ArcelorMittal has chosen Planisware to manage the costs and time spent on its RD activities.
At a glance
ArcelorMittal has chosen Planisware to manage the costs and time spent on its Research & Development activities. The solution is to be distributed to more than 1,600 ArcelorMittal R&D employees in France and in several countries across Europe, South America and North America.
1.600 active users
30.000 projects driven across 4 levels of portfolios
More than 80.000 shared files
Context & Challenges
Towards the end of 2014, Arcelor Mittal wanted to replace the existing budget and time entry management tool, which was nearing the end of its life cycle. They wanted something that would integrate well into their existing processes and tools, to smooth the change management process for employees. Nevertheless, the new project management tool also needed to have a better and more intuitive user interface to facilitate the management of projects.
ArcelorMittal chose Planisware to manage the costs and time spent on its Research & Development activities. The solution is to be distributed to more than 1,600 ArcelorMittal R&D employees in France and in several countries in Europe, South America and North America.
The Planisware solution
To tackle the challenges listed above, in September 2014 Arcelor Mittal set its eye on the Planisware project management solution.
Planisware provided a flexible and configurable tool that met the requirements for managing and monitoring budgets of innovative projects at ArcelorMittal. It offered ArcelorMittal the following advantages:
• A quick and simple user interface,
• An annual budget entry system in local currency,
• Integration with a document management system already installed internally,
• Integration with financial and accounting data of the business system already in place for some years,
• And finally, comprehensive data reporting capabilities to produce the necessary reports on demand in a changing context.
The implementation project allows for a gradual availability of the solution in SaaS mode, starting from June 2015. Since then, the solution has grown from 1,300 to 1,600 users and has not stopped expanding.
Focus on the Planisware sharepoint integration
Context
Since 2007, ArcelorMittal has been using OpenText content management software (formerly Documentum). However, following the implementation of the Planisware solution in 2014, the suitability of Documentum software came into question. The management team were interested in keeping the number of internal tools to a necessary minimum, the two tools did not integrate.
However, Planisware offers a standard document management and storage system as a simple connector with Microsoft SharePoint software.
“We were looking to equip ourselves with a few applications capable of covering a maximum of functionalities to reduce the scope of software deployment” explains Lionel Paulard.
“The fact that Planisware solution offers a connector with SharePoint has largely contributed to the abandonment of Documentum.
In addition, there was also a strong desire on the part of the CIO to acquire SharePoint software for economic reasons. For all these reasons, management decided to change content management tool, and finally opted for the Microsoft solution in 2019.
Although Planisware offered a standard SharePoint interface, in this form it was not quite suitable for the way the organization wanted to do things. ArcelorMittal has more than 80,000 files that needed to be shared on a single tool, and so the simple deposit of files in a document management tool was not enough - we also needed to add search capability for these files with an efficient filter system.
"Being able to upload files is important but finding information and analyzing data is even more important” adds Lionel Paulard.
The Arcelor Mittal group's R&D department is therefore working to set up a more efficient EDM system to enhance the initial requirements of the IT department. In early 2019, they launched a study phase, starting with the creation of a user group that is responsible for drafting specifications.
The project objectives
Work on the interface between Planisware and SharePoint is done with the addition of a few rules aimed at further simplification. Here are the objectives of this customization:
1. Adapt the tool to the processes already in place:
The document management process is defined upstream, with project managers are required to document this. The primary aim is to respect the document lifecycle process. The tool must adapt to the existing group validation methodology.
2. Facilitate research:
R&D first works on setting up a search portal in SharePoint because initially the Microsoft tool offers a very basic filter system. It must also find a compromise between setting up a GED with a minimum of information while reducing research. The creation of dynamic filters and the integration of metadata responds to this double problem.
“Basically, the SharePoint search function is by ‘full text.’ We had to integrate our metadata”, describes Lionel Paulard. “It took a long time, but it helped make the research much more relevant."
3. Synchronize data:
The complex management of projects and the organization tree of portfolios requires data synchronization for each of the 4 levels (portfolios, programs, axes, projects).
To meet these challenges, R&D is working on the creation of a common repository between Planisware and Sharepoint, to avoid synchronization of the entire database with each update.
According to the CIO, "the breakdown of the database facilitates small daily updates and saves us time because synchronizing the entire database can take several hours. It had to be avoided at all costs, otherwise it made no sense."
4. Improve data monitoring and analysis:
The has been some work to do in terms of usability, because the decision to use identical colors in both Planisware and SharePoint was paramount. The objective of this is to encourage only one logic for organizing and processing data within the two tools.
Other small improvements have been made to facilitate the display of projects: the creation of a "favorite" field, for example, to best match the profile of project managers who manage exclusively one by two projects, and the option to delete unnecessary fields. These facilitate the adoption of the tool as well as user training.
"Reducing the display improves performance. We manage more than 30,000 items, spread over 4 levels, including more than 18,000 projects in one of our portfolios. Project managers and management alike need to be clear."
The benefits
The shutdown of Documentum resulted in significant savings for the group because the software was costing around 20 euros per person, per year, and in addition required two large production servers.
“SharePoint makes life easier for our users on a daily basis. Now they have only one Office account, and the Planisware tool is rather unifying. In terms of gain, what matters above all for us is the number of files imported into Sharepoint as well as the quality of the metadata to make the search faster. Today, data processing is made easier and we save time. It’s very positive " concludes Mr. Paulard.
