Venice van den Berg, Product Manager at one of Europe’s leading moving software providers, Move4U, has brought a different perspective to the challenge of introducing new working methods to an industry that has not always been willing to embrace change.

Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Venice began her career with another technology company working part-time while studying at university, where she graduated in marketing and communication before completing her master’s in media and culture. “That company offered me the opportunity to work on an IT project and I realised how much I enjoyed it,” said Venice.

Venice’s time with Move4U has largely tracked the growing, if reluctant, interest from the moving industry in transitioning from the traditional pen and paper approach to a more efficient way of working. But she is not at all critical of the slow pace of adoption.

“It’s important to understand the history and culture of the moving industry,” said Venice. “While some companies may like to give the impression of a state-of-the-art business, at its heart are ordinary men and women physically working hard to deliver a valuable service to their customers. They want to complete their work efficiently and on time and get home to their families just as much as people working in offices.”

Time and ease of use are therefore the main priorities for Venice and her team. Overcoming the perception that digital inventories take longer is the driving force behind their work.

Each improvement is based around simplifying the process and reducing the time it takes to create an inventory or check off items at delivery. Developments include the ability to work without Internet connectivity; basic voice recognition, check-in features to show the time of crew arrival and departure, scanning for more than seven different barcodes and QR codes, a ‘Bingo’ style check-off template for loading and unloading, along with ISO 17451-1 2016 inventory and DOD compliance.

Venice says the biggest challenge remains integration with the many move management systems used by moving companies, from commercially available systems to those developed by moving companies themselves. “We have an open API
,” said Venice, “but it still requires cooperation from the move management software owner.”

For Venice and her team, the future looks brighter than ever, but she stresses the need to keep improving. “As one of the first companies to develop digital survey and inventory software, it would be easy to rest on what we have developed so far, but where’s the fun in that?” said Venice. “We can still shave more time off the inventory process and get those hard-working moving crews home even quicker!”

Photo: Venice van den Berg