How Louis Vuitton’s Industrial Master Data teams use Elqano to focus on high added-value activities

By identifying expertise, connecting teams and capitalizing on each piece of knowledge, Elqano is responding to the problems of certain companies in the industry sector; relieving experts of recurring queries. Just like the collaboration between the start-up and Louis Vuitton since 2022.

 

Hybrid work is now at the heart of our professional lives and there is no turning back. A major trend since 2021 according to Gartner, remote collaboration through one’s own formal and informal networks is becoming an important issue in the search for information for employees.

 

Not surprisingly, this view is shared by Bastien Detraz, Industrial Data Management Manager at Louis Vuitton. The challenge for his teams is to “connect, on a large scale, individuals who have business or technical questions, with their colleagues who know the answers or can help them . Since the acceleration of telecommuting, coupled with the frequent internal mobility experienced by the group, it has become increasingly difficult for team leaders to redirect to the right people or documents. ” I was beginning to see my limits as a network connector, on a scale where I no longer personally knew the individuals,” says Bastien Detraz.

 

After a learning and configuration phase lasting a few months, the Elqano solution was offered to more than 1,000 employees in 2022. Based on a question-and-answer system, it quickly demonstrated its contribution in terms of efficiency for the teams.

 

“The solution is easy to use and fulfills the stated objectives. Thanks to Elqano, the experts become more accessible and better identified within our organization.

Questions that were repeatedly addressed to the same experts are beginning to be capitalized on and this benefits the experts who are only called upon for new topics.

Newcomers who don’t yet have a big network and few skills have a way to support them in building their skills and developing their network.”

Bastien Detraz, Industrial Data Management Manager at Louis Vuitton.

 

In short: the idea of an expert spending time answering the same questions over and over is becoming a distant memory.

The appropriation of Elqano by the teams

Another symbol of the successful adoption of the new solution by the teams is the involvement of the user community. In December 2022, Elqano usage reached a response rate of 94%, with a median response time of only 5 hours. This performance is higher than the average for the start-up’s clients and has been steadily improving since the launch.

Bastien Detraz talks about it: “Adoption was easy in this area, which was already very used to asking questions and having conversations within group team channels. For some groups that are not as mature, you have to get involved to stimulate this culture. In my opinion, this is a key point in the success of this solution: you need strong sponsorship and a culture of sharing. It’s good timing, that’s what we believe in.”

Extend the deployment of the solution to new teams

In addition to this encouraging result, some new members of the IT department who were not involved in this project are starting to become internal sponsors. This cross-functional adoption illustrates the initial need to support new ways of working by developing internal cooperation.

How can you improve the experience of your employees?

The employee experience is a crucial issue for all companies as it has an impact on the work, productivity, commitment and satisfaction of employees. The employee experience is a crucial issue for all companies. Numerous studies on the subject have demonstrated its impact on the work, productivity, commitment and satisfaction of employees. The healthier the employee work environment, the more effective and motivated they are. The challenge for companies, and more particularly for human resources, is to ensure the best possible employee experience.

What is the employee experience?  

The employee experience can be defined as the global and subjective perception that an employee has of his or her work experience in a company. It includes all the interactions an employee has with the company such as the work environment, the processes and the internal organization between teams and employees, the collaborative tools available, the access to important information, the salary and benefits for example.

The role of the HR department is therefore to improve the employee experience within the company. More precisely, the job of human resources is to provide a conducive working environment for all employees, from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave the company.

Why do you need to improve the employee experience of your employees? 

Employee experience is a major issue for companies for several reasons. First of all, offering a positive work environment to its employees improves the overall productivity of the company. And yes, a happy employee is a motivated and committed employee. But improving the work environment of your employees also plays a role in customer relations, satisfaction and loyalty. Increasing the commitment and motivation of your employees allows them to provide a better quality service to their customers.

The second benefit of the employee experience is more related to HR issues. The war for talent is raging among companies and HR must be proactive if they want to attract and retain employees. By implementing an employee-friendly organization and processes, the HR department improves the brand image and attractiveness of their company. Employee well-being is a major issue today and should not be underestimated. Developing a corporate culture makes it easier and more effective to recruit new employees. Attracting the best talent to your company also allows you to improve the productivity of your business by having efficient and effective employees.

How to improve the employee experience within your company? 

Many tools and solutions exist to improve the employee experience in your company. Here is our selection of simple tips and tricks that you can quickly apply.

Tip #1: Put the employee at the heart of your concerns 

Listening and communication are two factors that are often underestimated within companies. Yet, employees have only one wish: to be listened to and heard.

So how do you meet your employees’ expectations? The answer is simple: set up internal processes and organization based on communication. You can, for example, organize discussion points in which managers can give feedback on the team or on the employee. These feedback and dialogue sessions go both ways! Your managers get concrete feedback and can then adapt their management.

As you can see, transparency of information and a feedback culture allow you to understand the needs and expectations of your employees in terms of organization and work processes. We cannot repeat it enough: communication is key!  

Tip #2: Develop a true corporate culture 

The work and objective of the HR department is to set up a strong and efficient company culture based on the well-being of the employees. By making your employees’ lives easier, you actually increase their productivity and commitment in the short, medium and long term. To do this, you can develop effective onboarding and offboarding processes internally that support the integration and de-integration of your employees.

