Comfort Partners' Story: Getting Smarter Every Day with Data-Driven Working

Installation and maintenance company Comfort Partners represents a new generation of craftsmanship. We sat down with Roderick Soesman, who has been the company’s Managing Director for the past four years. What kind of transformation has the business undergone? How do they manage to work a little smarter every day using a data-driven approach? And what role does Emixa play in that journey?

A Necessary Turnaround

Four years ago, Comfort Partners was still an allround installation business. It installed a wide range of heating solutions in both new builds and existing properties. Maintenance services were also part of the offer - for consumers, new construction projects, and housing associations. The company operated from branches all over the Netherlands, stretching from Groningen in the north to Zeeland in the south.

Roderick explains, “I’ve always enjoyed unlocking untapped potential within organisations. When I arrived, it quickly became clear to me that we needed to sharpen our focus. We decided to concentrate on installations within the housing portfolios of larger housing associations, offering affordable maintenance and sustainable upgrades from a central location.”

It was a major shift for the business, but ultimately, a successful one. Comfort Partners now works for some of the largest housing associations in the Randstad region, based on long-term partnership agreements.

Long-Term and Deep Collaboration

Roderick continues, “We maintain boilers, heat pumps and air handling systems, fix breakdowns, and install more sustainable heating solutions in these homes. Naturally, we also provide advice on the most suitable technology: should it be a fully electric heat pump or would a hybrid option be better, for example?”

Comfort Partners operates with long-term performance contracts for its clients. “We’re incredibly transparent about everything we do,” Roderick explains. “What do the materials cost, how much time do our engineers spend, and what’s our margin? That kind of openness is crucial when you aim to build long-term relationships — it creates real trust on both sides.”

They take this openness to remarkable lengths. Some housing associations are even allowed access to their financial records to see how decisions are made when weighing quality against cost. In addition to day-to-day operations, Comfort Partners advises housing associations on a strategic level, helping them plan necessary technical investments for up to 15 years into the future.

Nurturing and Training Engineers

Like many companies in the construction and installation sector, Comfort Partners faces challenges in a tight labour market. Roderick remarks, “We work almost exclusively with our own engineers, which isn’t always the norm in this industry. But we believe our engineers are the face of the company when they visit people’s homes, so we take good care of them. We try to make their work as pleasant and straightforward as possible.”

He adds, “We’ve also set up our own training academy where our accredited trainers and experienced engineers coach new recruits.” Notably, housing associations are welcome to use these training courses too. It’s a perfect example of their partnership philosophy in practice.

A New ERP System

Speaking of partnerships, Comfort Partners has also developed a close working relationship with Emixa. The collaboration began shortly after the go-live of a new ERP system. “In the summer of 2023, we switched to the 4PS ERP system,” says Roderick. “This allowed us to fully automate a large part of our purchasing and ordering process. My goal at the time was to get the system live quickly with an 80–90% effective setup, and then fine-tune it further from there. You can try to test everything in advance, but there are always unforeseen issues you can only tackle in practice.”

The Emixa team, led by management consultant Mischa Nagtegaal, was tasked with refining that final 10–20%. Roderick recalls, “Together with our team, Mischa properly structured the processes, and then trained all 136 people involved in the logistics workflow — all within a matter of weeks. Now, everyone at Comfort Partners works according to clear, standardised processes.”

Data-Driven Improvements

Since then, Comfort Partners and Emixa have continued working together to improve and optimise processes in a digital, data-driven way. One example is planning — always a tricky puzzle in the construction and installation world. “Our engineers carry out over 70,000 home visits every year,” says Roderick. “Our planning is now fully digital and extremely accurate. We know exactly how many engineers are available, their skills, and their travel times. With this information, we can plan jobs intelligently, combining scheduled and unscheduled work efficiently.”

The outcome of those home visits is equally important, he notes. “Our goal is to fix a breakdown on the very first visit. It’s better for the resident, who often has to take time off work, and better for the engineer, too. Did you know that if an issue isn’t resolved immediately, it can end up involving up to 10 different people before it’s sorted?”

That’s why Comfort Partners, together with Emixa, analyses any incomplete job tickets every day and discusses them with both office staff and field engineers. This practical feedback is then used to continuously improve the process.

On the Hunt for the Optimised Van

Interestingly, unlike many other companies in the sector, Comfort Partners no longer operates its own warehouses. “It brings a lot of advantages,” says Roderick, “but it also means the engineer’s van effectively becomes their warehouse. So, it needs to be organised as smartly as possible. We try, within set guidelines, to give engineers ownership of their own stock. That way, they’re in control and can deal with things themselves. It encourages an entrepreneurial mindset.”

To get the right materials in the right place at the right time, Comfort Partners developed a data model together with Emixa. “It started as a case study during Emixa’s Advanced Analytics Hackathon,” Roderick explains, “where my colleagues Jim Commandeur and Kimberley Reus took the lead. Since then, we’ve refined the model even further. We can now determine the ideal van inventory for each engineer and each season.”

An Investment That Pays Off

And it’s paying dividends. “Every 1% drop in incomplete jobs saves €100,000 in costs, while making life easier for residents too,” Roderick reveals. “We’re on track to achieve a 10% reduction. Our engineers are used to constant changes in how we work, and they know that if they tell us something isn’t working, we’ll address it. It means the whole team is very comfortable with change.”

After nearly two years of working together, the results are impressive. How has the collaboration with Emixa felt? Roderick concludes, “I’ve now worked with around 15 different people from Emixa and I’ve been genuinely impressed with their quality and the way they partner with us. Every hour we work together delivers tangible value.”

Looking Ahead

Things are going well at Comfort Partners, but there’s always more to be done. As for his future plans, Roderick shares, “I’m incredibly proud of our training centre, and we’ll keep investing in it. Everyone here gets so much energy from it — and I feel it too every time I walk in.

Beyond that, our main focus is pushing ahead with digitalisation. All our business processes and systems are now architecturally prepared for integration. That means we can work even smarter and automate further with AI. The biggest challenge is using all these developments to ensure that people with modest incomes can still afford good housing and a comfortable indoor climate. That’s what keeps us connected to society and its real challenges.”

Emixa's Mischa Nagtegaal: “It’s fantastic to hear how Roderick views our collaboration. It helps that both he and his management team are so actively involved. They always make time and resources available to implement improvements together. It truly feels like a joint responsibility.”

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