How AbelTalent got a grip on tracking hours and capacity planning with Fortes Milestones
“When I saw the introduction video, I knew: this application has been well thought out.” – Ralph Vis, co-owner AbelTalent
AbelTalent connects supply and demand of talent in the physical environment. Their challenge? A growing team of inexperienced talent, many simultaneous projects and the need to accurately plan hours and capacity. In this case, Ralph Vis shares how Fortes Milestones helped them improve processes, reduce errors and work more efficiently.
AbelTalent as an ‘Experience Accelerator’
AbelTalent helps recent college and university graduates gain work experience. This group often has difficulty finding a first job due to the lack of experience. AbelTalent breaks this vicious circle by selecting young professionals on four core qualities (CCSI: communicative, commercial, social, initiative) and deploying them on internal customer projects.
This allows employees to learn about different jobs and company cultures in a short period of time – an accelerated learning curve that helps them make more focused career choices.
Planning as a critical success factor
With a fixed contract size per employee, AbelTalent aims to optimize planning, accounting and invoicing. This does not always mean hourly billing: some projects are billed per product (instalments). Therefore, insight into the number of hours per product and employee is crucial, both for cost-benefit analysis and quality control.
Added to this is a high throughput of employees: inflow and outflow every month. Accurate capacity planning is essential to meet deadlines and monitor returns.
From spreadsheets to smart software
Before Fortes, AbelTalent worked with Excel. Flexible, but error-prone and without a good overview. During the search for alternatives, Fortes Milestones caught their eye.
“I have implemented many systems. Fortes stood out for its thoughtful design and user-friendliness.”
After a proof of concept with consultant Berry Zwaan, it appeared that Fortes could tick off all the requirements: from flexible invoicing arrangements to real-time reporting.
Cooperation with Fortes: open and practical
Ralph appreciates the direct, honest cooperation: “No empty promises, but realistic solutions. Joost and Berry work hard, think along, and keep communication pleasant.”
The benefits of Fortes Milestones for AbelTalent
- Better capacity planning: insight into availability and deployability per employee
- Efficient tracking of hours: directly linked to projects and invoicing arrangements
- Fast invoicing: integrated with Exact Online for seamless financial processing
- Data-driven management: export to Power BI for comprehensive analytics
- Flexibility: each screen is exportable and importable for customization
Success factors and tips
Fortes Milestones offers many opportunities, but good management is crucial. Ralph’s advice:
- Invest in an internal superuser who knows the system inside out
- Ensure your team gains knowledge
- Take advantage of software flexibility, but ensure consistency
Future wishes
AbelTalent wants Fortes to add more flexibility for dynamic schedules to suit students and young professionals. Ralph also sees potential in a user association to share ideas and influence the development roadmap.
Ready for more efficient planning and invoicing?
Want to know how Fortes Milestones can help your organization with tracking hours, capacity planning, and project management?
Contact Fortes and discover the possibilities.