Précon Consulting Group

BlockBrainsPrécon Consulting Group

Where 2 become 1

Précon Consulting Group is a leading consultancy in the food industry, specializing in areas like safety, sustainability, quality management and organizational development. Every day, they advise, train and support customers within a complex international field of food regulations and legislation.

Recently, Précon expanded its activities with a new non-food division. The problem was that this new division used a different case management system (CMS), its own applications and reporting methods, resulting in misalignment between both divisions. That’s why Précon wanted to establish more synergy through a single system.

With the help of BlockBrains, the company started building a new CMS while optimizing some of the key work processes such as workflow-, order- and invoice management using the Betty Blocks no-code development platform.

Shadow IT and lack of oversight

“In the field that Précon operates, there are no out-of-the-box software solutions,” explains Marco Priem, managing director at Précon. “And without an extensive IT department that can build and maintain custom-made CMS with manual coding, we decided to opt for a no-code solution.”

Précon faced 2 main challenges: they needed to expand and diversify their organization due to increased market concentration, and establish a software system that was more adaptable to a fast-changing market. Both of these factors, Précon concluded, would require a more flexible and transparent IT-environment.

Until recently, each Précon division had its own way of managing workflows and tracking order statuses through either Google- or Excel sheets. Forms were assigned manually and communication between customers took place via closed email accounts, which resulted in shadow IT and a lack of oversight.

BlockBrains developed a self-service portal based on the Betty Blocks no-code platform. Using this portal, Précon can receive, assign, track and invoice requests from customers, all within 1 system. Via the new application, customers get real-time insight into their order status. In addition, direct data exchanges between Précon and customers can take place in a secure digital environment.

Building the system through the no-code platform made it possible that the pilot of the application went live after just 5 months of development – about 3 times quicker than Précon had predicted.

“Within 5 months the application was ready to start the pilot. This application has saved us a considerable amount of time and operational costs, and helped secure our business processes.”

Rien van Alphen – IT manager Precon

Key features of the application

A system that automatically assigns and tracks procedural tasks
Employees and customers get real-time insight into their order status
Automated invoice system that translates data between Précon, clients, and suppliers