Aan de Stegge Twello specializes entirely in the design, construction, and maintenance of future-proof commercial properties. To optimize communication and coordination during projects, this construction company uses Catenda Hub. BIM Manager Jan Willem Zeevalkink explains why they chose this solution and how they work with it.
Building for Entrepreneurs
With approximately 180 employees, construction company Aan de Stegge Twello has been realizing future-proof commercial buildings for entrepreneurs for over 50 years. They regularly collaborate with their independently operating sister companies: BFM Beheer, for the management and maintenance of buildings and parking garages, and Continental Car Parks, specializing in parking solutions and systems.
“We unburden professional clients from A to Z, with our own account managers, BIM modelers, project leaders, and construction teams,” explains Zeevalkink. “Companies need to be able to continue growing, which is why we sit down with them as early as possible to discuss requirements, wishes, planning, and bottlenecks. To optimize the entire development and construction process, we often work with the same architects, structural engineers, and installers, and last year we started looking for the best collaboration platform. After researching and testing various solutions, we chose Catenda Hub”.
User-Friendliness
Aan de Stegge Twello sells about 80% of all assignments through its own account managers, after which designers/modelers develop each building into a Building Information Model (BIM).
“Building commercial properties requires a different approach than homes or utility buildings,” continues Zeevalkink. “Every building is unique, and we want to realize these as efficiently and quickly as possible for our client. To facilitate this, we have been designing with Revit for years, performing our error checks with Solibri, and have set up a Common Data Environment (CDE) that serves as the central ‘source of truth’ for all project stakeholders. In our projects, BIM is leading, and all necessary information is accessible to everyone at any time via Catenda Hub. The main reasons we work with Catenda are the user-friendliness of this collaboration environment and its support for open standards”.
Transparent Collaboration
Because construction projects have to take into account more requirements, regulations, and environmental factors, communication and coordination in projects are becoming more important.
“We proactively address this with our CDE and Catenda Hub as a collaboration environment,” explains Zeevalkink.
Another solution Aan de Stegge Twello used for this was much less intuitive.
“Because project members require information and communicate constantly throughout the day, user-friendliness is crucial for effective and efficient collaboration,” Zeevalkink continues. “With Catenda Hub this is possible in an open and transparent way. The platform supports all the tools we use and the open IFC/BCF standards for communicating with partners who work with other software. It is an uncomplicated platform that everyone can start working with in a short time, and people can quickly find the necessary information”.
Saving Time and Preventing Errors
The main advantages of Catenda Hub for Aan de Stegge Twello are saving time and preventing (communication) errors.
“We retrieve all necessary information for our planning, cost calculation, permit applications, compliance with BENG and MPG, work safety, etc., from the BIM,” says Zeevalkink. That is why the quality of all BIM data is becoming increasingly important.
“Because our models are so complete, we see the need for drawings steadily decreasing. Previously, comments were written on drawings, but nowadays issues are added to the model. You can also easily upload project documents to Catenda Hub and quickly filter all available information by supplier or by component. Finally, in the near future we also want to use the platform for Wkb (Quality Assurance Act for Construction) inspections and link it to 12Build.”
Image credit: Aan de Stegge Twello