Groupe-E Success Story

What do you do? Describe your company.

Groupe-E is a manufacturer, producer and distributor of electrical energy, as well as a producer of services and goods linked to the energy transition. The company has 2,600 employees, spread over around ten sites across Switzerland.

What was your challenge and which solutions were implemented?

We already had quality management software since we have been certified for around fifteen years. However, we noticed that most of the software editors on the market, apart from BPA Solutions, did not take the digital shift and were not planning to use new technologies in future developments. On the other hand, we needed to be more connected with our existing information system. The software we used was fine but disconnected from the rest of the company’s IT. Thirdly, we were looking for a global collaboration platform for the whole company that would allow us to progress by ourselves without having to systematically call on the supplier.

How did you discover BPA Solutions?

We started a market study in 2021 and assessed around 10 products and decided for BPA Solutions.

How was the BPA solution implemented? How long did it take?

Towards the end of 2021 we started with a pilot project. In 2022, we started deploying the production solution and migrate existing documents (more than 4000). Then we ramped up with additional solutions.

What modules have been deployed?

We started by deploying the document management solution, including the management of the complete document life cycle. Then we went with global enterprise risk management and financial control. Now we are working on the continuous improvement part, including incident reporting, nonconformity tracking, suppliers, customer complaints, suggestions for improvements, and all aspects that make the QMS dynamic and living.

What results did you get from BPA’s solutions?

The first major objective was to have a common collaboration platform and no longer disconnected software. We were looking for a simple solution everyone can use. We have more than 1000 people in the field, who rather use mobile phones or tablets. We couldn’t ask them to wait to be in the office to start using the software. The software had to be easy to use, fairly intuitive, without having to read a manual before using it. We also wanted a system which is scalable, on which we have full control with no need to ask BPA for each modification.

How do you judge the expertise of the BPA team?

We observed that BPA is a long-standing partner of Microsoft with extensive knowledge of SharePoint and Microsoft 365 technologies. They know about the latest trends and tools, were able to answer our questions and guide us with Microsoft technologies.

What other benefits did you get from this project?

It was a favorable momentum because we had just deployed Teams globally and SharePoint has been used for a long time for storing documents. The software layout and graphics are very similar to the other products that we have implemented in the group. This means people are not lost. We had no feedback from people saying: “I don’t understand the tool, I don’t know what it’s for and how to use it”. That was good. Also, we managed to involve several people internally from different departments and transfer knowledge about SharePoint and BPA. The software knowledge doesn’t depend on just a few persons but we succeeded in involving different people in different business units.