Working with horsum, a testimonial by Aran van der Bie (Riwal)

From May until August 2016, horsum was asked to help Riwal visualizing and harmonizing their future business processes. 

Over the years, Riwal (www.riwal.com) has grown into a leading specialist in the area of working safely and efficiently at heights in 17 different countries with more than 1400 employees. Riwal specializes in aerial work platforms such as boom lifts, scissor lifts, …  Riwal’s international rental fleet consists of 13,000 aerial work platforms, telehandlers and forklift trucks, ensuring that they are always able to supply a rental lift to suit customers’ needs.

We asked Aran van der Bie, Group Controller at Riwal, about the project’s goals and outcomes and how he experienced working with horsum.

What added value did this project bring to your company?

Aran van der Bie: “Riwal is currently undergoing a transformation process, in which group-wide harmonized processes, that optimally support local entrepreneurship, are key. This project helped us to achieve the desired state of processes and was an integral part of the change management process.”

Why did Riwal decide to “award” horsum this assignment?

Aran van der Bie: “horsum was able to really understand our requirements and gave us the confidence that they could execute the engagement in an aligned and independent manner within a challenging time frame.” 

What were the desired outcomes and how did horsum deliver these?

Aran van der Bie: “At the start of the project, we defined the following desired outcomes:

• Documentation of TO BE processes in standard notation format;
• Alignment of these processes amongst the various departments and countries resulting in widely accepted TO BE processes.

By talking to 135 colleagues and analyzing data, horsum designed the flowcharts in strong cooperation with the "business". A validation period gave my colleagues the opportunity to give feedback and discuss the business processes among each other and with horsum. This resulted in further fine-tuning of the business process flowcharts.

Riwal has now a uniform language to talk about our business processes. This allows us to immediately focus on improvements during business process discussions.

Both the significant amount of knowledge gathered about our organization and the transfer of this knowledge to key management were an additional beneficial project outcome.” 

What is – according to you - horsum’s differentiator to other consultancy firms?

Aran van der Bie: “First of all, horsum is personal and highly engaged to the customer and the project. They are sincerely interested in the company and think beyond the engagement. For us, this even resulted in exceeded expectations. Secondly, horsum was able to get a very quick understanding of our business and organization, taking the company-specific dynamics and relations into account. Thirdly, horsum’s flexibility throughout the project. They continuously aligned their planning with project conditions and availabilities.”  

What was the biggest risk in this project, according to you - and how did horsum handle this risk?

Aran van der Bie: “The main risks were timing and the ability of our organization to keep up with horsum. horsum managed these risks by managing the expectations up front, clear communication and tight project management.”

How did this project fit into the strategy execution of your company?

Aran van der Bie: “This project is an instrumental part to reach a next level of maturity. horsum delivered not only process documentation but also initiated change management throughout the company.”

How did you experience your cooperation with horsum?

Aran van der Bie: “I evaluate our cooperation as very good. I appreciate their project management that led to exceeded project goal expectations. In addition, I really appreciate the good discussions and insights provided by horsum. These were not only good for Riwal but also for my personal development.”

Why would you recommend horsum to other companies?

Aran van der Bie: “I would recommend horsum because of their highly engaged approach and tight project management that resulted in an outcome that really met the project goals.”

Dennis Houthoofd - September 15th, 2016