Did you say BPM (Business Process Management)? What does that mean in concrete terms? Xavier Capitaine, Project Manager at Océane Consulting Data Management, a Digital Services Company (ESN) integrator and pure-play publisher for Dematerialization & Digitalization, explains the ins and outs of this approach.
With as illustration a flagship and significant project carried out for the National Veterinary Medicines Agency (ANMV) that combines deadline constraints, peak load challenges and major technical challenges.
How long have you been with Océane Consulting Data Management and what is your role within the company? Can you briefly review your professional background?
Xavier Capitaine - I joined Océane Consulting Data Management in November 2018 as a project manager. Before joining Océane Consulting DM, I worked for an agribusiness company managing the implementation of an Electronic Document Management (GED) / Enterprise Content Management (ECM) tool, namely Nuxeo.
I have an atypical background since I originally had a more literary profile. I first obtained a Master's degree in History and then a Master's degree in Digital Archives. The teachings of the latter allowed me to address all aspects and issues related to electronic documents for businesses, territorial authorities and the State. I therefore had to integrate the technical language by joining Océane Consulting Data Management, which was a difficulty but also a challenge.
What are the major challenges your clients face and what types of missions and projects do you work on?
XC - I work extensively on fixed-price projects and Third-Party Application Maintenance (TMA). The major challenges we frequently address are as follows: implementing new GED/ECM functionalities while maintaining ease of use and intuitive interface so as not to lose user adoption; responding to new business needs (workflows...); implementing the necessary means to ensure maximum tool availability; rolling out solution version upgrade projects to ensure tool sustainability and benefit from product updates; adapt the tooling to a particular and evolving regulatory context.
How do you manage technology monitoring?
XC - I monitor technological developments in our field and our partner solutions (Nuxeo, Bonitasoft). I regularly visit LinkedIn where I can read numerous articles about our sector and stay informed of our partners' news.
What do you like about Océane Consulting Data Management? How do you explain the tenure of some of your colleagues?
XC - It is a human-sized company with about forty employees, which is essential to me. As a result, the atmosphere is very friendly with an average age around thirty and shared interests. Furthermore, the projects are stimulating and varied. All these reasons explain the tenure of many colleagues.
You are working on a flagship BPM (Business Process Management) project for the National Veterinary Medicines Agency (ANMV), an emanation of the National Food Safety Agency (ANSES). Can you define BPM for us?
XC - BPM (Business Process Management) is a method for managing an organization's business processes end-to-end. The strength of this approach lies in particular in its formalism. Indeed, business processes are modeled in the form of a graphical representation describing all stages / activities, their sequencing as well as the stakeholders involved. This modeling makes the process understandable to all, both technical profiles (developers) and functional profiles (business, support...). BPM can be adapted to all types of projects. At Océane Consulting Data Management, we work with two BPM tools: Bonita (Bonitasoft) and Workey (Efalia).
Why is this BPM project with ANMV so important at Océane Consulting Data Management?
XC - It is one of our largest BPM projects in man-days: 1000 days on a fixed-price basis. It is a project and technical challenge that consists in adapting an existing BPM tool to meet new European regulations.
What are the project objectives?
XC -European regulations have evolved considerably in the field of veterinary medicines, with the underlying goal of standardizing and pooling the production and distribution of documents related to veterinary medicines for all EU Member States: marketing authorizations, product characteristics summary... The objective of the ordered changes is to bring the ANMV's IT tools into compliance with these new regulations (NVR). The management of data related to veterinary medicines is particularly impacted (medicine data, processes). A European database (UPD, Union Product Database) will be established and each Union country will need to be able to feed it. Some existing processes will therefore be modified and new ones created.
What are the main challenges in setting up and implementing such a project?
XC - The schedule is very tight since the European regulations are to come into force in January 2022, which means that part of the scope must be delivered and installed in production before this date. We therefore have little room for maneuver, which makes it a stimulating project.
The project has been divided into five different packages depending on the impacted scopes and the imposed deadlines. The project pace must follow that imposed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). First, the processing of Legacy Data - the export of existing medicine data - will need to be completed in November 2021, then the adaptation of the rest of the Information System (data, processes, specific applications, infrastructure) will be implemented for January 2022. It was agreed that certain needs identified in the EMA's implementation guide will be addressed later as they are considered less of a priority.
We must therefore ensure a meticulously organized structure so as not to waste time, with responsibility borne by both Océane Data Consulting Management and the client who must also guarantee the resources to ensure specification validation, testing...
We also had to overcome certain challenges before the project launch, in particular managing to produce a quote within a tight timeframe and with unstabilized requirements. Many topics are still being considered and designed at the European level. It was therefore necessary to adapt and be flexible to integrate a scope that was not fully stabilized into a fixed-price commitment by proposing a project breakdown that best meets scheduling imperatives. Not an easy equation!
The technical challenge is also significant since it involves making new and old regulations coexist in the same tool and simultaneously performing data recovery.
How did you manage this project?
XC - This project currently mobilizes a team of 5 people representing approximately four full-time equivalents. This arrangement may evolve to address any peak load situations. A developer was added to the team for package no. 2, for example.
A good organization in the distribution and sequencing of tasks was essential. This required constant and effective communication, constant monitoring of the progress of ongoing tasks and remaining tasks as well as permanent escalation of warning flags.
Exceptional organization is essential because we are dealing with a wide range of imperatives and tasks contributing to the smooth running of the project: planning the logistical arrangements necessary for the project to proceed; control, updating and distribution of the schedule; ticket tracking; action and project monitoring; pre-validation of deliverables; monitoring of quality indicators (detailed in the Quality Assurance Plan); risk monitoring; billing monitoring; monitoring of planned and actual deliveries...
A Project Manager-Team Leader duo was put in place and it works very well. On one side, the Team Leader technically oversees the team. On the other side, the Project Manager ensures client relations and implements the necessary means to ensure the cost-quality-deadline triptych.
Very regular exchanges with the client are implemented through project committees and steering committees, documentation review workshops and workshops dedicated to specific topics to avoid the tunnel effect at all costs.
What made the difference and why is the client satisfied with Océane Consulting Data Management's intervention?
XC - The strength of our centralized technical team in Rennes, our expertise and our knowledge are our three major assets. Our technical team allows us to manage peak loads and be flexible by quickly deploying an additional developer to the project if needed, and also to benefit from our Technical Management's expertise on specific topics. The client was aware of our skills and reactivity, we had indeed already worked for ANMV as part of a Workey application version upgrade project (400 project days). That project went very well, so we had established a relationship of trust.
Our anticipation capacity, our ability to have teams interact and the quality of our deliverables are also strong and undeniable assets for achieving optimal client satisfaction.
