In search of a solution
We speak to managing director Roy Pollmann and project manager Erna Selimovic. Roy explains when exactly CBT felt the urge to buy a planning system. Of course, this did not happen overnight. He says: "In recent years, we noticed a need for customised solutions. The demand for workplace learning was also growing. Moreover, we ourselves no longer wanted to be 'just' a training provider - we want people to grow, we want change. So, we started working towards giving workplace learning (see 'extra information') and custom development a place in our services."
"We have fantastic projects, but also very large and complex projects. It soon became clear that this way of training requires quite different planning. Go figure, where previously you would schedule a trainer on site with the right learning materials and participants, now many more steps need to be planned. Developing customised training already requires a lot of people and resources. It is no longer about a few hours - it is about hundreds of hours. How do you gain insight into the staffing of a department? How do you deal with external parties like filmmakers, animators, educationists? You understand we did have some requirements for the planning system," says Roy.
Linking with AFAS
"Certainly," Erna continues, "For instance, the link with AFAS was a key point. The financial aspect is done in AFAS, the planning part in vPlan. The communication between the programmes is important for our insight. When a request comes into the sales department, we need to be able to see immediately whether there is room to take on this project. Do we have the right people available? What is their capacity? These kinds of questions have now become a lot more insightful."
Planning with vPlan
When it is clear whether a new customer can be taken on, a project is created in AFAS. The hour estimate is recorded in it, plus all customer information. This is then scheduled in vPlan. "The relevant customer can access the planning if required. This way, everyone has a real-time version of the planning," Erna says.
CBT wants flexible planning system
CBT's target market is mostly in industry. Like all industries, this requires flexible planning. Roy explains: "It often happens that schedules change. So, our requirement for a planning system was flexibility - being able to adjust easily, which everyone knows about immediately. The planning system must be able to think along with us. We always want to have insight into our occupancy."
Erna adds: "Previously, we planned all our projects, development and design in Excel. If something changed, you had to change the entire document. This took a huge amount of time and was also quite error prone. Planning ahead was not possible at all, nor could we see how many development hours we still had in the future. We had no overview at all. At a certain point, I heard increasingly from my colleagues that things really could not go on. So that's when I started looking for a planning system."
"Working with Dutch company very pleasant"
Initially, CBT turned to a US planning tool. However, Erna soon found that it was difficult to communicate her requirements. For instance, the language barrier was an obstacle. "During a consultation, Roy then came up with vPlan. We scheduled an introductory meeting with account manager Anne and soon discovered that there were many possibilities for us with vPlan. Especially the planning from the backlog and the overview appealed to me. Moreover, I could just speak Dutch and vPlan is simply based in the Netherlands - which is nice."
Support from vPlan
Erna continues: "We had some in-depth discussions and then actually came to an agreement very quickly. That is where your consultant Patrick came in. He went through the process with us and guided us through two days of user training. He also supervised the cooperation with Improvit (the integration partner for the link with AFAS). Later in the process, we had another meeting to look together at our requirements regarding writing the hours back to AFAS. Previously, we also had to put these in Excel, so this was a crucial point for us. It is an activity that nobody likes, so this needed to be as simple as possible. After linking with Improvit and training, we started working on our own on Patrick's advice. He recommended playing with the programme ourselves without going live. We did that and finally went live in May."
Biggest advantages of vPlan for CBT
For Erna as project manager, the biggest advantage is the insight and overview. She says: "From the backlog, we can see that 1600 hours need to be planned away. So we can see very quickly whether we can sit back or whether we have a problem. That was not the case before. This is also genuinely nice for the educationists, team leaders and managers. Everyone has an overview of who is working where, and we can plan ahead well. That's really the biggest advantage."
Roy adds: "A department growing fast is great, but you want to know what the workload is like. It is no longer done by feeling, but we have insight into what is coming up. Erna can see immediately what capacity she needs and whether she has any at all. When can the next project start? Looking ahead in planning allows us to make better choices in a growing organisation. It's a lot more insightful and that is, of course, super nice."
All the benefits for CBT in brief:
- No longer have to keep an Excel for changes, which is error-prone;
- More pleasant collaboration and communication with clients;
- Printout in vPlan clearly contains every step, deadline, expert;
- More realistic view of long-term planning;
- Increased feasibility of projects;
- Hours can now be estimated much more accurately;
- Looking back to see whether a project was profitable is now possible.
Also want to discover what vPlan can do for your planning? Talk to us!
