The latest breakthrough in their

search for productivity is the Universal

Press Brake Concept: standardized drill

holes so that specific holding systems can

be fitted which are permanently adjusta-

ble The Safety Click introduced in 1991, a

spring safety mechanism that makes pos-

sible vertical tool changes, is inextricably

linked with Wila’s New Standard & Ameri-

can Style tooling systems Furthermore

Wila introduced a crowning system under

the name Crowning Followed shortly

thereafter by Clamping, the system that

also aligns the tools

All these introductions are statements

of the transformation which Wila has

consciously chosen for to be able to arrive

at the company it is today: a modern and

innovative globally operating company

with numerous own patents for which

licences are granted Wila has partnerships

with renowned press brake manufacturers,

suppliers, scientists and universities

throughout the world

Wila was founded in 1932. The long-

established company in Lochem is

a global leader in high quality tools

for press brake manufacturers and

the plate processing industry. Wila

has all the specialist know-how

and experience required to supply

custom-made products. Innova-

tion plays a prominent role in this.

WILA has developed its own tool-

ing system that has already been

labelled as the New Standard by

the industry.

Company profile: Wila

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cases36

IntroductionThose who embark on something with

Wila, go for productivity, is a well-known

adage within the walls of Wila in the

province of Gelderland “With tooling

systems in the three global standards

American Style, European Style and New

Standard we are the specialist and mar-

ket leader in bending solutions Together

with our Universal Press Brake Concept we

increase the flexibility of the press brake

process”, tells General Manager Hans

Willemsen “We involve both mechanical

as well as human factors, because both are

of influence on the efficiency of the press

brakes And that is also our objective: to

remain a respected profitable company

with which existing and potential

customers, suppliers and employees

are happy to be associated Everything

that we do at Wila takes place against the

background of this principle ”

The ambitionKnowledge of the application, production

technology and innovation play an

important role at WILA “The continuous

research, development and testing of

new products is the basis of our success

Good ICT support is therefore crucial”,

says John Sangers, ICT Manager “For ICT

and ICT development it is our objective to

improve the effectiveness and efficiency

of the internal and external business pro-

cesses We have made the change from

project based working to process based

working To be able to control and moni-

tor all these business processes, we need

to be able to rely on good ICT support ”

Hans Willemsen adds: “ICT is, as it were,

a compromise between loadability and

flexibility Of course, we already had

an ICT environment, but due to all the

changes we decided to take a close look

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cases37

at our business model and the operations

management software, including produc-

tion We made insufficient use of the fact

that we perform recurring work This pro-

duced agreement problems amongst our

professionals, because everybody had

their own vision for each project We had

the need for another kind of informa-

tion management and have therefore

introduced our internal Wise system: a

project oriented, DOS based information

environment ” Seven modular products

were standardized and the entire

manufacturing process was dealt with

in different steps

Willemsen: “Around 2000 we decided

to make a complete change and went

from scratch to finished product We have

designed a complete new business model

that must serve as the starting point for

future development It was our ambition

ChallengeWila has undergone strong growth and progress A well oiled, adjusted ICT

infrastructure was indispensable Modern ICT, on the basis of manageable and

innovative custom-built software

SolutionThe concepts of the existing application are translated into models that Wila

can maintain independently The Thinkwise Software Factory automatically

creates the applications based on these models Thinkwise ensures that the

Software Factory supports the newest technologies The Wila applications can

therefore no longer age technologically

The old Wila custom-built system was converted in only a few days with the

Software Factory to a first basic version on an MS SQL Server platform, with

VB6 GUIs

Benefits• Manageableandinnovativemannerofsoftwaredevelopment.

• Applicationscaneasilyadaptwithnewbusinessmodels.

• Benefitfromthenewesttechnologieswithretrospectiveeffect.

• Carryoutmodificationsandexpansionsourselves.

>>

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cases38

to do the same in less time The basis for

this was our existing business model We

needed a new system design and the cor-

rect software to support this ”

The approachInitially, Wila wanted to examine what

was available in the market that fitted in

with the current ICT infrastructure This

turned out to be an unfeasible notion

Despite this Wila still wanted to make a

flying start with a well-oiled, modern ICT

infrastructure In 2004 the company came

in contact with the Thinkwise Software

company in Apeldoorn and its product

the Thinkwise Software Factory Hans

Keukenschrijver, Commercial Director at

Thinkwise: “Wila was already engaged in a

package selection and were also looking

at MS Navision They came to the conclu-

sion that a standard package did not offer

them the required functionality Another

disadvantage was that these packages in-

troduced a different way of working They

came in contact with us via their hard-

ware partner with the question how they

could develop custom-built software in a

manageable and innovative manner To

give Wila a better idea about how special

the use of the Thinkwise Software Factory

was, their old custom-made system was

converted using the Software Factory

into an MS-SQL Server platform, with VB6

GUI’s, and this all in just a few days ”

Wila continues to invest in Research & De-

velopment, in production resources and

methods, in people and in the manner

in which they all work together This was

also extended to the collaboration with

Thinkwise John Sangers: “Thinkwise

supplied logistic consultants and we

continuously involved a group of key

users This last group were regularly shown

demo’s to which they could then react

The most enjoyable part of this way of

working was that the people actually con-

cerned with the ICT change, were involved

directly from the beginning and could

immediately express their views Through

this consultation structure between the

functional areas, a perfect agreement is

created Thanks to Thinkwise we have now

covered everything, from the first to the

last customer contact and everything in

between There is a workflow module

running on top of this, so that anyone

who carries out an activity can immediately

inform the following function in the chain

about this There is no energy wasted on

pointless matters This creates calm that

is essential for the development of every

employee and thereby of the organization

as a whole ”

