VolkerRail, a subsidiary of Royal VolkerWessels Stevin, replaced a fragmented landscape of ERP systems and Excel spreadsheets with a single integrated platform for budgeting, rolling forecasting, and financial consolidation — giving every layer of the organisation the insight and foresight needed to manage complex, risk-heavy contracts.
VolkerRail operates in a rail infrastructure market that has fundamentally shifted. Where contracts once allowed for cost recharging, clients now expect fixed-fee agreements and multi-year maintenance guarantees. This transition placed new demands on financial management: instead of tracking revenue, the organisation needed to continuously assess costs, risks and efficiency across a complex project portfolio.
"Technology drives VolkerRail as VolkerRail drives technology. We deliver on time, securely, and to the highest standards of quality. Safety, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and financial consciousness are our core values. However, the return or revenue is often the balancing item."
— Paul de Hair, CFO VolkerRail
The organisation's existing setup was not equipped for this shift. Multiple ERP systems fed into a world of Excel spreadsheets — workable, but no longer sufficient. Before Jedox, the financial department only knew if any money was being made on a project after the fact. Figuring out why or why not was a complex, time-consuming and expensive process. Looking forward proved to be even more difficult.
"Working with Excel and other tools meant everyone had plenty of time for coffee waiting for the results to come through. Sometimes a very long coffee break wouldn't even cut it. Besides the delay, it disrupts the discovery process."
After reviewing multiple tools, CFO Paul de Hair identified Jedox as the platform that could meet VolkerRail's specific requirements — not just reporting on the past, but providing foresight as well.
"I reviewed several tools and Jedox really stood out. We needed a tool that gave us not only insight, but foresight as well in one central database. We wanted an end-to-end tool for intelligence, budgeting, rolling forecasting and financial consolidation. We needed to get rid of laborious manual work in Excel and improve data quality."
Key selection criteria included:
VolkerRail selected Celcus as their Jedox implementation partner. The approach was deliberately phased: start with the planning and control cycle, prove value quickly, and expand from there.
"We wanted finance to be in the lead during the implementation. Together with the Jedox consultants from Celcus, this team set out with a general goal in mind and decided on adjustments or additional functionality along the way."
A deliberate decision was made to have Celcus establish the architecture and ERP connections first, then transfer expertise to the internal finance and IT team — ensuring the organisation could own and extend the solution independently.
The impact of Jedox at VolkerRail reached well beyond the finance team. The platform became, as Paul de Hair describes it, a catalyst for the transition they had in mind for the organisation.
"We started hearing things like: 'Hey, are these MY figures? So I can see what's behind this figure? And what happened before this figure? And what happens if I change this figure? I don't need a controller anymore to do this?' The way Jedox has empowered us has led to an increased sense of engagement, particularly in giving financial consciousness a boost that we had been looking for."
Managers across the organisation now enter their budgets, forecasts and risk assessments directly in Jedox — sharing results immediately across the organisation.
The first application to move out of Excel was VolkerRail's Project Control Spreadsheet — the central document for every contract and project. Rebuilt in Jedox, it is now automatically compiled from underlying ERP data, with business rules applied consistently and manual adjustments reflected immediately.
"Today the project control status is automatically compiled by data from the underlying ERP systems, figures or consolidations are calculated according to business rules and manual adjustments are made immediately."
The result: a live, reliable overview of every project — and the foundation for dashboards and reporting at every level of the organisation.
One of the practical challenges in any finance transformation is adoption — particularly when teams have built years of muscle memory around Excel.
"In the beginning my team was a bit hesitant. They know Excel is laborious, complex, and risky, but they already had years of Excel experience. Jedox being so similar to Excel helped to overcome their doubts in the adoption phase. It is easy to understand and works fast towards results."
One of the most significant changes was a new level of confidence in the data itself.
"One, complete source of truth helps us to discuss the business in more detail. Today, if we don't understand a certain figure, we look it up and analyse it instantly. And we have confidence in the data we are using. On occasion, numbers used to just strike me as wrong without always being able to put my finger on it. Big mistakes would be identified but nowadays all that insecurity is gone. A great feeling."
The implementation delivered measurable impact across the organisation:
VolkerRail is a rail infrastructure specialist and subsidiary of Royal VolkerWessels Stevin — one of Europe's largest construction groups (€4.5 billion revenue, 15,000 employees).
CFO VolkerRail
Paul de Hair, CFO VolkerRail
"We have managed to increase consciousness in the area of finance and risk and the ability to act accordingly: on every business level our people are lowering risks and minimizing costs."
