Workplace management under control: how Joris Zorg tamed that dragon too

After a period full of changes, Joris Zorg faced a new challenge: workplace management. There was a great need for grip, overview and trust. With Wortell's project-based approach, this 'dragon' was also tamed. Paul Verlaek, Information Manager, takes us through this development.

Joris Zorg is a medium-sized welfare and care organization in the Kempen with five residential care locations. With approximately 600 employees, the organization supports clients at home or on location with housing, care and domestic help. Due to changes at suppliers, the focus shifted to improving workplace management. This was done with the help of Wortell, who makes this possible from a place of trust.

The dragon of workplace management

"We had a supplier who was going to transfer us from on-premise to the cloud four years ago – before I joined Joris Zorg. Due to circumstances at the time, that did not work out, so we said goodbye to that party and went back to our old workplace manager. We had good experiences with that and they got us from on-premise to the cloud in three months. They also supported us well before." But when the relatively small IT partner was taken over by a larger organization, problems arose again. "We really suffered a lot from the merger. Some employees who knew exactly what was going on with us had said goodbye, which meant that the knowledge about Joris Zorg had largely disappeared. As a result, tickets remained open, agreements were not respected. That was a reason for us to cancel. There was no confidence that things would work out in the short term." This is where the 'dragon' of workplace management became visible: departed knowledge, open tickets and messy processes were a challenge that had to be made manageable.

From chaos to overview

Joris Zorg opened the door for another cooperation partner. "We were already familiar with Wortell and had had good experiences with them. Then it is a smaller step to invite such a party to think along about our workplace management. That's how it came about quite quickly. We had a lot of conversations about our wishes and requirements, and to what extent Wortell could meet them. Those talks went very well and smoothly and according to our expectations. I notice such a big difference with how it was and how it is now. It is much more pleasant to work together." This collaboration made the chaotic situation clearer: workplace management received the attention it needed and was improved step by step. "Tickets are being picked up well. Where we used to have to really chase it to get answers, tickets are now proactively created or reported. There is a biweekly meeting with Wortell to discuss the tickets that are still open."

The proactive collaboration helps Joris Zorg's IT team: "There are four of us. Two all-round application managers, a digicoach and myself. We do the entire workplace management ourselves; from laptops to telephony. We also manage a large part of the home automation. All our residents have a smart sensor in the room with AI software that can be used to identify deviating patterns, which are different for each resident. The healthcare sector will be notified of this. We manage the first line ourselves, then it goes on to the supplier of the product. So we are working on many different things. Thanks to the regular consultation with Wortell, we can take targeted action on the workplace questions that arise."

Project-based approach

The overview of certificates and licenses has also been improved: "We are now being notified of this. That was new to us. Of course we try to keep track of it ourselves, but it helps if a party like Wortell monitors and oversees that." A project-based approach has been applied to workplace management: "If you look at workplace management, it has been tackled as a project. We as Joris Zorg and also other suppliers we work with can learn from that. A steering committee and project group were introduced and the project manager of Wortell was well on top of it. I don't often see that with suppliers. Our team is working on so many things at the same time that some topics sometimes don't get the attention they deserve. Then it's nice that someone like Wortell's project manager frequently points out what is needed or still needs to be completed." Smaller issues are also tackled energetically: "This week I discovered that my e-mails via Bastion 365 were sent as secure by default. We investigated that yesterday and it turned out to be my e-mail signature. That is being dealt with adequately and quickly."

No uniformity

Rhea Houwaart, project manager at Wortell, adds: "We really look at the organization and what it needs. Then we make a proposal and start the conversation about a result that meets the need. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach; You can't roll out the same thing at every healthcare organization. That's why we lined up the entire team at the start of the project before we did the kick-off at Joris Zorg: the service delivery manager, operational lead, consultant, account manager, architect and project manager. That wide group was very well received by Joris Zorg and immediately ensured a strong start. During the project, we always kept the transfer to production in mind. That is why a manager was always involved to ensure that questions and follow-up run smoothly. Where necessary, we took extra steps, such as creating profiles for Android devices, so that everything was immediately workable for Joris Zorg."

Clear communication

"By working more according to standards, management becomes simpler and clearer," Rhea continues. As a result, the number of tickets decreases and the environment automatically complies with NEN compliance. Clear communication was key: everyone knew exactly where we stood, what actions were needed, what caused any delays and who was responsible for what. We have implemented Conditional Access (access rules that determine the conditions under which employees can log in) and carefully coordinated what this means for everyone. This way they knew exactly what was changing and we were able to make the adjustments without any problems. All changes were discussed in the steering committee, so that we were sure that everyone was well informed about the impact on their daily work. By also switching one-on-one on location, we were able to support Joris Zorg as well as possible and take immediate action. In this way, we have set up a project that has been successfully completed, also within the financial frameworks. Joris Zorg is a warm, personal organization; Our professionalism and proactive approach were immediately appreciated, which made for a trusted collaboration."

Standing strong, innovating smartly

Joris Zorg's IT team is relatively small, but very ambitious in terms of innovation. This is also possible now that workplace management is well invested and trust is growing. "Savings are of course useful, but more important is that we have more confidence and that things are going well. This also opens the door to new developments. This is how a new project has been created through Wortell: calling with Teams. We will start with that in March. It is a big project, which we are working on. And we also want to start with data labelling (DLT); it is our wish to tackle this with Wortell in 2026. And Copilot, we want to pay more attention to that, but only when calling with Teams is completed." The rollout is happening step by step: "New phones mean a different way of calling. We are looking at how we can offer it reasonably manageable for our colleagues. An adoption process has been started to train colleagues: two days physically on location to involve and guide a large part of our colleagues. Then we already have initiators who are trained and can include other colleagues in the story."

Tip for fellow healthcare organizations

Thanks to the collaboration with Wortell, workplace management at Joris Zorg is now clearer, tickets are handled proactively and the IT team has more grip and space to look further. The lessons learned from previous challenges have been included in the innovations. Paul does have a tip for other healthcare organizations about this: "Clearly map out your expectations in advance. We ran into a number of questions and requests with our previous supplier that had to be solved quickly. That was the reason for us to talk to Wortell. And now we see that this has been a good choice."