Hans Keukenschrijver subscribes to this

view “Wila is a company with a clear focus

and healthy management Cost savings

and efficiency are excellent examples

of this If Wila takes up new initiatives,

they are always well considered and

well thought-out Wila has well-defined

projects with a clear objective It is

expected that Wila will quickly make use

of the possibilities offered by the Web

GUI coupled to their existing application

Then the branch in the United States can

also run it on their current application ”

The resultHans Willemsen is particularly satisfied

about the use of Thinkwise “We now

have far greater control over the entire

process We are ready for the future, with

a clear look and feel All our activities

greatly benefit from the improved

operating procedure and better

control information And what’s more we

are our own boss: and it’s good to be able

to continue to develop ourselves That

reinforces the trust in ourselves

Thinkwise offers support as an excellent

development partner and is a reliable

research partner for investigation into

the applicability of new technologies

Furthermore, we very much appreciate

the Thinkwise approach Additionally

there is also no lock-in We have

the freedom to cancel at any time

Involvement and enthusiasm are

anything but empty slogans for us Our

employees are continuously fed with

an increasing professionalization of the

organization as a whole This also applies

for each individual employee within

Wila We have also found that personal

touch with Thinkwise ” ◆

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cases39

“The continuous research, development and testing of new

products is the basis of our success. Good ICT support is

therefore crucial”

- John Sangers ICT Manager at Wila

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Reference

cases40

“If I can work with this,

then anybody can!”

- A. van den Berg former Director of the A. van den

Berg family business.

PRECIOUS WOODS

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cases41

The Precious Woods Group was founded

in 1990 by a group of Swiss investors,

based on green, environmentally con-

scious principles The company focuses

itself on four segments: sustainable for-

estry management, plantations, the timber

trade and carbon & oil The activities are

supported by more than fifty years of ex-

perience with the application of tropical

hardwood, extensive research into the

characteristics of wood, advanced pro-

cessing machines and drying rooms, and

innovative technical advice and project

support Precious Woods has built up a

reputation with its strict controls on the

sustainable production and the quality of

the wood and continuously monitors the

level of its service

In 2000, Precious Woods was listed on the

Swiss stock exchange In the Netherlands,

the company under its present name is a

continuation of the A van den Berg family

business, pioneers in FSC certified tropical

hardwood, which was established as long

ago as 1913

Precious Woods Europe is the larg-

est supplier of FSC certified tropical

hardwood in Europe. The company

imports and markets more than

fifty types of tropical wood and

has available its own facilities for

the processing, sorting, drying

and storage of sawn timber. Un-

der the motto ‘Cultivate and save’

Precious Woods continuously

dedicates itself to sustainably pro-

duced wood and a healthy future

for the forests.

Company profile: Precious Woods

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cases42

IntroductionThe pillars of sustainable economic, eco-

logical and socially responsible entrepre-

neurship form the basis of the business

activities for Precious Woods, the importer

and supplier of timber It is not entirely

coincidental that these are also the three

pillars of the FSC (Forest Stewardship

Council), the international organisation

founded in 1993 that stimulates respon-

sible forestry management

The Precious Woods company, of Swiss

origin, that currently possesses forests of

almost 1 2 million hectares in Costa Rica,

Brazil and Gabon, was ready to make the

necessary changes to equip the organi-

zation for the social and economic reali-

ties of today The custom-made Business

Information System (BIS), developed by

Thinkwise, plays an important role in this

The ambitionPrecious Woods is a special company Ac-

cording to the CFO, Frank van der Hout,

The FSC hallmark is the cork on which the

company floats Once begun with the pur-

chase and re-planting of cleared grounds,

Precious Woods developed itself into an

importer and supplier of timber of world

stature With the income generated from

the listing on the Swiss stock exchange

land could once again be purchased

The growing size and the changes within

the company made a new profession-

alization round necessary The board of

directors was separated from the man-

agement and further plans for growth

were developed Ambitious plans for

growth In 2005 a (bio-)power station was

purchased in Brazil and the activities in

Gabon were taken over in 2007

PRECIOUS WOODS

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cases43

Van der Hout: “What we can offer, changes

each year Good information is therefore

the basis on which we can continue to

build In the past we almost had a monopo-

ly on tropical hardwood with FSC hallmark

but there is now far more competition So

we have to act far more pro-actively: we

inform customers about the status of their

order and about where a bundle of timber

is at that moment in the entire process Fur-

thermore our salesmen can approach the

customers far more actively and they visit

the customers more often It is therefore

important that they have the most current

information available With the help of IT

our time must be efficiently deployed to

further develop our company and improve

the service to the customer Furthermore it

is important to be able to quickly produce

quotations and have a good insight into

the stock That helps us to adequately an-

ticipate changes ”

ChallengeDue to the growing size, internal company changes and the need to channel these,

a new round of professionalization was necessary at Precious Woods Europe

SolutionThe development of a new Business Information System (BIS) with the help of

Thinkwise and its Software Factory provided a unique and flexible system that

positively influences the operating result The information is accurate, up-to-

date and complete and is available at the right time This forms the basis of this

comprehensive software solution

Benefits• Auserfriendlyandintuitiveapplication.

