With more than 1.000 collaborators in the world, LASSARAT is a leader in surface treatment and industrial coatings. LASSARAT furthers its growth thanks to high quality services and innovative painting techniques.

We met Marie Tritarelli, QHSE Manager for Export subsidiaries in Nigeria and Congo. She explains how Lassarat succeeded to unify IT tools inside the group and get an efficient adoption of collaborative tools. She recognized it wouln’t have been possible to achieve this crucial stake without the support of Vincent Cuffel, IT Manager.

We discovered a step by step progression : at first Google Apps deployment eased the collaboration between group entities on functional uses, then LumDocs brought answers to business issues like document management and process.

What was the next stage after Google Apps for Work deployment?

With Google Apps for Work, we did a great path to IT tools standardization that enable a better communication between our subsidiaries spread all over the world. But we felt limited in document management. In fact, we must respect many certifications and are often audited, so we needed advanced features, workflows for example, that Google Drive didn’t offer.

What were the stakes for QHSE department?

In our activity, we have a huge documentation. Few years ago, it was so many papers (procedures, instructions, check list…) going and comings between agencies and the headquarter. To update files, each collaborators had to print and replace: it was a big waste of time.

When I was visiting our subsidiaries in Nigeria or Congo, I used to travel loaded with disks or computers. When a document evolved, it took several weeks before our subsidiaries could access to these new data. When we were audited, it was usual to have noncompliance because of outdated information.

LumDocs allowed us to refocus on our core business :

• Operation collaborators can access to reliable information in one click,
• KPI indicators are immediately available,
• Anomaly and incident feedbacks can be sent and treated right away.

LumDocs imposes the rigor we couldn’t afford before. Now it’s easy to manage worflows and to always have the last (and the good) version of a document, accessible for all our collaborators everywhere in the world at the same time.

How do you use LumDocs in QHSE department?

We have created several spaces but our 3 main use cases are:

• Documentation space for certifications,
• Standard space to share normative monitoring, conducted at the headquarters, with all subsidiaries,
• Safety Data Sheets: 1.000 sheets were redone to inventory our industrial painting specifications (components, inflammability, toxicity…) and then filter by criteria.

For my department there are 3 big wins with LumDocs:

• Multilingual: the solution is accessible in English for collaborators in Nigeria and in French for collaborators in Congo,

• Common tools: all the collaborators use the same solution. People from the headquarter can go to our subsidiaries and find the same work environment, and vice versa,

• Single support: updates are now only made in the headquarter. Before, the same job was made in each subsidiaries…

How do you collaborate with IT department to set up LumDocs spaces?

First, we analyzed our needs and ask Vincent Cuffel (IT Manager) to help us finding the appropriate tool. Vincent audited us to understand the way we worked and suggested us LumDocs.
He deployed the solution and created the first structuring spaces. He is still guiding us of course but LumDocs is so simple that users can design their own work spaces depending on their need.
It’s really efficient to let collaborators conceive their tools based on their uses. Our application is not only thought by IT that couldn’t understand specific business knowledge and process.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of LumDocs?

We can notice lots of gains with LumDocs :

• Efficiency gain, better follow up, time saving.

• Interesting cost: we are a small company dealing with international corporation committing us with certifications and audits. Usually we can’t afford software meeting our requirement level, but LumDocs provides high performances at lower price.

• Mobility: it’s now unthinkable to not having access to our content (document, indicators…) when we are on mobility or for our colleagues on the construction sites.

• Sharing: at first people could have the habits to keep information, but with LumDocs it’s easy to share reliable document, so collaborators feel more confident and more open. Centralisation: every business document is stored in LumDocs, the application is the access point to updated and reliable corporate content.

• Unifying tool: every collaborator uses the same application, it might be insignificant but it was complicated when we used different tools. LumDocs has become a corporate tool and is fostering a sense of belonging.

There are two things we are expecting :

• Offline mode: we have some sites where connections are limited (ships, some countries, some sensitive industrial sites…), it could be great to give permanent access to this population.

• Back office: we would like to link a library (data base) where we can pick data (lists of material or collaborators for example).

Have you seen new ways of work since you choose LumDocs ?

The major change is for people who were doing not rewarding tasks like double data entry. They don’t have to do this anymore and have now time to do more interesting tasks and by the way increase their skills.
In this sense, we are not wasting time anymore to follow activities. I can get information smoothly and my relationship with my team is more relaxed. LumDocs helps collaborators to become more autonomous: less dashboard to fill, short time to access information and more reactivity to adjust objectives.

Also, the number of emails has fallen, we have removed many memos, we can work even if we are not at the office: we get more agile and reactive.

Last important point is security: we were used to share content by paper or disks which could have been lost, stolen or crashed… Now everything is secured on LumDocs, we can travel lighter!

What are the next steps ?

We have seen the potential of LumDocs and we are willing to go further. We must archive information held by collaborators in order to transfer knowledge, especially for key positions. Our major focus is to preserve Lassarat information capital and manage sensible data that could impact the activity. In fact, we want to transfer our data from our collaborators’ heads to LumDocs!

Editor's note : QHSE is a department in charge of "Quality, health, safety, environment"