Hoornbeeck College is a school for secondary vocational education. With a total of 6,500 students spread across 6 locations, the school hosts numerous different types of meetings. Since 2022, Hoornbeeck College has been streamlining all these meetings with Topical. In this case study, we speak with Anne-Rie, Coordinator of Secretariat & Communication at Hoornbeeck College, Apeldoorn location.
Chaos of Word Documents
Anne-Rie joined Hoornbeeck College in 2021. Her responsibilities include supporting the management: “I was also responsible for the management meetings. This was done using confusing Word documents with actions and some minutes. I quickly realized that I wanted to change this, as it was not workable for me.”
The result of this confusing structure with Word documents was that actions were scattered everywhere. The outcome? Actions were forgotten, making meetings less effective. It was time for a change.
Step-by-Step to Order
The first step towards a better meeting process for the management was taken by Anne-Rie with Microsoft To Do. “The process around actions improved, but managing agendas with To Do is not ideal. For example, you cannot upload documents, which means the information provided is incomplete.” Anne-Rie continued to seek improvement and eventually came across Topical, a perfect match.
“Topical responded very promptly. They understood my problem and thoughtfully considered how to implement Topical at Hoornbeeck College. By integrating Topical with Microsoft To Do, we quickly got the management meeting process in order.”
Anne-rie van Bruchem
Manager secretariat
From Management to the Entire Organization
Due to the success with the management meetings, it was decided to roll out Topical to other teams as well. The rollout began with the secretariat: “Each sector at our school has its own teams. Additionally, there are separate teams for, for example, students needing extra support, an innovation team, etc. All these teams are now working very satisfactorily with Topical.” In a short period, the entire school, with around 70 employees, began using Topical.
More Results from Meetings
Anne-Rie concludes that Hoornbeeck Apeldoorn has made a significant leap forward compared to the old meeting process with various Word documents: “All actions are centralized and addressed consistently. Information from previous meetings is easily retrievable, and you can focus more on the content of the meeting rather than spending a lot of time documenting it. This way, we achieve more results from our meetings.”
Great Support
During the conversation, Anne-Rie emphasizes her enthusiasm for the support provided by Topical: “If there is an issue, you quickly get someone on the phone who really helps you. That builds a lot of confidence.”
The excellent support, combined with the functionality of the software, makes Topical highly recommended by Anne-Rie for all organizations that regularly hold meetings within fixed teams: “For both government agencies and businesses, Topical is a valuable asset.”
In conclusion
Other Hoornbeeck locations will soon start using Topical as well. “They hear the positive stories from our Apeldoorn location. The first people have already approached me about using Topical at their locations. Of course, I encourage this.”
