You call the supplier to place an order and at the other end of the line someone writes it down on paper. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently. Or at least in the concrete business. Because there are a thousand different recipes of concrete that can be ordered in any quantity. "Both from the construction company side, as the concrete plants side, things sometimes go wrong," says Thomas De Witte, founder of Betotrace: a platform that helps avoid mistakes and makes communication more efficient.
About 13 million cubic meters of concrete are produced each year in Belgium. If you were to put all those cubic meters back to back, you would end up 13,000 kilometers away "somewhere in South America," says Thomas De Witte. Just to state that he concrete industry in our country works long days. "It is the most widely used building material. Not only in Belgium, but in the whole world. So it's a big and strong market."
Digitizing the concrete sector
But one that still works very classically. Betotrace's ambition is to do away with the traditional way of working and to push the sector into digitalization. "Via our platform, a construction company can easily communicate which and how much concrete they want, and where and when it should be delivered," Thomas explains. "The concrete plant receives all this information immediately with the right parameters. Because an order for concrete can easily have twenty to thirty different parameters. Not surprising therefore that it goes wrong if you pass that on via a telephone call."
The game on Betotrace is not just played between construction companies and concrete plants. There is a third important player on the platform. Thomas: "Thetransport companies should not be forgotten. The concrete plant indicates via the platform what type of truck is needed, whether there should be a pump, and so on. So the transport company is well informed." There is also an app of the Betotrace platform - this way a site manager easily tracks whether concrete has already been ordered for the next phase of construction and when it will be poured. "He has all the information in his pocket. We have been seeing this digitization for years in other sectors, but now finally in the concrete sector as well," he adds.
Felt the need for this product himself
Thomas De Witte started Betotrace in March 2021 with Koenraad Boel. In the meantime, the first users have found their way to the platform. "They are positive. They see it as a good solution because they notice that it reducesthe error rate, is more efficient and user-friendly," says Thomas. Exactly what the concrete industry needed. How Thomas was able to heal that wound so well? "Koenraad and I have been in the business for a while. We know the needs well because we have felt them ourselves."
With IN2-CONCRETE Thomas and Koenraad have a wholesale business in products for decorative concrete. Going from machines and tools for processing concrete to products for cleaning and protecting it: both gentlemen know from their contacts with plants and construction companies what the players in the concrete sector need, and therefore how things work. But that is not to say, therefore, that the development of Betotrace has been without challenges. "You start from scratch on a new product, which is never easy. On the one hand you want to create the right added value from the start, on the other hand you want to move forward quickly with the product. The balance between the two is quite a challenge."
You must not wait with innovation
But as an experienced entrepreneur, Thomas is not shy about a challenge. "I used to be a professional speed skater. Top sports and entrepreneurship have many similarities, the biggest one being that you completely throw yourself into both. "
Eliminating a pain point in the market with Betotrace gives Thomas great satisfaction. "That's what every entrepreneur wants to achieve, isn't it? It gives me enormous energy to know that we have developed something that makes other people's lives easier. That we can innovate a classic sector with this tool is the icing on the cake." Thomas believes that this innovation can go fast, because the market is open to it. By the end of this year, he therefore hopes to have most concrete plants in Belgium already on board, while in the Netherlands the first steps will have been taken by then. Because: "With innovation you must not wait."