Hoogmartens is a family business, founded in 1963, where today with Tom Hoogmartens, the third generation is at the helm. They mainly do maintenance and construction of public roads, streets, squares and parking lots. In addition, they are active in the B2B market for the construction of outdoor infrastructure such as parking lots, large warehouses, etc. In short, Hoogmartens offers all applications related to mobility. Quality, flexibility, service and innovation are the common denominators of their offer.
Hoogmartens has been working with a Track & Trace system for a while now. First it was a server-based solution from another supplier. In their search for a new partner, they ended up with Suivo about three years ago. “Suivo already had a very good online cloud application at that time,” Tom Hoogmartens explains. “We used to have to read in updates on our own server. And if the server broke down, our whole system was down. Today, all maintenance is done by Suivo. With their cloud application we always have the most recent data available.”
Suivo Track & Trace is an IoT Platform, a user-friendly web application based on the secure Google Cloud Platform.
According to Tom Hoogmartens, this certainly played a part in the decision to choose Suivo. “We use the maps of Google Maps on a daily basis. So we are used to them. And in terms of user- friendliness, this software is a step ahead of the competition.
For creating geofences, recording machine hours and time registration, Suivo’s solution best fits our needs.”
Because Suivo is a web application, multiple users can log in to the system simultaneously, from any location. Tom Hoogmartens: “Everyone has access to the system. That was a serious step forward for us. It is now very easy to find vehicles via any tablet or smartphone.
For example, drivers can easily be guided to their location by people from Planning, because they can see online and in real time where the driver is at that moment. It’s also now very easy for our internal transport service to track assets. For example, if they need to go and load up machines at night to move to projects, they can see where they are much faster and we avoid wasting time and frustrated drivers.”
“Currently we track all our vehicles with Suivo,” Hoogmartens continues. “Both cars, vans and road construction machines. In our cars and vans we also have a Suivo badge system installed, which we use for time registration. Each employee badges in his vehicle in the morning and out at night, and Suivo automatically calculates the hours worked. The employees don’t have to come to the office every day, but their data does come in to the payroll department every day, so it doesn’t lag behind. By the way, the data is more accurate than in a manual system and the mileage allowance is also calculated automatically. This results in fewer administrative tasks for Payroll, which saves at least an hour of time every day.” Hoogmartens can also be more concise with subcontractors now. “External transporters receive separate tracking boxes from Suivo. This is a very efficient way for us to check on hours worked and kilometers driven. No more paper receipts!”
“At our yards, we still have a long way to go in terms of digitalization,” realizes Tom Hoogmartens. “We’re going to start using digital plans, plans on tablets, measuring as much as possible digitally, setting out digitally and so on. The challenge here is on a human level.
Because our workers, foremen, site managers and project leaders have sometimes worked in a certain way for decades, it is not obvious to let them digitize. In the beginning, a new way of working always feels like an extra burden. That feeling can only change by carefully mapping out how work is done today, what can be improved by digitizing, and what the benefits are for people. They need to experience those benefits themselves, and they need to be trained well.”
For companies planning to innovate, Tom Hoogmartens has clear advice: "It is crucial to think carefully in advance about what, when and why exactly you want to digitize. And of course free up the necessary time and budgets.
Feasibility is an important focus. The whole company has to get on board, because the innovation will only be successful if the people on the work floor see the benefits."
