“Make sure you are well trained so that you can get the most out of Prostream.”

On 1 January 2024, the new Quality Assurance Act (Wkb) for construction came into effect. This act brought many changes, not only for builders but also for clients and permit issuers such as municipalities. Harold Verkuijlen, Coordinator Construction Quality at TÜV NORD Nederland, has been working on this subject ever since the new act was adopted by the Senate in 2019.

Harold is one of the first to complete the training as a quality assurance officer. He started working at TÜV NORD Nederland from that position four years ago. As a coordinator, he keeps a helicopter view of the ongoing projects. “I try to have as little contact as possible with plan testers and inspectors,” he says, laughing. “Because that means the project is going well.”

We are looking forward to the connection between Prostream and STA. We expect to get real added value from this.

Central documentation in Prostream

It is important to have all documentation for a project centralised, especially for the role of quality assurance officer. Harold: “You have to work with the quality assurance officer’s tool and the contractor’s tool – they are all different packages and they have to talk to each other. We are still looking for the best way to use Prostream.”

“We can still get a lot out of Prostream ourselves: I think there are still a lot of functions that we are not yet using optimally. We are still discovering that.” A tip he therefore has for organisations that are going to start using Prostream is to find out exactly what you can do with Prostream and in that way get the most out of the platform. “Make sure you are well trained, so that you can get the most out of the programme.”

Make sure you are well trained so that you can get the most out of the program.

Favorite feature

Harold does have a favorite feature. “What I find useful is that when a structural engineer is going to check documents, they often only look in the “Construction data” folder, while we think they should also look in the “Architectural drawings” folder, so that they can see whether there is a connection between the structural and architectural drawings. In Prostream, you can clearly display that connection: when you give a structural drawing the labels “Construction” and “Construction technical”, they both appear when you search for a label.”

“Freezing [making files final, ed.] files is also very useful. I can then print out a document list in Excel with all the associated metadata.” Harold is also optimistic about the developments of Prostream: “We are looking forward to the link between Prostream and STA. We really expect to get added value from this.”