'AFAS forms the backbone of our administrative organisation and is also highly manageable in the process'

When you think of Corendon, you think of holidays, sun and relaxation. Over the past 25 years, the company has grown into a leading travel organisation with its own airlines and hotels & resorts at home and abroad. Since 2011, AFAS' ERP software has contributed to this growth. Not only in the Netherlands, but also on Curaçao. How? By enabling great automation and efficiency within administrative processes and offering ease of connecting new business entities to the system.

The joint history of AFAS and Corendon goes back even further than the beginning of the cooperation with Corendon Hotels & Resorts. Almost 15 years ago, Eugène La Haye, Director Accounting & Reporting at Corendon, had his eye on AFAS' ERP software for further automation of Corendon Dutch Airlines' administration.   

"We were using an accounting package with a limited financial module," La Haye recalls. "It was clear, though, that we were ready to further professionalise our administrative processes for finance and HR. We started looking for a package that suited us as a tour operator and airline. AFAS came out as the best solution in this respect. Good value for money and the flexibility offered by the ERP package prompted us to choose this all-in-one system."

Taking control

In those early days, the software immediately proved its worth. La Haye: "We started setting up our HR and payroll processes. A good example is the administration around the full staffing we need for our aircraft. From pilots and cabin attendants to catering staff and office staff, we were able to accommodate the entire organisation in AFAS' HRM module. We simultaneously set up an HR department, brought in a payroll administrator and, in combination with AFAS' ERP package, took control."

That tastes like more. Or, as La Haye puts it: "When you do have a package with a good financial module as well, we went straight ahead with further professionalisation and automation. The start of our financial year in 2011 was a good time to also transfer the financial administration of all Corendon entities to AFAS."

When Corendon Hotels & Resorts was founded in 2014, it was clear almost immediately: the administration of this new branch would also go to AFAS. La Haye: "After all, we had a good system in place in which we could accommodate multiple environments and administrations. Adding our hotels was a logical consequence. A nice bonus was that AFAS was already established with an office in Curaçao (and also in Belgium) at the time, so we could get local support with our companies there."

Easily unlock and link data

Corendon's growth continues in the years that follow. As a result, over a decade later, as many as 40 Corendon bv's within 3 environments are housed in the AFAS system. These include the 9 branches of Corendon Hotels & Resorts in both the Netherlands and Curaçao. "That is a sizeable entity, but AFAS' flexibility allows us to set it up that way," La Haye says. "Meanwhile, we do everything related to administration in the system. All our employees have a login and work in it. They can do a lot themselves through AFAS Insite: from requesting leave to reporting whether they use our lunch or bicycle allowance, to name a few."

Payroll, HR, finance, order management for aircraft catering: Corendon has largely automated all these business processes in AFAS. What that brings to the organisation? La Haye: "To me, AFAS means: intuitive accounting. You can unlock large data sets fairly easily and link them from AFAS to other systems. That makes it a flexible solution for us. Links with, for example, the tax authorities and pension services are also automated. That's ideal for us, it takes a lot of work off our hands."

All data transparent in one system

In all those years of working with AFAS, Corendon is striking a major automation blow, resulting in substantial efficiency gains. La Haye makes it concrete with an example: "We have not grown in the number of employees with our administration in the Netherlands, while our turnover has multiplied. That says it all. AFAS ensures that we work smarter, easier and more efficiently. Piles of invoices on a desk are no longer to be found. Reading invoices, adding attachments, approving declarations, carrying out payroll mutations: it all happens automatically. We have cast such processes in workflows. This is also nice for the accountant, as he has all the data visible in one system."

At Corendon, they see the open nature of the system as a big advantage. "AFAS interfaces well with the other systems we use," says Erhan Sogut, Director of Digital Innovation at Corendon. "The real-time import and export of data is therefore easy and fast. It's great that we can set up GetConnectors ourselves for this purpose to connect with another application. We did that for absenteeism and unclocked hours, for example.

Currently, we are in the process of linking our in- and out-of-service process in AFAS to Microsoft 365 applications. Suppose an employee leaves employment, we do not need to log him/her off manually in all systems first. This way, the data in the linked systems are always up-to-date."

AFAS as basis for reporting

Or take the matching tool used by Corendon Hotels & Resorts to bring together purchasing commitment and invoicing. Sogut: "We read the export of that directly through the import function in AFAS. We were able to build that ourselves. Thousands of invoices go into AFAS every week for payment and consolidation in various currencies. Then it is nice that these kinds of possibilities are available, especially if you can also build them yourself."

For Corendon Hotels & Resorts, AFAS is the source system that provides overview and insight. "We get an overview of revenues and costs easily and quickly from AFAS, which is the advantage of having all data in one place. This enables us to prepare a good financial report every month and we know where we stand. We have instant insight into profits and losses and can also work quickly with the data. We can rest assured that it is correct, so it is a good basis for our reports. The same goes for the auditors. They get the data from the system, read them neatly into their own systems and then there are also good links with the tax authorities and pension funds."

A system that supports growth

Corendon is a growing organisation. That applies not only to the travel organisation, but also to the Hotel & Resorts branch. Then it is nice to work with a system that supports that growth, says La Haye. "We can easily add new entities and separate them nicely into different environments in one package. AFAS forms the backbone of our entire administrative organisation and is also very manageable. It is nice to know that the system can handle our growth and supports it in an easy way. Whether it's an expansion of our activities or the addition of new hotels: we know we can easily accommodate them in the system."

To manage AFAS, Corendon has designated four 'super users' within the organisation. La Haye is one of them. "We can get to grips with the package and set up workflows ourselves. If we need help there is local support, which also works very nicely on Curacao." Sogut: "AFAS takes us well in advance of new releases, in newsletters and from its account managers. We know what to expect when." La Haye nods in agreement: "That AFAS updates all collective labour agreements in the system based on new tax regulations, also on Curacao is a big plus."

End users find their way quickly

And the end users in Corendon's organisation? "They are used to the system and positive. From intern to employee, everyone finds their way around it pretty quickly. It is user-friendly and, what we as an organisation appreciate very much, it rarely happens that the system does not work. Availability is very reliable."

What do La Haye and Sogut say when they take stock after almost 15 years of working with AFAS? "We can rely on reliable administration, which is the most important thing. It offers us convenience in administrative work and flexibility in linking with other applications we need. Undoubtedly, we are not yet making optimal use of the system, as there are many possibilities. For instance, we are still far from making optimal use of the reporting tools for finance. That's the beauty of it: there is always something left to improve."