10 years with Centraal Beheer: speed, decisiveness & continuous adjustment

>> In our case, we highlight three great services: Good Job, Duurzaam Woongemak, and RoadGuard.

Speed: short lines, quick decisions

The collaboration with Centraal Beheer began at the end of 2015 with the development of RoadGuard, on-demand roadside assistance without a subscription. You have a breakdown, grab your phone, report it and help comes your way. “At that time, it was quite a groundbreaking concept,” says Violette Müller, designer at Freshheads. “And a logical step because insurance alone was no longer enough to stand out. Centraal Beheer was forced to further expand their services.” 

We quickly brought the roadside assistance to life in an app. Rik Deuzeman (developer) remembers the short lines and quick decisions: “We worked intensively with Karin and Jaap from Centraal Beheer. Every Tuesday we traveled from Tilburg to Apeldoorn. Come rain or shine. We just wanted to step on it.” After 10 years, that speed is still one of the reasons why collaboration works. In a large organization, decision-making is sometimes layered. That is why we are happy to make plans small, concrete, and workable, so that we can realize them step by step and Centraal Beheer can directly evaluate the developments.

Decisiveness: the right people in the right place

A long-term collaboration depends on people. And at Centraal Beheer, one name has been coming up for 10 years: Karin. As Product Owner of Centraal Beheer, she understands the interests of her organization, but also what a change means technically within a digital service. Rik: “That ensures clear communication and a nice dynamic. She proactively thinks along and provides improvements. Even in setbacks, constructive input is given.”

Developer Floris Boersma also sees that the collaboration is robust: “If something rubs the wrong way, we solve it together. It’s not always easy, especially not with digital products that have been around for so long. Then it’s quite a puzzle.”

“The collaboration feels familiar: short lines, quick switching, and pragmatic action.” – Rik Deuzeman, backend developer at Freshheads

Keep adjusting: further development, clearing up, and sometimes stopping

Ten years of collaboration also means that new colleagues regularly jump onto a moving train. And then you quickly learn how important maintenance and further development are. In recent years we have worked on the Service Platform, the Climate Store, and its extension into a business variant. Solutions that last much longer than initially thought. Floris: “The Climate Store was set up with the intention that it would be used temporarily, but years later it still exists. Thanks to the solid foundation of this platform, we can quickly create new versions for a different target audience.” 

At the same time, working long on the same solution is challenging. “You always have to deal with history,” says Floris Boersma. “Technical developments go so fast that sometimes things need to be cleared up. We have to make choices that fit with what is already there. Yet, every time we manage to deliver new value.”

When you look around, you see that a lot has changed in ten years. “Sometimes a solution no longer serves its purpose at a certain point,” says business strategist Maud Vorstenbosch. “KPIs are not achieved and the joint focus comes to a standstill. By being honest and stopping what doesn’t work, the collaboration remains healthy.”

10 years +

Teams change, technology changes, and organizations shift. But one thing has remained remarkably constant: the will to build digital services together that truly help people. What makes this collaboration special is that we really know each other by now. We understand how Centraal Beheer works, what the dynamics are of this large organization, where the brakes are, and where we as an agency add value. We work as an extension of their team. With the same commitment, the same energy, and the same drive to make things better. The way of working together has remained the same: quickly switching, open communication, and learning together. Centraal Beheer, cheers. To the past 10 years and to everything we will make smarter, simpler, and more valuable.