• Theapplicationimprovestheoperatingprofits.

• Traceability:insightintothefuture,in-transitandphysicalstock.

• Extensive,completecontrolandmanagementinformation.

>>

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Reference

cases44

The approachPrecious Woods’ special activities and

business processes form a complex chal-

lenge for IT Among other things this is

due to the various stock locations (the

country of origin, in transit, the various

harbours, bundled at home base in Nieu-

werbrug or at processing companies),

with the substitutes (alternative types

of wood) and with the requirements of

the COC certification (chain of custody)

Furthermore wood is a special natural

product, with various characteristics, that

makes the application of article numbers

difficult Many ERP systems have a problem

with this Furthermore Precious Woods has

the intention to grow even more and has

changed its complete business model for

this

Thinkwise dared to accept the challenge

and developed a new Business Informa-

tion System (BIS) with the help of the

Software Factory, by which the developed

software could be easily modified to sup-

port the ambitious plans for growth

The development project was already

underway before Van der Hout joined

Precious Woods, but he is very enthusi-

astic “I know of no other software system

that can be modified in the way that

BIS can On top of that it is a very user

friendly system It fits in very well with our

company For instance, we now have

the correct insight into our stock and

quotations We can control operations

on the basis of this information We can

quickly and easily carry out modifications

and anticipate changes ”

The roll out of the new software was ini-

tially an improved version of the solution

that was already in use at A van den Berg

This has been gradually changed and

modified The remark made by Mr Van

den Berg, after he sat himself behind the

keyboard during the demo of the new

system, developed with the Thinkwise

Software Factory, was quite telling: “If I can

work with this, then anybody can!”

The resultClear and easily compiled management

information, based on accurate and

current data is for Van der Hout one of

the strong features of the Thinkwise

system “Personally, I would rather call

this the management control system

Nowadays we only work with real-

time management information The

availability of up-to-date graphical

management information is very important

for me I can produce all kinds of reports for

myself by just pressing one key and with-

out the help of an IT employee Due to the

specific design that has been chosen for

the Business Information System we can

now handle the available data and draw up

reports very flexibly Due to the Thinkwise

solution we now have more insight into the

supply chain and the stock It is our inten-

tion to use IT as a means to support the

business processes in order to structurally

reduce the stock levels ”

Apart from gaining a better insight into

the stock, Precious Woods must know the

exact origin of each bundle of timber, the

traceability of the timber or the so-called

FSC Chain of Custody (COC) The COC

certification is compulsory for all compa-

nies that produce, process, transform or

trade in FSC certified products “With this

information we know exactly what we have

in stock in the supply chain and therefore

know what we can sell and when we can

sell it Previously this knowledge was in the

heads of the buyers, now our salespersons

attain this data from our Business Informa-

tion System ”

Summarizing all benefits, Van der Hout is

a satisfied man “The improvement of the

business processes, insight into the stock at

the various stock locations and in finance

has improved immensely All this due to the

excellent cooperation with Thinkwise ”

The BIS has also resulted in cost savings

Even so Van der Hout does not want to

refer to IT as a tool with which you must make

financial savings “You can save costs, but

in my opinion IT is especially important for

improving business processes; if people

gain more time through computerization,

then that time can be used efficiently

to further assist our company and

improve the level of service towards the

customer ” ◆

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cases45

“The improvement of the business processes, insight into

the stock at the various stock locations and in finance has

improved immensely. All this due to the excellent

cooperation with Thinkwise”- Frank van der Hout

CFO at Precious Woods Europe

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Reference

cases46

“Our users were used

to getting everything

from us. Now we have a

standard GUI people

have to conform to it.

That saves us a lot

of work”

- Bernhard Bergman ICT Manager at Royal Huisman

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Reference

cases47

Royal Huisman is one of the world leaders

in building advanced sailing yachts

The customers rarely come from the

Netherlands and are generally very

wealthy About four hundred permanent

employees work at the shipyard which is

now 126 years old

The length of the yachts varies from 30

to 90 metres The designs originate from

international architects and are devel-

oped within the company by a team

of draughtsman and engineers The

yachts are built at the exceptionally well

equipped shipyard of 30,000 square me-

tres, where advanced technologies form

a perfect combination with the highest

quality in traditional craftsmanship

Royal Huisman works together with spe-

cialist companies who each in their own

field are of world stature within the yacht

building industry In this way the shipyard

can combine the benefits of its method of

working with the newest developments

and expertise of specialist suppliers

Royal Huisman Shipyard is spe-

cialized in the building of luxury

custom built sailing and motor

yachts for international custom-

ers. The family business with a

unique share in Dutch maritime

heritage was founded in 1884

and in 1984 acquired the hon-

orary title ‘Royal’. For its designs

and constructions the shipyard

applies the characteristic Intel-

ligent Engineering™ approach,

based on a flexible infrastructure,

specialism and technologies that

are almost unique within the

yacht and shipbuilding industry.

