Hoppenbrouwers deploys RPA as means to grow, without additional administrative burden
Hoppenbrouwers Techniek is a fast-growing Dutch installation company. Founded as a one-man company in 1918 and now, more than 100 years later, with more than 1,500 employees. Hoppenbrouwers wants to be the best and most sustainable technical service provider in the Netherlands. The ambition is high and the vision is clear: “our employees are number one.” Maintaining job satisfaction is important, even with strong growth. And that is precisely why Hoppenbrouwers started working with Robotic Process Automation(RPA).
Early adopter of RPA
Hoppenbrouwers’ RPA journey began back in 2019. At the time, the technology company did not proceed overnight. Extensive market research was conducted to select the most suitable RPA software and implementation partner.
“In 2019, especially in our particular market, we were still really an early adopter of RPA. At that time, UiPath was already the market leader in RPA software, but we didn’t want to focus on that. We carefully compared different RPA software packages on criteria such as development speed and other unique selling points that were important to us. UiPath came out of this as the best and therefore we started working with this platform.”
Stijn Hoevenaars | Project Coordinator Data
Within Hoppenbrouwers we work according to the LEAN methodology. This method helps to optimize processes first, and only then to automate them.
Good click with Tacstone was decisive
Once the package selection was behind them, Hoppenbrouwers went in search of the most suitable implementation partner. And here, too, the organization did not take any chances. As many as five different parties were invited to the office. Besides knowledge and experience, Hoppenbrouwers was also looking for a partner to really work with. ” The openness and honesty with which Tacstone talked to us matched exactly how we like to work,” says Stijn. “The good click with Tacstone immediately gave them an edge. In addition, the way of working, the speed of implementation and the way Tacstone provides aftercare were the deciding factors.”
Co-creation: being able to successfully stand on your own two feet in a short period of time
In the start-up phase of the RPA project, Tacstone helped with the proper set-up of the RPA development and management environment, the installation of the software and the training of Hoppenbrouwers employees in the various RPA roles. The first robotic processes were immediately picked up in a co-creation model, in close cooperation between Hoppenbrouwers’ RPA Developers and Tacstone’s. This way, the future RPA experts from Hoppenbrouwers got to know the UiPath platform directly on the job. Demos were also given jointly in the organization and workshops done to explain throughout the company what RPA can mean and identify opportunities for the application.
RPA offers éxtra flexibility and speed
Within Hoppenbrouwers, RPA is housed in the Data Department. Here, employees are working daily to optimize and automate processes. Like many other companies, Hoppenbrouwers sees RPA as a solution that offers extra speed and flexibility compared to the existing ICT. Implementing adjustments in an ERP system is complicated and can often take a long time. The business cannot always wait that long, especially if existing bottlenecks become even more of a problem due to the strong growth of the business. RPA offers a solution. In many cases, the desired automation of a process can be achieved within a few weeks.
“RPA has made us more flexible in developing solutions to automation issues. Sometimes we even deliberately stick a so-called ‘RPA patch’ on a process to temporarily solve a bottleneck. We can now take on more work as an installation company, but without the amount of administrative work growing at the same rate. And we are now also less dependent on adjustments to our existing ICT systems that have to be made by our suppliers. We already had quite a few processes in our company 90% automated, but with RPA we now manage to automate the last 10% as well. Thus, for us the circle is complete.”
Stijn Hoevenaars | Project coordinator Data
More about Hoppenbrouwers
Hoppenbrouwers focuses on the design, installation and maintenance of mechanical and electrical engineering installations. With this it operates in a broad market with a variety of disciplines including industrial automation, security, inspection, renewable energy, sprinkler and technical management.
In 2020, RockingRobots worked with Hoppenbrouwers and Tacstone to produce a report on the adoption of RPA and the welcoming of Robohop as Hoppenbrouwers’ digital employee.
