Organisational change is one of the most challenging processes a organisation can undertake. In conversation with Deloitte Partner Hans van Vliet and Board Member Jan Dalhuisen, Jeannette Baljeu, Arjan van Gils, Patrick Groothuis and Winfried Houtman from Gemeente Rotterdam describe some of the ingredients needed for a smooth transition. 


Winfried Houtman, Arjan van Gils from Gemeente Rotterdam, Deloitte Board Member Jan Dalhuisen, Deloitte Partner Hans van Vliet and Patrick Groothuis from Gemeente Rotterdam

Working as one

Gemeente Rotterdam is the municipal body responsible for the economic and urban development of Rotterdam and the central organism that coordinates the city's various submunicipalities and service departments for its population of 600,000.

Deloitte provides a range of consulting and audit services to the city authorities. One of these is the implementation of a new relationship database management operating system, which is focused on assisting the authority with far-reaching structural changes to prepare the city's public services for the challenges of future expansion.

The new system will enable numerous efficiencies and cost savings to be achieved in the longer term. As part of these efforts, Gemeente Rotterdam is seeking to reorganise itself internally to become a more flexible organisation where there is good coordination between the city authorities and the various submunicipalities. It also aims to provide a more efficient service offering to the general public - one that will be largely accessible online.

This is an enormous undertaking that stands to affect citywide information and communications technology (ICT) systems, and the reorganisation of individual submunicipalities and districts within the city. The programme involves standardising key areas and means municipal departments will have to replace their old familiar ICT systems with new ones.

"It's important we have a single organisation that can think and act quickly in response to signals from the society it serves," says Arjan van Gils, Clerk to the Council of Gemeente Rotterdam. "The primary goal of this reorganisation is to improve services for our citizens."

The plan is to standardise ICT systems throughout, so that every submunicipality works in a complementary fashion. "It's not acceptable for a department or a submunicipality to do its own thing without working in close coordination with the others, but we need to do this without affecting our expert knowledge base and the lines of communication we have in place already," explains Winfried Houtman, Director of Means & Control.

Gemeente Rotterdam has been impressed by Deloitte's understanding of implementation processes and the importance it has placed on protecting and disseminating knowledge across the employee base. Deloitte's culture of working in partnership with clients gave them the confidence that no disruption or knowledge drain would occur, during or after the project.

Deloitte understood the authorities' needs to achieve reorganisation through a gradual and collaborative approach, instead of a top-down mandate, so that high-quality personnel are retained and in-depth knowledge of the organisational structure is preserved.

"Deloitte's proposal for the roll out of the new operating system was well thought out and covered all areas. It was also important that Deloitte knew Rotterdam well. Its large scale has given us confidence that unexpected problems can be overcome with a minimum of fuss," says Patrick Groothuis, Business Unit Manager Knowledge Centre Concern Systems.

About Gemeente Rotterdam

The City of Rotterdam is home to Europe's busiest seaport and is one of the most important trading centres in the world. Situated on the banks of the river Maas, Rotterdam is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city that has placed a strong emphasis on the development of knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy.

The Rotterdam municipal authority 'Gemeente Rotterdam' is responsible for preparing and implementing policies for the city's economic and urban development, infrastructure, trade and industry. The city employs around 19,000 people who work in 33 municipal departments and companies, which are responsible for servicing Rotterdam's population.