Can you present the project and the related issues?

Xavier Philippe : Soitec has had OeBS since the 2000’s and had a major migration project to the latest Oracle version available in 2010. Since then, a gradual migration of our entire information system to the Cloud has been initiated.

Frédéric Fauvel : The project consisted of setting up a functional and technical support team to which we entrusted the complete operation of the ERP in order to benefit from an expertise on OeBS that is difficult to find in the Grenoble area and in France in general, and also to respond to the growing demands for evolution, linked to the increase in Soitec’s activity. With this ERP migration, 100% of the business applications are now hosted in the cloud. Only the business applications related to industrial production are still hosted at SOITEC.

What were the objectives and expectations of the project?

Frédéric Fauvel : The project had several objectives. The first was to respond to our management’s desire to move into the cloud. The second was to respond to the obsolescence of our infrastructure, which hosted our ERP, and to open up the possibility of connections with other systems via APIs. Finally, we were expecting improved performance for large-scale processing and smooth navigation for users.

Xavier Philippe : At Soitec, production runs 24/7 and the ERP is necessary for certain production transactions (in particular for end-of-line packaging). The challenge was therefore to stop the ERP for only 6 hours to carry out the migration. The Lojelis teams and the internal teams devised a system for copying data and making efficient settings in the shortest possible time. A big challenge, which added extra difficulty!

Concerning the implementation of TMA, KPIs and commitments were set with the Lojelis teams, such as the management of the number of tickets (90% of the ERP tickets are managed by Lojelis), the autonomy to ensure the closing of the ERP (here again, an objective that was met with satisfaction) and finally, SLA objectives for the handling of incidents.

What were the criteria for choosing the service provider?

Xavier Philippe : The experience acquired on other Application Management projects, the ability to commit to respecting SLAs, and the ability to call on experts outside the team determined for the project were also major assets for Lojelis. When necessary, they know how to mobilise experts on issues such as logistics flows, warehouse management and taxation.

Frédéric Fauvel : We were also looking for product knowledge from experts in the field, in order to gain time and efficiency. The contribution of business expertise and tool expertise was very important.

Why did you choose Lojelis?

Xavier Philippe : In relation to all the expectations we had, Lojelis was the best choice and demonstrated in its proposals that it had expertise in TMA and the ability to put together a team adapted to Soitec with different profiles. We had also worked previously with Lojelis, on a another project, in June 2018. We were able to appreciate the team’s contact and expertise on a real case.

Frédéric Fauvel : Lojelis also quickly demonstrated a good understanding of our system and context, as well as a good level of collaboration with Digora, our partner on the hosting and infrastructure part.

What are the advantages that you have noticed as a result of this collaboration?

Frédéric Fauvel : We all sleep better! As the internal team was small (4 people), the time spent on daily support for users was enormous, which made it difficult to work on the fundamental issues. Thanks to TMA, there is a real saving of time! Lojelis brings its know-how to the products and the quality of development and delivery.

Xavier Philippe : With Lojelis, we opted for complete outsourcing of the service, which was a challenge, since the consultants would not be on site. A fear that was quickly dispelled, as working remotely is just as effective!

Frédéric Fauvel : This good progress is due to the investment of the Lojelis people, who came to the site several times to meet the various parties involved during workshops when the TMA was being set up.

What was the most striking thing about your collaboration with Lojelis?

Xavier Philippe : The motivation and involvement of the teams, even if they are remote! It’s a professional team, motivated and involved. We’re dealing with professionals! Of course, there is also the expertise on the tools, the ability to understand our systems and our tools.

Frédéric Fauvel : Lojelis mobilises consultants from 3 different sites (Clermont, Amiens and Lyon), but you can feel that they all know each other, that there is a conviviality and a strong team spirit! The team responds as one: there is a good internal exchange!

3 words to describe Lojelis?

Xavier Philippe : Confidence. Competence. Efficient. Listening. And friendliness! That’s not three words, but they are the ones that best illustrate our relationship!

Frédéric Fauvel : You could also say “partner”: we have a relationship like “colleagues”, there is no notion of contracts in our exchanges, which is what I experience with other service providers.