Ghent scale-up Dropsolid wanted to track billability and the split of non-billable hours per team closely. That way you spot gaps in the planning in time and sales can act on them. But tracking that data was exactly where things broke down.
The challenge: reports no one could share
The numbers lived in the ERP tool. You could build reports there, but not share them.
“In our ERP tool you can build reports, but they’re not easy to share. Everyone had to click the report together manually and save it to favourites. That was time-consuming and it raised the odds of misreading the figures.”
— Dieter Blomme, Dropsolid
Putting together each report was cumbersome, slow and unstable. And you were never sure the system would hold up.
The functional story first, then build
Dropsolid is an IT company itself. Even so, they deliberately chose to outsource this data engineering.
“Our own people focus on client work. Data engineering is a specialisation where you get results when you can work on it with full focus. Wouter from Xudo has that technical focus and could set up the pipelines quickly and in a structured way.”
— Dieter Blomme, Dropsolid
Before a single table got built, the conversation was about the question behind it. What information do you actually want out of your data? I sat at the table and walked through the options and the pros and cons of each scenario, so the team could decide with a clear view.
The solution: a Data Vault in BigQuery
The foundation is a layered Data Vault in Google BigQuery on the Teamleader Orbit sources: 15+ hubs, 15+ satellites and 25+ links, with automated ETL.
On top of that, a billability dashboard that shows, per team and per role, how planning and billability look for the months ahead. Gaps in the planning become visible in time.
“The planning needs to be well filled some 3 to 6 months ahead. If the dashboard shows it isn’t, the sales team can act proactively.”
— Dieter Blomme, Dropsolid
The dashboard processes the data every night. When you want to check it, you get what you’re after within five seconds.
“Loading reports used to take a very long time, and you were never sure whether the system would crash. An endlessly frustrating hassle we’re now rid of.”
— Dieter Blomme, Dropsolid
The result: more people steering on the numbers
Now that consulting the data is far more accessible, many more people actually use it as a source. Not just the service delivery managers and the operations manager, but the COO, the talent lead and sales too.
“There’s now a much tighter connection between operational planning and the other departments.”
— Dieter Blomme, Dropsolid
| Source data | Teamleader Orbit |
| Architecture | 3-layer Data Vault in BigQuery |
| Model | 15+ hubs, 15+ satellites, 25+ links |
| Refresh | Every night, fully automated |
| Dashboard speed | Results within 5 seconds |
About Dropsolid
Dropsolid offers clients across a wide range of sectors a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) built on open source components such as Drupal and Mautic. Clients keep full control over their own data, without being locked into a single vendor. Since 2025 the company has invested heavily in glassbox AI, running AI applications transparently and safely within the client’s own infrastructure.