Jan Snel

An international company

Initially founded in 1960 in the Netherlands as a transport company, Jan Snel was quick to recognize the groundbreaking potential of modular construction and take advantage of the opportunity to expand its production. Today, Jan Snel is a market leader and is active in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. The company specializes in the areas of housing, care, office, education and industry and provides its customers with both purchase as well as rental solutions.

The challenge

Over time, Jan Snel has grown into a corporate giant, and, just like any other company of that size, they conduct business with a lot of different parties and corporate entities on a daily basis. As a result, they have a lot of specialists and employees who are involved in many different types of projects. This inadvertently produces a large amount of documentation, which started to slow down their business operations significantly and made it difficult for them to complete their tasks. In addition to these administrative issues, Jan Snel also gives great importance to CSR and sustainability and strives to create an eco-friendly work environment. Therefore, with the right solution, Jan Snel’s projects and operations could run much more quickly and efficiently.

In cooperation with Tomas de Swaarf, who is in charge of ICT and innovation at Jan Snel, we started looking for a paperless office solution that would make it easy for them to keep all their documentation up to date. Our goal was to make a web based application where:

• All employees can log into the portal.
• All documentation and files can be found in one centralized location.
• It is possible to update and save documents.
• It is possible to check-off completed tasks and track progress.

The development process

Software development is a continuous process. Future Forward follows the principles of Agile software development, where the solution ‘evolves’ through the combined efforts of our cross-functional team.

However, everything did not go flawlessly during the course of this project. After the development and the subsequent rollout of the web application, we encountered several problems, and it was up to us to solve them in a structured manner. Having been directly in contact with Tomas de Swaaf, our coordination and collaboration on these issues went more than smoothly. This allowed our development team to process feedback quickly and to provide timely updates. In addition, it also gave us a chance to provide the best possible service to the customer.

Specifically, there was an issue with the storage, and some files were lost when they were sent to the CMS. As a consequence, a certain amount of information and progress was lost. This was very frustrating for everyone involved, since they had to recover the lost files at the end of the workday. The second problem involved latency/caching, where file updates between employees did not arrive on time, thus inevitably leading to confusion and possible duplication of work. The third problematic area was related to user login. At certain times, random log-outs were detected in the morning, and login sessions would terminate randomly.

The solution

After collecting and documenting all the problems that were encountered, our development team immediately started working on bug fixes. All the issues were quickly resolved and, after some trial, error and experimentation, the web application started working as intended.

The web application that we have developed for Jan Snel provides the following advantages:

• Improved internal communication
• Increased productivity: Projects and processes are accelerated and streamlined through a unified platform.
• Mobility and flexibility: Employees can access the required documentation and data at all times.
• Increased employee involvement, by sharing news and activities directly with employees

The result

In the meantime, our web application has been rolled out as an Enterprise app. It greatly facilitates communication between Jan Snel's employees. Furthermore, it resulted in better functionality and much improved control over the tasks. All the information is accessible form a single interface, from news updates and documentation to the specific tasks that need to be completed. This led to a substantial increase of efficiency and productivity, which inevitably resulted in a greater number of satisfied customers.

Are you looking to hire a programmer or developer?

With over 20 years of professional experience in software development, Future Forward provides outsourcing services through its branches in Serbia and The Netherlands. We have a pool of highly trained programmers and developers, who are selected based on their skills and professional competence in order to ensure that we have the right solution for your needs.

Would you like to know more? Please visit us at FFWD Outsourcing or contact us directly.