Customer since 2010

Municipality of Houten

The Municipality of Houten has made great strides in improving planning and control. They have ambitious plans in which LIAS is used on a wide front.

The result

Ellie Liebregts, Director of Operations for the Municipality of Houten: "We have taken a number of steps in improving planning and control. Many more steps will follow. We will first do the things that are necessary and the quickest to realize".

Among other things, the municipality of Houten has realized the following points:

A 9-column view for budget holders with all the relevant financial info they want.
Request for management reports for the more than 60 budget holders.
request information for the financial statements.
Demand for qualitative indicators for management reporting.
project progress report for the land company.

The Mission

The search for a planning and control package for the municipality of Houten ended at LIAS Software. The assignment can be described as follows:

Look for possible improvements in your p&c processes and stick to them. For us it was a) the financial basis in order, b) budget holder responsibility was not yet a perception and c) the relatively large amount of time spent on p&c products and processes.
Have acceptance criteria in focus before you begin development.
Committed management c.q. principal.
Build relationship with mutual clients and project managers.
Negotiate on price with contractor, makes a win-win situation.
Project-based approach rather than ad hoc.
Support users by involving them even before the development process.
Scrum-like development you need to be able to deal with.
Take the time to train budget holders and do it right the first time.

"After an initial phase, there are still several things we want to take up. We have an ambitious vision for the future in which we are going to use LIAS on a broader scale."
Ellie Liebregts - Director of Operations at Houten Municipality

The tactics

The choice has been made for gradual growth. In concrete steps that are manageable to an improvement of planning and control. The approach can be summarized as follows:

Training is not just button training but especially highlighting the gains in the process. So what are we doing it for and where is the profit?
Delineate your goals (p&c products). And celebrate every now and then, no matter how small the result.
Gain support from budget administrators and manager as a foundation for the future.
Laying a strong foundation for the next steps.

What else are we going to work on?

After an initial phase, there are still several things we want to take up. We have an ambitious vision for the future in which we are going to use LIAS on a broader level. The plans for the near future are in any case

Dashboard similar to venstersvoorbedrijfsvoering.nl.
Rationalization of the quantity of p&c products. Reporting less and letting what is left be added value in the planning and control cycle.
Continue existing LIAS level, i.e. continue to use existing profits to the fullest.