Company profile: Royal Huisman Shipyard

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cases48

IntroductionIn the north of the Dutch province of

Overijssel lies the small picturesque vil-

lage of Vollenhove A peaceful location

that nevertheless enjoys international

recognition in wealthy circles The ex-

tremely luxury sailing yachts that are

built at the Royal Huisman Shipyard are

world famous and attract mainly foreign

multimillionaires To be able to produce

this branch of water sport, Royal Huisman

makes use of an extensive ICT infrastruc-

ture

The ambitionFor many, a sailing boat is mainly some-

thing with which should be sailed

However, the clientele of Royal Huisman

Shipyard expect far more They want the

best of the best To meet these require-

ments and store all the information from

the customers, the company based itself

for many years on information that was

stored in a chaos of Excel spreadsheets

and Access databases It was a laborious,

complex collection of two hundred da-

tabases, at least sixty Excel spreadsheets

and ten kinds of GUI’s in which little co-

herence was to be found

Putting applications into use costs a lot of

time and manpower, without even talking

about the associated costs “It must

be possible to do this differently”, says

Bernhard Bergman, ICT manager at Royal

Huisman “But it looked like an almost

impossible task to bring about change ”

However, on one fine day in 2006 Berg-

man received a telephone call from

Thinkwise As a Deus ex machina this

offered him the solution

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cases49

The approachThe ICT department started sorting out

the many databases in 2006 Firstly the

data from all the Access databases was

read in That involved a great deal of cut

and paste Bergman: “Because officially

they were databases, but effectively it

was one large flat table, in which a vast

amount of data had to be deduplicated”

In addition a datawarehouse was built to

run all databases under SQL Server and

make much better use of the available

data using business intelligence tech-

niques The two hundred databases with

associated applications were reduced to

twenty with databases related to each

other

Important achievement: the use of a uni-

form GUI that is forced by the Thinkwise

Software Factory Bergman: “Our users

ChallengeRoyal Huisman wanted to quickly modernize and make more manageable the

old databases and spreadsheet tables and achieve this with as little manpower

as possible

SolutionUsing the Software Factory a datawarehouse has been built to run all

databases under SQL Server and make much better use of the available

data using business intelligence techniques The amount of data was reduced

and relationships were defined, partly by the use of a uniform GUI

Benefits• Fastdevelopmentandmaintenanceofapplications.

• Nounwantedproliferationofapplications.

• StandardizedRoyalHuismanWindowsandwebuserinterfaces.

• Integrated,interactionandreal-timebusinessintelligence.

>>

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cases50

were used to getting everything from

us Now we have a standard GUI people

have to conform to it That saves us a lot

of work The strength of the tool is that it

also produces the GUIs And it makes a dif-

ference that you now have to fathom out

fewer screens If you now understand one

screen, then you understand them all ”

Royal Huisman subsequently prepared

the conversion to the new technology

by describing the old functionality, the

data model and the requirements for

the new functionality That was worked

out in more detail in the model of the

Software Factory, the database and all

standard screens The Software Factory

generates them for each data model

together with all user functionality, such

as filtering, printing and process steps

for Windows and the web The model

contains all the data about the application

to be developed, and information about

how the database is built up, the busi-

ness functionality, help text structures

and all screens These GUIs are not gener-

ated; they interpet the model

The screen components are standardized

and contain all functions such as adding,

changing and deleting records, searching,

filtering, sorting, printing, exporting to Ex-

cel The front-end is built up dynamically

by interpreting the model The compo-

nents are available in Net and Java and

are suitable for Windows and the web

The Software Factory can be fed with

data from older applications and this is

then converted to new technology The

knowledge resides in the model and is in-

dependent of the technology that is used

The resultNew applications are now built immedi-

ately in the Software Factory An exam-

ple is the so-called Briefing book This

application retrieves action items from

reports of discussions with customers

for which departments have to under-

take action The departments can be

controlled from the database Another

example is the inventory database in

which the various engineering depart-

ments can keep track of which items

must be installed in the various areas of

the ship There is also a database with

the complete coding of the ship; each

activity has a code, which can be used for

control and calculations Since develop-

ment is done a lot faster, this unburdens

the ICT department

Bergman considers it a major benefit

that the ICT department has been able

to take control of the management of

the data sources “Everything is located

centrally and neatly arranged We also

know what data there is and if other de-

partments need it In the past we didn’t

even know that it existed There is there-

fore no longer any unwanted prolifera-

tion of applications Everything is better

protected and we make central back-

ups We previously also made backups,

but only if it was on the network and

then you missed quite a lot”

And Bergman is still nowhere near to

being finished “The project work lists

are now in numerous Excel sheets One

per ship! That has to be done differently,

since many actions are needed to just

add one action item to the Excel sheet

We are going to import the sheets That

is the basis for the distribution of new in-

formation on databases

In the future we will also be able to en-

ter work list items remotely via the web

The model can easily produce that You

can gain access to the model in various

ways Previously you had to develop two

different applications for this Now we

generate one application from the mod-

el in two different user interfaces: one for

the web and one for Windows Due to

the Thinkwise Software Factory we can

now manage excellently with our ICT in-

frastructure We are without doubt very

satisfied with Thinkwise ” ◆

Top 10

Reference

cases51

“Due to the Thinkwise Software Factory we can now manage

excellently with our ICT infrastructure. We are without doubt

very satisfied with Thinkwise”- Bernhard Bergman

ICT Manager at Royal Huisman

Top 10

Reference

cases52

“The business is happy;

they can now generate

very complex fully

custom-built mortgage

quotations, in a much

shorter time.”- Hans de Wit

Project Manager in the Theodoor

Gilissen Bank iers PMO

department.

