Protime: a loyal Intervest customer for over 10 years now

06-09-2019
Nice to know
Protime 2

Sandra, Protime Management Assistant, talks about the cooperation

Protime develops software that focuses mainly on access control and time registration. In other words, everything used to optimise human capital. Headquartered in Aartselaar, the company was looking for suitable business premises to help it meet its ambitions for growth. This is how it came into contact with Intervest. We asked Sandra, Management Assistant at Protime, how this cooperation came about.

Freedom to grow

In 2009, our lack of office space really became apparent. So we started looking for a new, larger location. With the help of Intervest, we found it in Aartselaar; it has already been our head office for 10 years now. Since then, we have continued to grow. In the beginning there were still about four tenants in the building, but we needed more and more space for new employees. The result? There are currently only two tenants in the building, including Protime. (So, more space for us!)

Office tailored to individual needs and desires

At Intervest, you can choose to have your office furnished by a team of interior designers. At the time, we chose to tackle the job ourselves; you are given that option as well. Intervest did however strip the building, after which we furnished it according to our own look and feel: sleek and light with contrasting colours here and there. We received carte blanche from Intervest to do whatever we deemed necessary. It was a great cooperation!

A digital platform for efficient communication

At least once a quarter, we sit down together for the tenants’ meeting. During these meetings, our contact from Intervest is always the same person. That works really well, because it means our contact is always up to date about everything that’s going on. We also have a digital platform which can be used to report any defects or problems. Thanks to this application, repairs are carried out extremely quickly. We send in our request and the Intervest team handles it immediately. An employee then comes by and, when the issue has been addressed, this also gets indicated on the platform. Super quick, easy and a textbook example of digital efficiency.

 

Kantoor 1

Familiar Intervest faces

Another nice aspect is that Intervest works with maintenance teams and technicians on permanent contracts. We always see familiar faces as a result. It’s quite common to hear a “Hey, how was your weekend?” in the corridors. That creates a pleasant atmosphere! The Intervest team does a great job of maintaining the building and they are also responsible for the sanitary facilities and air-conditioning units, among other things. That takes a great deal off our plate.

Looking to the future...

The Protime group, with branches in the Netherlands and France, has over 250 employees. The current head office, with more than 100 colleagues, is located in Aartselaar; a great base for operations, certainly in terms of location. The office is easily accessible via the A12 and E19, but if I do have to mention a small drawback, it would be that the direct public transport line from Antwerp is not optimal. But it’s OK, most people live within a radius of 15 km, which is ideal, even with an electric bicycle! There are currently about 120 of us there. That number has already tripled since we first moved in. As we still have major plans for the future, in the longer term we will have to start looking for another new location. And when that time comes, we will first approach Intervest to be our partner, because of the current relationship of trust between us.

Thank you for the great interview, Sandra!