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Customer
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Location
Mechelsesteenweg 35, 2840 Rumst
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Industry
Residential, commercial, and industrial sector
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Company size
+400
In Belgian construction, few companies embody operational discipline and continuous improvement as convincingly as Verelst. Active across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors—with their own steel and precast concrete production—Verelst has spent the last years refining one ambition: to rationalise every phase of a project with smart, scalable processes.
At the centre of this transformation is a simple, strategic decision: replace fragmented workflows with a unified digital ecosystem built around Aproplan for quality and site coordination, paired with a planning solution that brings every team onto the same timeline.
To understand the impact, we sat down with two people who live this process every day: Joeye, Process Manager driving Verelst’s digital transformation, and Stéphanie, Project Manager overseeing renovation and finishing projects from technical phase to handover.
What follows is their story—told through practical insight, real-site challenges, and the results of choosing to standardise how work flows across teams.
The Last Days of the Paper Trail
When Stéphanie describes the early days of her workflow, she doesn’t embellish.
“In the beginning, we just worked with a notepad. And that notepad would then end up in the car—forgotten there.”
Information was scattered across pages, drawings, personal notes, and PDFs scribbled on with a pen. Nothing formed a reliable source of truth. Coordinating subcontractors or updating clients became slow and error-prone.
The result? Delays. Repeated explanations. Administrative fatigue after every site meeting.
As Joeye explains, this was a structural issue: every manager had their own method, their own tools, their own storage system. Transferability between colleagues was difficult. The company needed one centralised way of working.
A Quiet Revolution Inside Verelst
Verelst didn’t jump blindly into digitalisation. They tested numerous applications with users across the company, some highly digital, some less so.
“We tested a lot of applications with different types of users. LetsBuild simply met most of our requirements and was very user-friendly.”
The team adopted a step-by-step rollout. They began where the gains were biggest: the handover process. Paper checklists were replaced by digital forms that looked more professional and ensured nothing was forgotten. From there, they moved backwards in the project lifecycle with site follow-up, preparation, and eventually everything from the moment a sale is confirmed.
Digitalisation, in Verelst’s case was a continuous evolution.
The Day the Site Began to Breathe Again
For Stéphanie, the difference in daily execution is extreme. “After a site meeting, with one click I export everything. The same evening, everyone has the full update in their inbox.”
Clients stay informed. Architects can continue designing. Subcontractors receive actionable points without delay. And during handovers—always the tightest phase—having a clear, structured overview of every outstanding task across up to ten subcontractors has become indispensable.
Meanwhile, the planning solution ensures nobody is double-booked and no work blocks collapse into each other. Before digitalisation, two teams could unknowingly be scheduled in two locations at the same time. Now, those collisions have disappeared.
“After a site meeting, with one click I export everything. The same evening, everyone has the full update in their inbox.”
The Ripple Effect at Verelst
Today, the combined workflow—Aproplan for issues and forms plus the central planning software—is used across residential, industrial, and commercial projects. “Now we’re using it from the moment a project is sold all the way through to handover. We’re all working with the same schedule instead of being disconnected.”
This has also enabled Verelst to develop internal dashboards using the Open API, pulling issues across all projects and linking planning data directly to financial planning. When schedules shift, their Power BI report updates automatically—providing management with real-time visibility impossible to achieve with notebooks or PDFs.
“Now we’re using it from the moment a project is sold all the way through to handover. We’re all working with the same schedule instead of being disconnected.”
A Clear View of What’s at Stake
For Verelst, the shift to digital wasn’t just about convenience—it was about control. When asked what would happen if they suddenly had to return to pen-and-paper processes, Joeye didn’t hesitate: “We’d be taking a step backward into inefficiency.” Without a digital backbone, oversight would erode, coordination would slow, and the organisation would slip back into the fragmented workflows that once held projects back.
That clarity guides how Verelst talks about digital transformation to others. Many companies—especially smaller firms—still hesitate, fearing complexity or cultural resistance. Joeye’s message to them is disarmingly simple: “You don’t have to roll it out all at once. Even less digitally skilled colleagues were working with it quickly.” What matters is adoption, not ambition. Verelst proved that meaningful change doesn’t require disruption; it requires a clear direction and the discipline to take one step at a time.
And now that their foundation is solid, Verelst is pushing further. The next frontier is deeper integration—particularly with SharePoint—to eliminate duplicate uploads, centralise document revisions, and automate the flow of site photos. As Joeye explained, this evolution is driven not by theory but by day-to-day needs: user feedback that becomes product improvement. When a platform listens and adapts, it becomes a partner in how projects are delivered.
What This Journey Reveals About Building Better
Verelst’s story shows what happens when digitalisation is treated as disciplined process improvement.
A single source of truth for issues.
A shared planning environment for all teams.
A gradual rollout that respects how people actually work.
Data that informs decisions instead of hiding in pockets and PDFs.
The result is a construction organisation that communicates faster, executes with greater precision, and hands over projects with confidence.
And in an industry where time, clarity, and collaboration determine success, that is a competitive advantage built to last.
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