Top 10

Reference

cases53

Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers is a subsidi-

ary of KBL European Private Bankers (KBL

epb), a network of private banks active

in ten European countries with around

three thousand employees In turn KBL

epb if part of the Hinduja group, one of

the largest financial service providers in

Europe

Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers has the

ambition to become the best performing

private bank in the Netherlands, for both

customers as well as employees Hereby

the select group of wealthy customers

is assured of broad financial expertise,

clear customized advice and transparency

in costs

Always sound, where possible innovative

and independent in the offered services,

Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers has an

eye for today and the future, with the

corporate values: Ethics, Professional

and Energizing

Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers offers all the

advantages of a small, specialised bank:

high quality advice from professionals

with a high level of involvement, experi-

ence and expertise Theodoor Gilissen

Bankiers applies distinctive standards

and values, is objective and independent

The bank grants no credits to companies

quoted on the stock exchange and is no

party during share emissions

Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers is an

independent private bank, spe-

cialized in investments, capital

planning and financing. For more

than 125 years the bank offers

high quality services and customi-

zation in the area of income and

capital structuring, investment

and financing to wealthy private

individuals, foundations and as-

sociations.

Company profile: Theodoor Gilissen Bank iers

Top 10

Reference

cases54

IntroductionComputerization and information tech-

nology have become extremely important

in the financial sector during the past

twenty years In the slipstream of this the

relevance of the control on the ICT also

grew At banks almost all activities, pro-

cesses and procedures are recorded in

information systems This involves large

cash flows, with many risks It is therefore

extremely important to monitor the

reliability and continuity of these ICT

systems and simplify their use

In line with this the nucleus of banking

activities and products consists of ad-

ministrative processes Confronted with

changing legislation and the require-

ments made by the DNB and AFM super-

visors, Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers looked

for a manageable, structured and easily

modifiable IT system

The ambitionSome aspects of ICT are specific for the

banking sector In contrast to many com-

panies within the manufacturing industry

banks mostly make use of branch specific

software packages Hans de Wit, Project

Manager in the Project Management

Organisation (PMO) at Theodoor Gilissen

Bankiers: “Many processes in the manu-

facturing industry and logistics are the

same A standard ERP software package

is a good solution The processes at banks

differ strongly from this Banks therefore

need specific packages The nucleus of

banking activities and products consists

of administrative processes by which cash

flows and customer details alternate with

each other You then want the underlying

system to work perfectly You can’t get

away from that Information technology

no longer stands on its own, but has

become an essential part of the operation

Top 10

Reference

cases55

So you have to look at what you can do

for yourself and what you have to have

done externally ”

From way back Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers

is used to developing and adding all kinds

of peripheral applications in-house, often

developed from scratch The disadvan-

tage was that an enormous proliferation

of applications arose and control over

them was completely lost De Wit: “We

have around 240 employees and have

our own development department with

four developers Our central bank applica-

tion was Bank/View, that ran under Open-

VMS on an AlphaVax Furthermore we

had many peripheral applications on SQL

Server and we developed in VB and NET

The maintenance of these peripheral ap-

plications cost a lot of time ”

De Wit expressed the ambition of the

ChallengeTheodoor Gilissen Bankiers wanted a structured development environment to

develop business applications in a uniform manner ‘Carrying out maintenance

and modifications in the applications is of great importance due to changes in

legislation and business requirements

SolutionTwo business applications were replaced and re-developed in two separate

projects with the help of the Software Factory: the Mortgages Module and the

Independent Capital Management intake application More business applica-

tions and peripheral systems will follow in the future

Benefits• Uniformmannerofapplicationdevelopmentthroughamodeldriven

approach

• Applicationshaveaintuitivelookandfeelandareeasytouse.

• Applicationdevelopmentandcarryingoutmodificationsiswell-organised

and easy and is done very quickly

• TheSoftwareFactorysupportsandmakesuseofmarketstandardssuchas

SQL Server and NET

>>

Top 10

Reference

cases56

bank: “We wanted to develop a common

user interface with the same look and feel

It must be possible to carry out modifica-

tions of applications more easily and the

development process must be manage-

able In the end it is the intention that

the development and management tasks

increase the quality and the flexibility of

the ICT services Our peripheral systems are

very important for us and it is these systems

that require the most maintenance through

changes in the business and legislation ”

The approachTheodoor Gilissen Bankiers decided to

look in the market and see which parties

could lend a helping hand An introduc-

tion to Thinkwise Software followed in

2008 The first contact was not entirely

convincing So Thinkwise accepted the

challenge to convince Theodoor Gilissen

Bankiers and a pilot project was started

An Independent Capital Management

application was developed, in which the

capital managers enter all required and

legally obliged information of a customer

The bank can then determine whether it

is possible and permitted to open an ac-

count for the customer in question

Hans Keukenschrijver, Commercial Direc-

tor of Thinkwise Software, tells how the

application was developed: “We opted

already at an early stage to involve the

end users in the development process by

demonstrating the application to them

before implementing it In this way they

could provide feedback and we could

modify the design of the application ”

Keukenschrijver explains why Thinkwise

applies this way of working: “By listening

closely to and communicating with the

customer you can fine tune things quick-

ly and thoroughly This saves you a lot of

time and effort Moreover you can make a

realistic estimation of what the customer

wants and which costs this involves In

the end it is all about being able to offer

the customer what he wants ”

