Aesy Liften

Aesy Liften

From mail and CD, via USB drives and WeTransfer, to 12Build. The efficiency is increasing exponentially for Aesy Liften. Before changing to 12Build, Richard Obbes would spend at least half a day on a single invitation to tender. Since collaborating with 12Build, the same work can be done in no more than an hour. As a result, at Aesy Liften he now has more time left to really focus on quality and, of course, tours around the new showroom.

Aesy Liften. Should that not be ‘Easy’? Yes and no. It is actually pronounced the same. “I have to explain this all the time,” says commercial adviser Richard Obbes with a smile. “We begin our name with an A, rather than an E, simply because it makes it easier to find us. But it is also a cool name which draws attention. So free advertising and yet still Aesy.”

Backstory

Aesy Liften was founded in 2005 as an independent dealer in platform lifts. In 2009, Aesy Liften was sold to the Cibes Lift Group. Aesy Liften has now been a wholly owned subsidiary of the manufacturer for the past decade and the company has developed into a full-service provider in the Netherlands and Belgium. Together, Aesy Liften Netherlands and Belgium employ more than 115 people. “We offer space-saving lift solutions,” explains Richard simply. “You can place our lifts anywhere, because they do not need a machine room, a lift well or a special roof construction.” 

General contractors, companies and the general public who want a lift will come into contact with commercial adviser Richard Obbes or one of his nine colleagues. “It takes ten of us,” he explains, “because we are in huge demand. Aesy Liften is easy to find, also because of 12Build. It is clear that a comprehensive company profile makes it increasingly easy to find you.” Aesy Liften is in the top five of construction companies in the category of ‘lift installations’ with the most invitations to tender, receiving about 220 invitations per year.

From analogue to digital

Aesy Liften has been working with 12Build for about five years. And Richard himself has been doing so since 12Build started, at his former employer. “The great thing about 12Build is that you always have the same layout with invitations to tender. You always have the necessary information at hand and with 12Build we can easily be found by general contractors. We are very happy with the number of invitations to tender we receive.” Richard ends his last sentence with a bit of a chuckle. “Of course, there could always be more.” The tender process, however, has not always gone so smoothly.

Richard takes us back to a time before 12Build, even before e-mail and USB drives. “Previously, at my former employer, invitations to tender arrived by mail,” he explains, full of nostalgia. “My desk would be covered with piles of A0 paper. It was a chore simply having to find the right documents and the right technical drawings. Every day we received four or five invitations to tender accompanied by whole reams of paper. It would actually take you a couple of days to process everything.” And it was not only Richard who had to deal with it. The receptionist, who sorted the mail, would also spend all day processing the envelopes and folders that arrived. 

The switch to CDs was an enormously innovative step. You just put it into your computer and you saw the files almost immediately (assuming the computer did not crash). Having to rummage through all that paper was a thing of the past. But this solution was still anything but ideal. Richard: “We ended up with drawers full of CDs. CDs that were easily damaged. It was hardly perfect.” Another small matter was the very limited capacity of a single CD.

Innovative steps

This is when the slightly less vulnerable USB drive was introduced. A solution that came with more storage space. From a few MBs to whole terabytes today. It might have provided more space to store files, but a problem still remained: the drive had to get to the subcontractor. So how was that done? At the construction site or – you guessed it – still sending it by mail. First via the receptionist and then to the right department.

Dropbox and WeTransfer remedied that issue in 2007 and 2009, but in turn introduced new problems themselves. Dropbox also has a limited storage capacity and WeTransfer links expire after only seven days. “E-mail and WeTransfer also did not necessarily save you time compared with CDs or USB drives,” says Richard. “Whether you have a download link or a USB drive, you still need to download all the files, save them on your own computer and then assess whether it is worth submitting a tender or not. The major advantage of these initial forms of digitalisation is that it was immediately much more environmentally friendly.”

Overview of documents with one click of a button

“I remember the time when 12Build was just getting started and we would receive one invitation to tender a week through the platform. That was about a decade ago. Now I see the number of invitations increase every year,” says Richard. “But that is hardly surprising, because with 12Build, it just takes one, two, three clicks of a button and you have your files.” Richard starts to laugh at himself as he sums up aloud the steps he takes to open the documents that a general contractor has sent to Aesy Liften for an invitation to tender. “I use the tool so often, I am able to visualise it.” 

The invitations to tender that arrived either by mail, through WeTransfer or on a USB drive all had their own format, because every general contractor has their own way of working. 12Build has adopted a uniform layout with the essential files always in the same location with the same format. “That saves a lot of work,” concludes Richard. “In general, the files in 12Build are properly categorised. In comparison, instead of taking days, I can now process four or five invitations to tender in only a couple of hours.”

“I use the 12Build tool so often, I am able to visualise it.” 

So what does Richard do with all the time he has saved processing invitations to tender? “Well, we just happen to have a wonderful new showroom. If I am not busy dealing with tenders, I can take time to engage with clients and discuss the products we have on display.

So I am not sitting behind my desk processing tenders all day, but have ample time to address other essential matters.” This includes more time to follow up on projects and to ensure everything is properly in order before submitting a tender. This, in turn, results in increased confidence among general contractors and greater turnover. Richard: “The more time you invest in a project, the better the quality you provide.”

He starts to laugh. “I remember when I first started working with 12Build, I did not realise that the general contractor makes a preselection of the files. This meant that for a long time I downloaded all the files. Fortunately, you pointed out to me that it was actually possible to select specific files. Ultimately, this has enabled me to work even faster!”

“The more time you invest in a project, the better the quality you provide.”

Digitalisation in the construction industry

“We have made enormous strides in digitalisation at Aesy Liften,” says Richard about the three years he has been working at the company. “Before the first wave of the coronavirus, we had everything in order. Working from home was simply finding a place to set up the computer.” Due to software optimisation Aesy Liften ensures that the work can be done wherever you are, whether that is at home, in the office or on the other side of the world. “It is really hard to imagine that not so long ago everything was sent by mail. Now everything takes place online.”

The era before 12Build was not worse, it was just less efficient, according to Richard. “Now I do more in less time, I respond to colleagues quicker, and if I get a question from the general contractor, I do not need to rummage through twenty folders to find the right document. I can discuss any issues directly with the general contractor on the phone, because I can access the necessary documents within a minute.”

Richard suddenly recalls a situation that happened years ago. He had not received the right document from the general contractor and searched for it for hours. Folder after folder. Drawer after drawer. CD after CD. “Today, if a general contractor knows the document where something can be found, all I need is the name of the document. I simply find it in 12Build and we can then discuss the issue at hand.”

The client is always right

“Something that never changes with us is that the client always comes first,” says Richard as a real salesperson. “No matter how digitalised we may be, and how much we automate, client contact is always the most important. That is why I always call a general contractor after an invitation to tender to discuss the documents and to check whether everything is in order. This is clearly appreciated, because it is borne out in our figures.”

Client contact is one of the reasons Richard finds the collaboration with 12Build so enjoyable. “I think Aesy and 12Build are very much on the same wavelength and our work ethos is very similar: we enjoy doing our work efficiently, with personal contact uppermost.”

He even passes on a free tip to 12Build: “The general contractors are key to the success. The more general contractors that collaborate with 12Build, the more invitations to tender will be submitted through the platform and the more subcontractors will sign up to work in 12Build.” And that is exactly how 12Build does it. And successfully so. For thirteen years and counting. Richard Obbes knew from the outset that this was a boat he did not want to miss.

Richard Obbes

Commercial advisor