From Email Inbox to Central Platform

Dirk Wilke, deputy head of Building Management for the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg, on introducing PLANFRED, an elementary school built from timber, and why everyone involved in a project is now required to use the platform.

Renovating schools, building new ones, converting existing ones – all at the same time, with around 90 percent of the planners coming from outside. That's Dirk Wilke's everyday project work as deputy head of Building Management for the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg. Since 2022, the entire project delivery has run on PLANFRED.

Before PLANFRED: Plans that never arrived

Different plan versions on site, overflowing email inboxes, gaps in the documentation because there was no unified system. On site, you'd hear: “I've never seen that plan, nobody ever sent it to me.” When someone went on vacation, the team was sometimes left without the information it needed. Problems many people know from their own projects – and ones that disrupt the construction process.

Reference project: Korbach elementary school

PLANFRED was used across work stages 1 to 9 for the new elementary school building in Korbach. Since August 2026, up to 400 children have been learning something new here every day, in a three-story building made entirely of timber except for the basement. Since the project kicked off in August 2022, Wilke and the 61 project participants have uploaded more than 500 plans and 500 documents to PLANFRED.

It was the first project the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg delivered with PLANFRED. Wilke is convinced: “PLANFRED has become our standard software for delivering projects.”

“Today, nobody can say ‘I've never even seen that plan’ anymore,” Wilke says. According to him, PLANFRED has changed communication and document management for the better: “If you don't open or pick up your plan, you can't have it. This shared duty to fetch and to deliver has led to massive improvements in this area.”

Covering for colleagues works differently today, too. Everyone on the team has access to all projects, can see the current status, and can step in seamlessly when someone is away. A side effect Wilke particularly values: colleagues can look at how someone else solved a task and learn from each other.

Project backup: Security beyond project completion

Besides complete documentation, Wilke particularly values the project backup option. With one click, the entire project can be downloaded as a locally executable app and then opened in any web browser, even without an internet connection. All features, such as filtering lists, remain available permanently. For a public client like the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg, this is especially relevant: plans, inspection reports, acceptance records, meeting minutes, and the entire plan history stay securely stored for the long term and traceable at any time, even without an active license.

PLANFRED in a nutshell

After about four years of working with PLANFRED, Dirk Wilke sums it up in one sentence: “It's practical, it's simple, and it works.”