All housing associations in the Netherlands are faced with the same task: how do we make all our property energy neutral by 2050? Many things need to be taken into account, such as flora and fauna legislation, residents’ interests and the spending pattern. In order to deal with these requests more efficiently, the vast majority must be standardized. This is only possible if all information is collected and digitized first. This is how the Nijver data platform was born.
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At Nijhuis, they believed that the costly and ambitious process of a housing corporation to become more sustainable could be done much faster than the average of 20 weeks. Loyals Group label Gravity was asked to realize the dream of digitally transforming this application process.
Housing associations have very little insight into their own portfolio. The data they need for this is fragmented and must be collected from various sources. This leads to an inefficient and costly application process that takes an average of 20 weeks in practice. In addition, the same considerations are often made again and again, while 80% of all projects are similar and only 20% deviate.
Based on this insight, the project started with a discovery phase in which Nijhuis’ current process was critically examined. During workshops, the stakeholders were challenged to look again at their idea and to sharpen certain assumptions and visions. The target group was described again and also questioned during in-depth interviews to better understand the needs.
During the project, an Agile Coach from Gravity was connected who also coached the Nijhuis teams. Steps were taken by always thinking from the customer’s point of view and knowing where you want to go. Ultimately, the actual platform was created in the development phase and extensively tested and validated before going live.
In 2022, Nijver is nominated together with Gravity for the Dutch Interactive Awards in the Digital Transformation category.
Nijver now collects all the necessary information that housing corporations need from various data sources. At the push of a button, housing associations gain direct insight into the sustainability, quality, CO2 emissions, tenant satisfaction, rent, energy costs and quality of life of their housing portfolio through a clear dashboard.
Nijver provides an investment overview that advises housing associations on how to achieve their objectives on these themes. This results in a smart and well thought-out maintenance plan or improvement strategy with an associated cost budget. This immediately makes it clear how much impact this has on their portfolio and which budgets are required for this. Subsequently, an application, if approved, can be passed on as an assignment with the right construction company.
Alan Bosch — Directeur Nijhuis Apeldoorn
Gravity helped us build a platform where investment and maintenance decisions can be made simply and quickly. Considerations are now a lot easier!
Where drawing up investment plans used to take hundreds of hours, this can now be done within a few clicks. By standardizing and digitizing the maintenance and sustainability process of housing corporations, construction can become more sustainable faster than was ever thought possible. Maybe (well) before 2050!
Nijver wanted to bring in its first paying customer in the first quarter of 2022. In this they succeeded. From the traditionally driven market, there is a positive and curious response to the disruptive, giant step that Nijver has made. New insights to further develop the platform are being gained.
