Coenradie has been active in the field of surveying and geodata for over 35 years. From five locations throughout the Netherlands, the company supports contractors, developers, municipalities, and other clients with a wide range of surveying services—from surveying construction sites and infrastructure projects to providing dimensional control during the execution of complex construction projects.
Over the years, the organization has grown from a small team to more than 70 employees, of whom approximately 35 to 40 work outdoors every day. That growth also brought a new challenge: how do you keep track of people, projects, locations, and specialized equipment when Excel and Outlook are no longer enough?
We spoke with Roger Hesselberth, who has been with Coenradie for over 30 years, about the organization’s growth, the switch to Timewax, and the next step toward smarter planning with AI.
For years, Coenradie used Excel and, later, the scheduling view in Outlook. That worked well as long as the organization was relatively small. But as the number of employees, locations, and projects grew, the limitations became increasingly apparent.
Not only did staff need to be scheduled, but specialized measuring instruments also had to be available at the right time and in the right location. In addition, the organization wanted to be able to quickly see where capacity was available when a customer called with a new request.
"With a growing organization and multiple locations, it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a quick overview. We wanted to be able to see right away where there was room in the schedule and which people were available."
In addition, integration with the company’s own ERP system proved to be feasible. This was an important requirement, given that project information, administrative tasks, and operational processes at Coenradie are closely interlinked.
During implementation, Coenradie initially planned for a transition period during which both Outlook and Timewax would be used side by side.
That period ultimately proved to be hardly necessary. After just one week, the organization decided to make the switch completely. Planners, work schedulers, and branch managers adapted to the new way of working so quickly that maintaining two sets of records mainly resulted in extra work.
"We had expected to work double shifts for a few weeks. But after just one week, everyone had actually already gotten used to Timewax."
For an organization with multiple locations and many operational users, this was an important confirmation that the solution was well-suited to real-world use.
Although the foundation has now been laid, Coenradie is firmly focused on the future.
Developments related to AI, in particular, are very appealing. The team is now actively using Tim, the AI assistant within Timewax, to find answers more quickly and discover new possibilities within the platform.
In addition, Coenradie sees opportunities to make planning even smarter. Consider, for example:
Customer communication also offers opportunities. For example, by automatically notifying clients or contractors when an employee is on the way to a project site.
For Coenradie, the switch to Timewax meant more than just replacing an Outlook calendar.
It provided the organization with a central environment where people, projects, locations, and equipment come together. This resulted in a better overview, faster insight into capacity, and a foundation that enables further automation.
Here’s what that means in practice:
As Roger himself puts it:
"I'm not the kind of person who gets excited about new software easily. But Timewax is just very user-friendly. And what I appreciate most of all: it keeps evolving."