This way of working went down well with

Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers Thinkwise

was subsequently requested to start up a

second project This project included the

development of a Mortgages Module

With this application fully custom-made

mortgage quotations can be generated

for the relations of Theodoor Gilissen

Bankiers

De Wit: “The nice thing about it is that ac-

count is taken of all kinds of exceptions,

information that now generally resides in

the heads of the persons producing the

quotation It is therefore a custom-built

module and that works very satisfactorily It

is really made for people with knowledge

of the business ”

The resultHans De Wit is very satisfied about the

result that Thinkwise was able to achieve

with the Software Factory “The business

is happy; they can now generate very

complex fully custom-built mortgage

quotations, in a much shorter time ”

De Wit emphasizes that it must be possible

to carry out a modification to an applica-

tion in a controlled manner “You want to

avoid that through the modification certain

controls in the application are put out of

operation The Software Factory is the solu-

tion for this Thinkwise has demonstrated

that it can produce excellent tailor-made

applications in an efficient and cost-effec-

tive manner And quickly; the largest steps

were taken within three months ”

Although Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers

have the licence for the Software Fac-

tory, the bank outsources the develop-

ment on a project basis to Thinkwise The

modification of applications remains in-

house to keep the costs of maintenance

within limits

“We know that we can leave the devel-

opment to Thinkwise with confidence It

is a professional company with a great

deal of business knowledge That also

matches the philosophy of Theodoor

Gilissen Bankiers ” ◆

Top 10

Reference

cases57

“Thinkwise has demonstrated that it can produce

excellent tailor-made applications in an efficient

and cost-effective manner. And quickly”- Hans de Wit

Project Manager in the Theodoor Gilissen Bank iers PMO department.

Top 10

Reference

cases58

“The new situation is

a major step forwards.

Especially in the area of

making modifications”

- K oos K oster Director at Profextru Production

Top 10

Reference

cases59

Profextru has almost a half century of

experience in the development and pro-

duction of plastic profiles and plastic

applications In addition, the company

excels in two plastic systems Firstly Pro-

fextru is the manufacturer of the Prolock

This patented plastic sheet pile wall is de-

veloped and produced in their own, fully

computer-controlled factory This wall

offers a sustainable alternative for non-

certified tropical hardwood that is still of-

ten used for the protection of river banks

Secondly there is the Combiboard These

high quality plastic wall panels have dif-

fering applications In the agricultural sec-

tor the panels serve as pen partitions and

partitioning walls, but they are also used

in car washes and other projects

In addition, especially for the construc-

tion branch Profextru has developed

some specific brand products, such as

Profort and Pro Panel wall panels, which

are brought to the market via a dealer

network The company has its own plas-

tics crushing plant and tooling shop

In the highly developed company in the

Dutch province of Overijssel quality is al-

ways of paramount importance with all

business processes Profextru character-

ises itself by innovation and control That

makes possible a strong combination of

innovation and computerization It is the

aim of Profextru to maintain and improve

the acquired market position

Profextru is Europe’s largest

processor of re-used plastics.

Profextru Production produces and

sells their own, patented profile

systems from synthetic materials

for the ground, road construction

and hydraulic engineering sectors,

and partitioning walls for the

agricultural branch, such as

systems for river bank protection

and stable construction. Through

specific research into specific

applications unique and sustain-

able quality products are designed

and produced.

Company profile: Profextru

Top 10

Reference

cases60

IntroductionIn practice it is often not easy, if not impos-

sible, to find an ERP package that fully sat-

isfies the requirements and wishes of the

company At Profextru Production they de-

cided to approach this differently And the

decision they took was not an obvious one:

as a non-software development company

they chose to develop their ERP system

themselves A system that must perfectly

fit with their own requirements A chal-

lenge that they didn’t enter into alone, but

for which they strengthened the ranks with

the use of the Thinkwise Software Factory

from Thinkwise Software in Apeldoorn

The ambitionProfextru Production develops, produces

and sells and is therefore involved with

many logistic processes A faultlessly

working IT system as support is not an

unnecessary luxury Initially Profextru

worked with a standard ERP package, but

that turned out to not fully support the

usual processes

Werny de Koning, project manager at Pro-

fextru: “We worked with an ERP package

that makes use of a character-based user

interface When it was decided within the

company to make the foremen also re-

sponsible for the planning it turned out

that this didn’t work They missed the

overview across all production lines ” For

Profextru this was the moment to trans-

fer from a character-based interface to

a graphical presentation By presenting

the quantity and type of products for

each production line graphically, the fore-

men were given a tool to enable them to

produce the planning However such a

graphical presentation turned out to be

unattainable with the ERP package The

registration of production, which was

Top 10

Reference

cases61

maintained in Excel, got bogged down by

the large amount of data ”

And that was not all Since along the way

more and more was automated in the

factory, there arrived more new machines

and as a consequence of that increasingly

more PLCs (Programmable Logic Con-

trollers) This provided and generated so

much data that the ERP package could

not handle it De Koning: “Our standard

ERP package was no longer satisfactory;

it no longer fitted in with our method of

working After that it turned out that the

manner in which we wanted to work with

the scanning of barcodes also didn’t fit in

with the way of thinking of the supplier of

the former ERP package ”

At that point Profextru decided to set up

a system together with an engineer’s bu-

reau that worked with an Access front-end

ChallengeAs a non-software development company, Profextru wanted to develop its

own ERP system, in a manageable and cost efficient manner The new soft-

ware must raise the competitive strength of the organization, through full

support of the business processes and it must be easy to carry out modifi-

cations

SolutionWith the help of the Thinkwise Software Factory the old character-based ERP

system was replaced by a new application using MS SQL Server and NET screens

Benefits• Carryingouteasy,fastandcontrolledmodificationsintheapplication.

