Standing still is not an option at Preston Palace

Standing still: that's not an option for Preston Palace. Together with de Jong & Laan, significant strides are being made in the field of digital management information. Carlo (Preston Palace): "With the help of our IT consultant Jasper Visserman, we have embarked on a journey to connect and make all information flows transparent."

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Sitting still is not an option at Preston Palace

Horeca Dashboard Zwolle IT advies

"As a mischievous kid, you walk between the buildings of the abandoned hospital complex and see a boiler house you dream of tinkering with. Years later, that's a reality." Later still, Carlo Slag can call himself the owner of this unusually large, unique, and well-known resort by Dutch standards: Preston Palace.

Realizing dreams and seizing opportunities is why standing still is not an option for Preston Palace. Together with de Jong & Laan, they take great strides in the field of digital management information.

"Now, I might be quite analog, but my wish was still to be able to see how Preston Palace is doing at a glance when I walk into my office in the morning," Carlo says.

Read more under the image.

Jasper Visserman Senior IT consultant

Specialist in the field of IT

As a Senior IT consultant, I have a passion for all things data. I enjoy making data work for you, providing optimal insight, visualizing, interpreting, and incorporating it into business processes and operations. My knowledge of IT and accounting allows me to provide optimal support to my clients and colleagues.

Carlo explains: "With the help of our IT consultant Jasper Visserman, we have embarked on a journey to connect and make all information flows transparent. It's quite a task because with all the different disciplines, cash flows, and suppliers, this company encompasses an enormous amount of data to sift through."

"We succeeded," says Jasper with a smile. "At the moment, we are putting the finishing touches on the HR dashboard within our IT advisory department. This organization has a large workforce. It's an important and substantial flow within this organization, so it's very desirable to have this fully transparent."

In addition to the financial flows that have already been mapped in the financial dashboard and the operational dashboard, de Jong & Laan also handles payroll processing, auditing financial statements, and tax filing.

Information in one place

The advantage of the various dashboards based on a single source file (management dashboard) is that everyone can access data for their 'own field.'

Carlo sees the overall status.
Finance Manager Frans Veenstra gets the important financial indicators for him in view.
Chantal Monsma, as the HR-responsible manager, will soon have all HR-related information visible.

However, Carlo, Frans, and Chantal are essentially looking at the 'same thing.' All management information is uploaded into a single large source file through links. They get the current and relevant management information visually mapped out from this uniform information source. This saves an enormous amount of time, and everyone acts based on the same information.

Reduced risk of errors

Carlo: "Added to this is the fact that I am no longer dependent on anyone to provide information. Previously, different managers provided various summaries. If I wanted insight, I had to hope the employee had time to deliver it at that moment. Moreover, everyone did it in their own way, which increased the risk of errors and inconsistent information."

Carlo (Preston Palace): my great fear, or whether the figures are correct, is no longer an issue.

Jasper adds: "The dashboard retrieves data directly and simultaneously at pre-determined times from the financial accounting package (Exact Globe), the Personnel & Payroll system (Nmbrs), and the reservation system (RM). We are no longer dependent on human actions, and the dashboards are always up to date."

Confidence in numbers

Carlo continues: “If we now see a major outlier, we quickly come together to take action. My big fear about whether the numbers are correct has now been put to rest. Although I must secretly admit that in the beginning, I still kept my old sources alongside. It takes some getting used to, but trust is growing. Partly due to the ease and speed with which everything is now insightful. When I want to have a graph adjusted, it is quite easy to implement. Usually, Frans does this himself, but if it gets really tricky, we call in Jasper's help."

Quick response

It's nice to be able to call in someone who knows us well, has an affinity with our company, and fits in with our no-nonsense culture due to his equal standing," says Carlo. "And after ten years, first as an audit leader and now as an IT consultant, Jasper knows us well,” he adds with a laugh.

Frans confirms that the adjustments are quite easy to make. “It also looks very professional visually. The images make the complex content easily readable. And as the financial officer, I almost got goosebumps at the possibility of zooming in all the way to the ledger transactions.”

Read more below the image.

During the corona period, the screen did not show a nice upward graph. It was eerily quiet in the otherwise bustling resort. However, the Preston Palace team did not let themselves be discouraged. In fact, they seized this period to completely revamp the over thirty-year-old organization.

Carlo (Preston Palace): The world is changing, and our concept's expiry date had passed.

Carlo: “We had actually already thought before Covid-19 that it was time for a fresh breeze, but these circumstances allowed us to speed up this process.”

"We used this period to optimize everything and adapt it to a renewed concept, enabling us to better cater to day-trippers or audiences who previously booked city trips or short vacations. This turnaround requires a different working method and customer approach, so we are busy retraining our staff and managers,” Carlo explains.

Better planning and budgeting

Chantal: “The new concept also requires an adjustment in staff planning. With the HR dashboard, we will soon be able to see at a glance the ratio of occupancy rate to the number of employees. We can learn from that, and this information can, of course, be compared to labor costs and revenue. Information that will soon make us even better able to plan and budget well."

Chantal (Preston Palace): together we continue to respond to the changing society and want to provide guests with the 'wow' effect.

Responding to the changing society

"During corona, everyone wanted to contribute and do 'something' to maintain and improve this large resort. So, everything received a refresh, and we even gave one of the restaurants a complete makeover together. One person was laying bricks, another was painting, and another was cleaning. Together, we now have a completely new concept. And I am proud of that!" says Chantal.

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