Lyonnaise des Eaux increases productivity with document sharing

A subsidiary of Suez Environnement, Lyonnaise des Eaux specializes in sewage-related utilities services as well as potable water distribution. It is a decentralized company with 10,000 employees dispersed across 150 sites throughout French territory.

Fragmented data access

Beginning in 2003, many Lyonnaise des Eaux sites deployed document management servers to support the digitization of company content, including administrative files, email and unstructured data. Each new local initiative added document stores. Over time, the company’s information systems became increasingly heterogeneous, complicating data access. In 2009, the utility decided to “reassume control of the platform and move towards a centralized system,” says Frédéric Charles, information systems management and strategy officer at Lyonnaise des Eaux.

A Web 2.0 document sharing platform

The goal of the centralization project was to capitalize on existing assets to better manage content. In terms of technology, Lyonnaise des Eaux chose the IBM Lotus® Domino® V8.5 messaging and collaboration platform for two reasons: lower cost and support for Web 2.0 applications.

By upgrading its existing Lotus Domino software from version 6.5 to version 8.5, the company fulfilled 90 percent of project requirements, including search engine capability, storage capacity and rights management. The remaining 10 percent of needed functionality was provided by LIO.doc, which helps Lyonnaise des Eaux customize the end user homepage using RSS flows, widgets, tags and several levels of navigation. The cost of purchasing, deploying and configuring an entirely new platform would have been far greater.

With the IBM technology upgrade, Lyonnaise des Eaux also took advantage of XPages functionality, an extension of the Lotus Domino software designed to support the development of Web 2.0 applications.

“This new technology provided us with the 10 percent of the web features that were missing,” added Frédéric Charles. “We relied on the opening of XPages to develop a Web 2.0 interface that was customized for collaborative work.”

A custom-enhanced solution

To implement the solution, Lyonnaise des Eaux contracted with IBM Business Partner ASI INFORMATIQUE, a company that specializes in the development and integration of collaborative solutions. ASI INFORMATIQUE took an incremental approach to the implementation because the collaborative IBM software was designed as a solution building block. The platform was well suited for integration and easy deployment of new features required by company staff. Today, the 7,000 Lyonnaise des Eaux employees who use the IBM Lotus solution have a simple, ergonomic and high-performance tool for effectively consulting and sharing documentation.

Specific benefits at multiple levels

To date, the solution has made 140 Lyonnaise des Eaux document stores accessible collaboratively. The company plans to migrate the remaining document databases by year-end 2011. Upon project completion, the company expects to combine 700 document databases into 250 stores for enhanced content sharing throughout the organization.

By consolidating the document infrastructure, Lyonnaise des Eaux is already realizing business benefits. Consistent indexing and rapid search capabilities help increase productivity by giving employees access to documents in any store with only three mouse clicks. The company responds more quickly to change as document managers interact with end users directly to augment and update content without needing IT support teams. In addition, the process gains efficiency as employees in different business areas and locations communicate and collaborate more effectively through shared document areas, similar to a social network that can be extended to include external partners and customers.

This new community platform has become essential at Lyonnaise des Eaux, and, more broadly, within the Suez Environnement Group, where an international version of the solution is being integrated. The platform will soon be widely disseminated and accessible through the group’s intranet, providing centralized document access to more than 20,000 staff members.

For more information

To learn more about IBM Lotus Domino software, please contact your IBM marketing representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit: ibm.com/software/lotus/notesanddomino