Corporate culture can also help you recruit new talent. To be effective, it must reflect your company’s values and promote employee well-being.

Tip #3: Use effective collaborative tools  

To improve the employee experience, you can also rely on collaborative tools. These different solutions strengthen your company’s performance and should be integrated into your global strategy.

Thanks to their technology, collaborative tools allow employees to work together, to communicate, to share knowledge, even remotely.

elqano and the employee experience 

If the benefits and importance of the employee experience are now clear, let’s see how elqano positively influences them.

Let’s quickly recall that elqano is a Microsoft Teams application facilitating knowledge sharing and internal collaboration, thanks to a mapping of “who knows what” based on the documentary production of each person.

Implementing elqano in a company means developing its culture of sharing, promoting collective mutual aid and freeing itself from organizational and geographical silos.

As for the human aspect, elqano improves the well-being of its employees by facilitating their access to the right information and to the right person, by valuing their skills and experience, and by accompanying them from the moment they join the company.

Elqano enables employees to develop a strong sense of belonging for a stronger company.

Do collaborative tools promote team cohesion?  

The underlying functionalities of collaborative tools allow companies to improve the working environment of their employees by focusing on communication and collaboration, two notions that have become essential lately, especially since the increase in telecommuting.

What is a collaborative tool?

Collaborative tools are applications or software that allow your employees to work together simultaneously on a specific activity, task or project whether they are geographically close or not. Collaborative tools have been designed to facilitate cooperation, communication, coordination and information sharing between employees of a company.   Collaborative tools are used to achieve different objectives such as :

1. Information sharing: by democratizing and simplifying access to certain documents or files, you allow your collaborators to move forward easily on the project or tasks in progress.
2. Time saving: some collaborative tools or applications allow employees to exchange information more instantly via online messaging, for example. Meetings and videoconferences are only used for more technical or priority topics.
3. Capitalizing on the knowledge of your teams. Each employee has useful knowledge that can be beneficial for other teams or other employees. Collaborative tools allow you to simply collect this knowledge so that it can then be distributed to the entire company. This data is centralized on secure documents, files or platforms.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of collaborative tools?  

There are many forms of collaborative tools such as instant messaging platforms, video conferencing tools, project management tools, file sharing tools and many others.

If they want to increase the efficiency, productivity and performance of their employees, companies must analyze the different types of collaborative tools to choose the one that is most aligned with their business model. It is also important to take into account the training and adaptation time of the teams to these new collaborative tools.

The advantages

The advantages of collaborative tools are numerous. The functionalities they offer allow first of all a better project management by making exchanges and information sharing more fluid. Each team member can follow the progress of the project, and consult the list of tasks to do, the tasks in progress or the completed tasks.

Employees can also help each other in a much more natural and instantaneous way. Whether they are geographically close or not, different team members collaborate via online tools and find solutions to their problems efficiently.

This fluidity of exchanges ensures a better organization and thus a better productivity for your company.

The disadvantages

Collaborative tools are based on sometimes complex functionalities that only technical or experienced profiles can master. It is therefore necessary to have an internal person capable of understanding these functionalities but also capable of training other employees on the subject. The arrival of new collaborative tools can also create confusion within teams. The overload of information and notifications can confuse your employees. It is therefore essential to set up clear processes in order to manage communications and not to disrupt the work organization within your company.

In parallel, collaborative tools also raise the issue of security. Your data and information that are stored on a cloud, or on a public or private platform must be protected. Before the arrival of your new tools, think about setting up security measures to avoid any risk.

With the exception of some Google or Microsoft applications, the majority of collaborative tools are not cost-free. The cost of these tools can be a barrier for some companies.

How to choose the right collaborative tool for your company?  

To effectively choose your collaborative tool, it is important to take into account several factors such as the size of your company, the collaboration needs of your teams, the existing tools already in use, the user preferences and especially your budget. To have all the answers, here is a list of steps to follow:

1. Start by identifying the needs of your employees. Do you need to strengthen project management, file and document sharing or online communication?
2. Next, take stock of the existing tools. What tools do we already have? Which ones do we use and which ones don’t? Don’t forget to include online messaging tools, document sharing applications, project collaboration platforms and live communication tools.
3. You can also list your requirements. Based on your collaboration needs and evaluation of existing tools, create a list of your requirements for the collaborative tool you are looking for. For example, if you need a project management platform, you can look for tools that offer features such as dashboards, calendars, task lists, reminders, notifications, etc.
4. Compare prices! Depending on your budget, the options available to you are not all the same. Evaluate the quality/price ratio by taking into account the features presented, the handling, the compatibility with your existing tools, etc. Do not hesitate to consult the evaluations and testimonials of users to have a more concrete and objective opinion.

Enrich your collaborative tool with elqano

Collaboration needs can change over time and according to external circumstances, as we saw with the Covid-19 crisis. Adding a new tool for each new need is not financially feasible, not to mention the complexity it would represent for the collaborators.

Another option? Enrich your existing collaborative tools in a simple way to maximize the adoption of new features.

This is what elqano, an application that is 100% integrated with Microsoft Teams, offers. Elqano gives you information about “who knows what” or “who worked on what” in the group, without any geographical or organizational silos, and without users having to declare anything.

To learn more, request your demo!