Smaller error rates, greater efficiency: Betotrace gives concrete sector push toward digitization with innovative platform

You place an order over your phone 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 along the construction company side, and 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 per year produced 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 or so," says Thomas De Witte. Just to say, the concrete sector in our country has its work cut out for it. "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 is still very classic works. Betotrace's ambition is to do away with the traditional way of working and give the industry the digitization pushing in. "Through our platform a construction company can easily specify which and how much concrete they want, and where and when it should be delivered," Thomas explained. "The concrete plant receives all that information immediately with the right parameters. Because an order of concrete can easily have twenty to thirty different parameters. Not surprising, then, that things go wrong when you communicate that over a phone call."

The game on Betotrace is not just played between construction companies and concrete plants. There is a third major player on the platform. Thomas: "The transport companies we must not forget. The concrete plant indicates through the platform what type of truck is needed, whether there should be a pump, and so on. So the transport company is well informed." An app also exists of the Betotrace platform - a site manager thus easily follows up on 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 seen this digitization for years in other sectors, but now finally in the concrete sector as well," echoes another.

The needs themselves felt

Thomas De Witte launched Betotrace in March 2021 with Koenraad Boel. Meanwhile, the first users have found their way to the platform. "They are positive. They see it as a good solution, because they find that it helps the reduces error rate, is more efficient and user-friendly", says Thomas. Just what the concrete sector 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 Indeed, Thomas and Koenraad have a wholesaler of products for decorative concrete. From machines and tools for processing concrete to products for cleaning and protecting it: both gentlemen know from their contacts with power plants and construction companies what the players in the concrete sector need, and therefore how things work. But that does not mean 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, and on the other hand you want to move forward with the product quickly. The balance between the two is quite a challenge."

You must not wait with innovation

But as an experienced entrepreneur, Thomas is not shy of a challenge. "I used to be a professional speed skater. Top sports and entrepreneurship have many similarities, the biggest one being that in both cases you completely throw yourself. "

That he is removing a pain point in the market with Betotrace gives Thomas great satisfaction. "That's what every entrepreneur wants to achieve, right? 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."