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Gert-Jan Ditsel is BIM manager at Dura Vermeer Bouw Hengelo. This renowned family business has been around for 165 years and is active in the construction industry, infrastructure, engineering and services. Dura Vermeer is known for its capacity for innovation, customer-focus and honest style of doing business.
Together with its partners, the company offers inventive, integrated and sustainable solutions for development and construction assignments in both construction and maintenance & renovation.
A jungle of work documents
When Gert-Jan Ditsel was recruited by Dura Vermeer in 2012 to supervise a BIM implementation - still as an external consultant at the time - he was immediately struck by the company culture. ”I found myself in an incredibly entrepreneurial, innovative bunch. Very flat hierarchies, too. I knew straight away: that's where I want to work.” In March 2017 - by which time Gert-Jan had been employed at Dura Vermeer for 5 years - the 'Digital Flow' project was launched. The goal was to make the construction process transparent and improve it from start to finish.
'It was clear to us even then that the construction industry is digitizing and that this is causing fundamental changes in many areas of the process. We strongly believe that it makes an organization resilient if you dare to be a leader in these matters. But we didn't want to haphazardly splurge on all kinds of flashy tools. After all, they are still tools. Our goal was to develop a vision, strategy and policy. How were we going to work? And start collaborating?'
One of the major challenges was the enormous amount of digital paperwork involved in construction projects. We work on construction projects that usually involve a huge number of parties. And they all work in different systems that don't really 'talk' to each other. As a result everyone works in a very fragmented way and keeping each other informed and up to date is challenging and time consuming. Is everyone still working in the same version of the correct source document? Are the right things sent to the right people? And, perhaps most importantly, how can you avoid a proliferation - a jungle - of working documents (and versions)?'
Seamless integration of core systems
It became clear to us that we had to focus on a uniform method of working. Working towards a fixed number of core systems, each with a specific function," says Gert-Jan. We chose SharePoint, ProjectMaster, KMS, BIM 360 and 12Build. Each of these core products, we felt, offered unique functionalities and features that matched our construction process at the time. Not the other way around.'
However, having the right tools alone does not ensure a smooth workflow. They may have reduced the number of systems, but the core systems still had to be able to communicate with each other. That is exactly what 12Build helped us with. We already knew you as an enthusiastic team, but when we raised the possibility of a SharePoint and Autodesk integration with you, you knocked it out of the park.
Even in the early development phase - and actually to this day - I could always call someone from 12Build. From early in the morning until late at night. We really worked on a solution together. With the SharePoint and Autodesk links in 12Build you can easily switch from one system to another. If, for example, I receive a new offer request in 12Build, I get a notification in SharePoint. This really is a solution we can use for years to come.
One truth in one place
Gert-Jan smiles: 'Thanks to our collaboration with 12Build we are slowly chopping down the jungle of working documents, so that we will eventually arrive at a neatly raked city park! We have been able to reduce the digital paperwork considerably. It is clear to everyone who is working with which version, whether a newer one is already available and with whom which version has been shared.
Whether you access them from Autodesk, SharePoint, our own software (ProjectMaster and KMS) or simply from 12Build itself. That increases quality: the time we save on figuring things out and emailing back and forth can now be put into the project itself.'
On a personal level, Gert-Jan fondly remembers the collaboration. ‘Aside from safety, sustainability and customer focus, innovation is paramount at Dura Vermeer. We want to lead the way in digitization and if you have the opportunity to partner up with a party that has so much ambition... Well, then you can only make progress! I experience the team at 12Build as enthusiastic, ambitious people who think on their feet and are able to put themselves in your shoes. Could you please make sure to write that down?'
Gert-Jan Ditsel
BIM-manager at Dura Vermeer
