CASE STUDY
Holbøll’s process-first approach to construction quality management: ISO 9001 with zero findings
80% of construction project tasks repeat from one job to the next. Holbøll, a Danish civil engineering contractor with 220+ employees, built their digitalization strategy around that single observation — replacing scattered tools with a unified process-first approach to construction quality management in Gluu.
Before Gluu, work instructions lived in emails, personal folders, and spreadsheets. Teams solved familiar problems differently on each project. The result was inconsistent execution, longer onboarding, and a quality system that was more theoretical than operational.
Holbøll chose a different starting point. They documented how they actually work, mapped those processes in Gluu, assigned clear ownership, and linked activity-level instructions. Process owners update content in real time; versioning keeps teams on the latest standard automatically.
The payoff was measurable. Holbøll achieved ISO 9001 certification with zero audit findings. Process documentation runs three to five times faster than the old Word-and-PDF approach. And competency data for all 220+ employees — roles, certifications, required skills — lives in the same system as their processes.
“Our ISO 9001 certificate is based on how we have built Gluu and how we use it every day. We decided to go for certification and achieved it with zero findings.”
Ali Alaa
Quality Manager, Holbøll
ISO findings
0
Passed ISO 9001 certification with zero audit findings on the first attempt
Speed gain
3–5×
Faster process documentation compared to writing in Word and distributing PDFs to site
Employees
220
+
Working from one shared quality management system across site and office
The decision: processes before software
Most contractors digitalize by adopting tools. Holbøll inverted the sequence. Martin Juhl, Chairman of the Board, explains the reasoning: “Projects are unique — but about 80% of tasks repeat from project to project. Repeated work can be described and mapped as processes, and that’s where the system must start. We built the digitalization around what we do well — in one unified system — instead of chasing smart but disconnected software solutions.”
That starting premise shaped everything. Holbøll didn’t pick software to solve a specific workflow problem. They took stock of how work actually happens across projects, functions, and support teams — then chose Gluu as the platform to capture, govern, and distribute that knowledge. The result is what they call a holistic quality management system: one place where processes, roles, and work instructions live, updated by owners and used daily by site crews and office staff alike.
How Holbøll uses Gluu
Each process in Gluu at Holbøll combines activity descriptions into a flow. Process owners map these workflows directly with the practitioners who do the work — not for them. Once mapped, a process publishes immediately and versions automatically. There are no competing PDF versions, no email chains with an updated attachment, no folder reconciliation between projects.
Kristian Harding Møller, Project Manager at Holbøll, describes the difference: “Gluu is the tool we use at Holbøll to manage the processes for starting and running a construction project. We can publish it and it becomes active. Versioning runs automatically, so we avoid juggling folders, papers, and email threads.”
Ali Alaa, Quality Manager, uses Gluu as the operational backbone of the quality management system every day. He and his team can update processes on the fly as they learn, then push the new standard directly to the field.
The system extends beyond project management. Lene Frøkjær, Executive Assistant, manages HR oversight through the same platform:
“Gluu provides a consolidated employee overview that can be filtered by the data we need — role-based rights for sensitive areas. We can also see competencies and required certificates.”
Resource allocation and recruitment decisions are now supported by real data. Onboarding is faster because new employees have immediate access to documented ways of working — not just informal handovers from colleagues.
Hear from the team at Holbøll on why they chose Gluu and how the process-first approach changed their construction quality management:
Having the right system to document, govern, and distribute processes makes every step faster — from project kick-off to ISO audit. If you want to see how that works in practice, Gluu’s free trial is a good place to start.
Gluu free 30-day trial. No credit card required. Start from €24 / year.
Benefits and results
ISO 9001 with zero findings
The quality management system Holbøll built in Gluu became the basis for their ISO 9001 certification. Ali Alaa describes the outcome directly: “Our ISO 9001 certificate is based on how we have built Gluu and how we use it every day. We decided to go for certification and achieved it with zero findings.”
Certification was not the primary objective — having a functioning quality management system was. Because they built the system properly, they took the opportunity to certify it, and the external audit confirmed what the teams already knew.
Faster documentation and delivery
Compared to writing in Word and delivering PDFs to site folders, updating processes in Gluu is dramatically faster. Ali Alaa estimates the team is three to five times faster on process documentation. That speed translates directly to site teams: new instructions and updated standards reach them through the system, not through physical folder updates or email distribution lists.
Consistent project execution and better resource planning
Holbøll standardized how projects start and how client steering happens — repeatable quality from bid to handover. Because competency and certification data lives in Gluu alongside process data, resource allocation and recruitment are now data-supported decisions. Onboarding is faster because the way of working is documented, accessible, and current — not tacit knowledge held by individual people.
In brief
Holbøll’s processes and work instructions were spread across email threads, personal folders, and spreadsheets. Teams solved familiar problems differently on each project, creating inconsistent execution, slower onboarding, and a quality system that worked more in theory than in practice. Leadership wanted one consistent way of working that could scale across projects, functions, and support teams.
Holbøll chose Gluu because it was pragmatic and intuitive — usable by both site crews and office staff without technical complexity. The platform made it possible to map real workflows collaboratively, publish them immediately, and maintain them with automatic versioning. That combination matched Holbøll’s starting premise: define processes first, then digitize them in a system people will actually use.
Process owners at Holbøll map workflows directly with the practitioners who do the work, combining activity descriptions into publishable flows. Updates happen in real time and version automatically, so the field always has access to the latest standard. The quality manager uses Gluu as the daily operational backbone of their ISO 9001 system, and HR uses it for competency tracking, certification visibility, and role-based access.
Holbøll achieved ISO 9001 certification with zero audit findings — a direct result of how they built and use their quality management system in Gluu. Process documentation is three to five times faster than the old Word-and-PDF approach. Competency data for all 220+ employees is now visible and filterable in one system, supporting faster onboarding and more data-driven resource planning.
Holbøll’s experience suggests yes — especially for contractors where a large share of project tasks repeat from job to job. Documenting that repeated work as processes, then governing and distributing it through a single platform, turns individual knowledge into standard work. At Holbøll, the result includes a functioning quality management system and an ISO 9001 certification to validate it.