"A key advantage is that BrightAnalytics has high compatibility with various systems."

Financial Insights with Greater Efficiency

“Together we go!” That is the motto of De Jong & Laan, and it can be taken quite literally. Since partnering with private equity firm Waterland, De Jong & Laan has been expanding, partly through acquisitions. To support this growth, they have adopted the BrightAnalytics software, which quickly and intuitively provides financial insights into the performance of their affiliated companies.

De Jong & Laan sought a reporting tool to support their buy-and-build strategy. CFO Jeroen Baake explains: “When we acquire an organisation, we want to gain financial insight into their development as soon as possible. Until recently, we gathered data from our accounting programs. After partnering with Waterland, we decided to streamline the process with a tool that provides quick insights and allows us to stay in control. We didn’t want to rely on consultants every two weeks for adjustments; we wanted to lead the process ourselves. A good explanation and visually appealing dashboards are essential in this.”

High compatibility was the deciding factor 

The accounting firm compared several solutions, including BrightAnalytics. “They came to our attention because one of the companies in the Waterland group had a positive experience with the platform,” Jeroen continues. “When we explored further, it became clear that BrightAnalytics ticked a lot of boxes on our wish list. The features they demonstrated were convincing. In addition to financial insights, one significant advantage is that BrightAnalytics offers high compatibility with various systems.”

When asked whether they considered building their own solution, given the company’s substantial IT expertise, Jeroen responded: “We thought about developing something ourselves in Power BI, but we ultimately concluded that it was smarter to choose an existing reporting tool that already had the necessary investments and learning experiences behind it. Building it ourselves would have consumed a lot of time. Moreover, in terms of maintenance and further development, partnering with BrightAnalytics made more sense. So it was a conscious decision to move forward with this collaboration.”

Ease of use 

After Alfred Kiezebrink joined the finance & control team, they were able to leverage even more from BrightAnalytics, with multiple colleagues across different offices gaining access. “In addition to the finance & control team and the management, we have given office managers and partners access. They can view summaries for their offices and various cost centres. They don’t need to dive into minute details, but if necessary, we can easily retrieve that data. If a new office manager or partner joins, I add them to the system and provide a brief overview. Overall, staff can quickly get to grips with the system. The number of technical questions we receive is minimal, which highlights how user-friendly the application is.”

The convenience has increased, something De Jong & Laan experiences daily. “We report by office, but we also classify by region or industry. This gives us insight to optimise our operations,” Jeroen continues. “Additionally, BrightAnalytics allows us to add key performance indicators (KPIs) to the dashboards that are important to us. With continuous updates, we always have up-to-date overviews, so we don’t need to wait for data to be processed through the periodic closing process. This way, we always have immediate insights into the financial performance of our organisation.”

Always solution-oriented 

Earlier this year, De Jong & Laan also adopted the Controlling app on the recommendation of BrightAnalytics. In addition to the financial application with dashboards, the company is now exploring how to make optimal use of this advanced app. “It’s great that BrightAnalytics proactively offers suggestions and introduces new developments to us,” Alfred continues. “They are also open to feedback, and we can always rely on excellent service. You’re never asking too much. When we first started using the Controlling app, we experienced a slight slowdown due to the large amount of data being transferred from De Jong & Laan into the system. The BrightAnalytics team immediately addressed this and optimised the process to keep it functional for us.” Jeroen adds: “Every provider encounters challenges at some point. It’s about how you tackle them together. We are very satisfied with how BrightAnalytics handles it.”