• Independencefromexternalsuppliers.

• Excellentpossibilitiesformanagementinformationintheapplication.

• Moredecisiveoperationsthroughshorterleadtimes.

>>

Top 10

Reference

cases62

and an MS-SQL back-end Following this

Thinkwise Software was approached with

the question of whether they could pro-

duce a graphical planning on the basis

of the data from this database The ball

started rolling

The approachProfextru Production had already previ-

ously had good experiences with Think-

wise Software, and therefore again made

contact Profextru was taken with the

fact that Thinkwise could ensure that the

information from the old ERP package

could be included in the new environ-

ment and that all standard data also

remained available

After insight into the planning was provid-

ed graphically, it was decided to examine

whether an interactive management in-

formation cockpit could also be designed

in the same way “It was pointed out to us

that it is possible to produce data cubes

with MS-SQL to provide even more insight

into the data This was for us the solution

to compile all kinds of management in-

formation reports for ourselves”, says Koos

Koster, director of Profextru Production

There followed a period in which the

processes within the organization were

recorded and it was examined how these

processes could best be supported It

soon turned out that customization was

the solution The cooperation with Think-

wise Software turned out to be a smart

move Koster: “I found it an enormous

challenge We are not software develop-

ers and therefore had no experience with

the development of these kinds of large

and complex systems ” De Koning adds:

“I am first and foremost a mechanical

engineer I have a lot of affinity with soft-

ware development and have developed

applications in Access The disadvantage

of Access is just that modifications in the

application cost a lot of time and energy

Also the inclusion of security or controls is

not easy in Access ”

With the Thinkwise Software Factory this

was very quickly a completely different

story The potential of Thinkwise’s model

driven software development makes it

possible to develop custom-built appli-

cations, in-house and cost efficiently This

also applies for smaller organizations

The resultKoster: ”We can now define the process

at a very abstract level, then translate

it into a model and after that develop

an actual application ” During the de-

velopment it turned out that with the

new system, for instance, it was easier

to make modifications and carry out

changes

De Koning: “It helped that I already had

a lot of experience with the processes

and information flows within the com-

pany through the implementation of

the management reports Employees

who are familiar with this quickly saw

the added value From a development

perspective it is pleasant that the Soft-

ware Factory approached the develop-

ment of software in a different manner

We no longer have to carry out a modifi-

cation manually at different locations in the

system or in applications By selecting a few

references, the modification is applied at

all locations in the system ”

In the new situation there are two linked

databases in use The Thinkwise Soft-

ware Factory uses one database for the

production and one database for the

logistic processes such as order pro-

cessing, purchasing, sales and invoicing

Thereby use is made as much as possible

of the existing data

De Koning: “The new situation is a ma-

jor step forwards, especially in the area

of making modifications We are now

able to make necessary modifications

ourselves and are no longer dependant

on an external party This has greatly im-

proved the lead time Our company has

become far more decisive operation-

ally for which we have to pay tribute to

Thinkwise ◆

Top 10

Reference

cases63

“Our company has become far more decisive operationally

for which we have to pay tribute to Thinkwise”- Werny de K oning

Project Manager at Profextru

Top 10

Reference

cases64

“As a company it is impor-

tant to offer and continue

to offer quality. This calls

for a professional attitude

and execution. We found

both of these at Thinkwise”

- Edwin Slegtenhorst Product Manager

Top 10

Reference

cases65

P1 was founded in 1981 and has grown

substantially through the years This is

partly due to the take-over of Parking

Management Nederland in 2006 and the

addition of Parkeergroep Nederland (PGN

- Parking Group Nederland), founded in

1995, under the name of P1 On street B V

As an independent, market oriented com-

pany, located in the Hague, they know

what interests the parker and they offer

various services for the operation and

management of parking facilities, which

pay for themselves and resolve mobility

issues P1 investigates crucial develop-

ments in parking behaviour, charges

and environmental factors and provides

insight into them for the customer The

P1 Quick Scan® is an outstanding instru-

ment to make an appraisal of the fea-

sibility of parking facilities In addition,

P1 focuses on the complete offering of

parking management including recruit-

ment of personnel or the drawing up of

operational, maintenance, disaster and

communication plans Professionally and

efficient Smart and well thought-out

With an excellent price/quality ratio and

in accordance with the highest standards

P1 in The Hague is a service pro-

vider in the area of street and

garage parking, and operates

parking garages. P1 provides the

administration and exploitation

of over sixty parking facilities in

the Netherlands. P1 is responsible

for the management of parking

facilities for municipalities and

real estate developers and offers

assistance in finding solutions for

issues regarding mobility man-

agement.

