Sogetrel

"At the beginning, we wanted to make a specific application dedicated to our group and by looking at the market we realized that Axiscope covered 80% of our requests and offered additional things."

1. What are the stakes at SOGETREL ?

Sogetrel is a medium-sized company with 4 500 people including 3 businesses :

Telecommunication networks (especially fiber)
Electronic security (installation of security systems in buildings)
Smart cities

We had a big problem of subcontracting with a myriad of subcontractors from very small companies to much larger ones in an extremely changing market. We have to be in constant communication with them. Our challenge was to build loyalty among our subcontractors by trying to turn them into partners. In this context, we were looking for a tool to maintain the relationship with them : this is how we implemented the Axiscope solution and how we work with them since 2019.

We did an implementation project with a lot of modular functionality already in place and some adaptations from what we originally wanted to do. And we're still in the deployment phase today.

2. How does the relationship between the editor and your users work ?

Every week there is a follow-up with the editor on the BUILD (currently being deployed), and on the RUN (already in production) we try to make the professions as close as possible: of course the buyers (with a buyer referent) with the administrative staff who will be in contact with the subcontractors, make the contracts, listen and if necessary make all the remarks to say what works or not.

We launch a multitude of small projects. We test and abandon 1 out of 3 to retain and put the emphasis only on what works and pleases.

Concerning the nature of these projects, they are mostly new features that we want to implement. We test them to see if it is suitable for our subcontractors.

3. Does this mean that your provider has prepared them in advance ?

Yes, from the beginning, we have a roadmap with lots of ideas and we have scheduled them according to what is most profitable for us or because our subcontractors will be interested by it. And it is with that process that we go down the roadmap.

The initial goal was to do one new thing a month just to maintain the relationship.

4. How do you express functional needs for more or better tools to do your job well ?

Buyers are always full of ideas. But they would like something unreal: that subcontractors provide quality information all the time, in real time, and that they don't have much to do. The problem is not the tool, it is the implementation. At that point, we make the choice of what works versus what works much less. So there is a trade-off to be made at our level and a trade-off at the provider’s level, who can't do everything.