“Together we form an ecosystem that you have to take good care of”

Karin Hubert and Sander Heerbaart

In these trying times, our Finance department is concerned about the welfare of its employees, but also about the welfare of TU Delft suppliers, as Director of Finance Karin Hubert and manager of Procurement Sander Heerbaart explain.

When the government announced far-reaching measures in the fight against the coronavirus on 15 March, Karin Hubert immediately realised the seriousness of the situation for TU Delft suppliers. “I watched the press conference and thought: this is going to have a lot of impact. We started looking for ways of helping our suppliers straightaway on Monday”, she says. “I sat down with my managers and said: we are now paying within 30 days, can't we bring that down further? I knew, of course, that we should be able to do so in terms of cash.” As it happened, this turned out to be possible technically as well as financially. “We had already highly automated and digitized the P2P (Procure to Pay) process in recent years, in order to meet the official 30-day payment deadline. We are now letting go of that too. As soon as the Alusta ordering system states that a product or service has been delivered and the invoice has been received, we proceed to pay it,” says Sander Heerbaart. That did not go unnoticed. Hubert: “A number of suppliers have already remarked on how pleasantly surprised they were with the fast payment. That's why we do it. The important thing now is that we all contribute something.” Great impact Heerbaart is baffled by the news that there are large companies that are now – illegally – extending their payment term to up to 150 days. “That’s outrageous. We work a lot with small, local entrepreneurs, whom we can help a little in this way. That’s the least you can do under these circumstances.” Paying faster is one thing, but what can you do for suppliers whose services are suddenly surplus to requirements? “From one day to the next, all kinds of things on campus have come to a standstill or are in much less demand, think of the catering or the cleaning services. That has a big impact.” “We are talking about existing contracts here, which are now under pressure because of these extraordinary circumstances. We already started talking to suppliers last week to see what they are up against and what we can do for each other”, he continues. “Now that the campus is more or less deserted, we might be able to bring forward certain maintenance jobs planned for the summer, for example. Of course, we have to comply with the corona guidelines for working safely. We are now working on a policy to see how we can best arrange this.” Another measure is that we show restraint in contracting new suppliers. In this way, we support existing suppliers in these extremely uncertain times, something that is in keeping with our social responsibility. However, it is also a matter of common sense. In the short term, it is about security of supply, because research and education are continuing – often online – and therefore need products and services. There is a long-term vision behind it too. “Together we form an ecosystem that you have to take good care of. We should not be short-sighted: this crisis will pass. If we don’t have any suppliers left by then, we can all go home permanently,” says Hubert.

“It gets to me, seeing colleagues who have to home school their children, be a parent to them and work at the same time. You can only help them to a limited extent. It is not really an issue that productivity may not be so high at the moment.”

Big change In the meantime, the entire Finance organization had to start working from home overnight, just like the rest of TU Delft. That too, was already technically possible. “Staff can access all our financial systems from outside the campus, so the financial processes can keep going. That's a good thing, although it does take some getting used to. During the migration to Alusta, we had already introduced 2-factor authentication via SMS, for example. That was a precondition for me”, says Heerbaart. “A system like Alusta with about 2500 TU Delft users shouldn't run on campus alone. In this day and age, you have to be able to work in all corners of the world, or simply at home. That has been our policy within Finance for a couple of years, and we're re now reaping the benefits.” While well-organised on a technical level, on an organizational and personal level it was and is a big change. “Of course we had to make sure that the business processes could continue as usual. But as a manager I also have to have an eye for the situation my people are in. I don't have small children myself anymore, but I understand how difficult that can be at the moment.” Hubert agrees: “It gets to me, seeing colleagues who have to home school their children, be a parent to them and work at the same time. You can only help them to a limited extent. It is not really an issue that productivity may not be so high at the moment.” Hubert tries to join in the online departmental meetings whenever she can. “What I really miss is walking around the department, interacting, having a chat.” Heerbaart also misses face to face interaction. “It’s different on screen”, he says, although he is quite happy with some of the digital alternatives. “We've had our first online departmental drinks party, and we will be holding one every week. We're also going to schedule online lunches. On such occasions, you get to talk about other things than work. With the extension of the COVID-19 measures, that will only become more important. We will be in this situation for at least another four weeks. As colleagues, we miss each other, and we are missing out on interaction, so we really want to do something about that.” Hubert is very proud of the creativity and flexibility of Finance employees: “It's great to see how innovative everyone is. The Finance department is in a development trajectory and we try to go through with this whenever possible. For example, we had organised a Lean Green Belt course, where three of the five meetings still had to take place. So we found a small company that could help us to stream the course and record everything at the same time. That means we can use that course material again later on. That's something we wouldn't have done under normal circumstances,” she says. “And that we have now had 180 people switch to working from home within a day, we wouldn’t have thought possible beforehand.” Chili con carne They also both have had to adapt personally. “I’m now often in Skype calls from eight o'clock onwards, and don't even have time to make a cup of tea most of the time. You don't want to be late for an online meeting,” Hubert says. “But I'm a positive person, so I try to make the best of it. I now use my travel-time to campus to exercise instead. And I live among the elderly, so I'm also out and about handing out chili con carne or banana bread.” Heerbaart has converted his storage room into a private gym because gyms are closed at the moment. He also gave his parents an old smartphone. “I explained to them how to use it for FaceTime. Their world is getting smaller too, so they can now stay in touch with their grandchildren like that.”

Want to know more? We are now busy informing both our suppliers and employees about the customised policies. A proactive attitude and adequate action in this respect are important, such as contacting a supplier immediately when bottlenecks occur or can be expected to occur. When making alternative arrangements with suppliers, it is important that these do not go against the original contract. If you have any questions about this or would like advice, please contact: procurement@tudelft.nl. "We are all at home ready and waiting to coordinate questions," says Heerbaart.