Company profile: P1

Top 10

Reference

cases66

IntroductionIn the mobility world, standing still has

been an important topic for decades

Where people want to drive they are

standing still and where they want to

stop they are driving around, looking for

a parking place Traffic black spots are

spreading uncontrollably across cities,

residential areas and business office loca-

tions As a result more and more parking

facilities are being built with correspond-

ing costs and permits

P1 is involved as a service provider in the

area of paid parking Also due to an excel-

lent ICT application for permits, designed

by Thinkwise Software, P1 is well in con-

trol in this area

The ambitionPaying with plastic Booking a parking

place by phone or via the Internet These

are only a few examples of innovations

to make paid parking easier and more

convenient Innovation and ease of pay-

ment, this trend is gaining substantial

momentum, according to Edwin Slegten-

horst, Product Manager and Henk Otte,

Operations Manager at P1 Slegtenhorst:

“As a company it is important to offer and

continue to offer quality This calls for a

professional attitude and execution We

found both of these at Thinkwise Policy

execution must be an optimized process

And besides, it must also be an easily

scalable process ”

P1 is involved in the issuing of parking

permits, subscriptions and exemptions

and the enforcement thereof Slegten-

horst: “We are working for a large number

of municipalities, which all have their own

parking permit policies, with their own

regulations, different kinds of permits and

Top 10

Reference

cases67

exemptions and zone divisions Along

with that, we also have to deal with the

complexity of waiting lists at municipali-

ties The financial justification of permits

is also important All the permits granted

must be financially justified This is a brief

account of all the things that are involved

when issuing a parking permit So it is ac-

tually quite an involved process ”

P1 therefore wanted a structured parking

permit application Such an application

had been developed at an earlier stage

and although it met the requirements

on a number of fronts, the shortcomings

turned out to be slightly too great “The

gap had become too large We could not

initiate a professionalization process, as

the system didn’t support that”, says Otten

Slegtenhorst lists the facts: “We were

dealing with different databases, which

ChallengeThe provision of a professionalization round to improve the scalability and

user friendliness of the system for both the customers as well as the users

of P1

SolutionThinkwise designed a renewed web-based parking permit system with a large

number of new functions A link was also made between the web shop and the

permit application

Benefits• Auserfriendlyandverycompleteapplication,thatoptimallysupportsthe

business processes

• Newrequirementsandtechnologiesareeasytocarryoutintheapplication.

• Theapplicationiseasilyavailableviathewebforallbranches.

• AsdevelopmentpartnerThinkwiseprovidesthedevelopmentofthe

application

>>

Top 10

Reference

cases68

were written in the wrong language To

make changes we always need a pro-

grammer and the system turned out to

be easily hacked We thought it was time

for improvement For our ‘street parking’

section our parking permit and subscrip-

tion system, (PVAS), had to become more

customer and user friendly and it had to

relieve the customer’s concerns We started

to look for somebody to assist us with this

professionalization process

The approachOtten: “Thinkwise was brought to our

attention We had some talks with them

and we thought about what we wanted:

to develop the software ourselves or to

have it done by someone else Think-

wise subsequently developed an initial

version of an application for us That

convinced us ”

The company located in Apeldoorn

went to work with the functionalities

of the initial version that were consid-

ered suitable and produced an updated

PVAS It was a customized client-server

application for the management of

parking permits, scratch permits, sub-

scriptions and exemptions With the cur-

rent application the parking permits of

more than ten municipalities are man-

aged: accurately and structured

Otten: “Our first impression was that

Thinkwise slightly underestimated the

complexity of the project, but they de-

livered an excellent job In 2006 the ap-

plication was activated for the first time

for Parking Group Nederland, as it was

then called Meanwhile an upgrade

is being developed, as it is our wish to

work fully web based ”

This upgrade does not mean for PVAS

users that the entire application has

to be redeveloped, but only that other

GUIs are used, which visualize the

existing model Also several process

improvements and new functionalities

are being carried out in the application

Slegtenhorst: “We are looking forward

to a great future with this application

Thinkwise provides a link between our

‘web shop’ and the permit application,

which means that two separate appli-

cations can make use of each other’s

functionality You should make the

operations as simple as possible Since

Thinkwise provides core applications

with a sound foundation, we are able

to progress for the time being with

the present application That gives us a

trusted, safe and good feeling ”

The resultP1 is happy with the result In the final

application, the company can enter all

the parking regulations, manage the

various permits and the corresponding

fees and generate every possible type of

management information with the built

in ‘cubes’

Otten: “P1 also focuses on the term of va-

lidity and fee determination of permits,

subscriptions and exemptions Thanks to

the new application the term of validity

of the permit can now be automatically

determined, at a type of permit/zone

level That is, we can specify different

rules for each type of permit It is pos-

sible to enter a fixed end date, a fixed

emission period and a flexible end date

in days, months, a quarter or a year

Thinkwise has also fully automated the

fee calculation New fees can be defined

in advance and can be specified by type

of permit/zone combination ”

“These are only a few examples of the

possibilities” according to Otten “Let me

just say, that we are now able to offer

every customer a complete package of

what is very complex material ”

In short, Otten is enthusiastic: “We, as a

professional organization, have absolutely

benefited from the Thinkwise application

This professionalism is something we

want to retain and continue After all, the

number one represents an important

part of our name ◆

Top 10

Reference

cases69

“We, as a professional organization, have absolutely

made progress thanks to Thinkwise”.- Henk Otten

Operations Manager

TOP 10

COMPANIES A

BOUT THEIR

SUCCESS WITH THE

SOFTWARE FA

CTORY

© 2011 Thinkwise Software

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TOP 10

COMPANIES A

BOUT THEIR

SUCCESS WITH THE

SOFTWARE FA

CTORY