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Communications managers at Bouygues Construction (one of the world's leading companies in the building, public sector construction, electricity and maintenance industries) have selected the iExtranet solution published by Oodrive to manage and share large files with their partners.

Optimising the management and sharing of large files with our service providers

Operating in some 60 countries, Bouygues Construction combines the power of a large group with the response of a network of companies organised into seven complementary business entities. Their expertise in matters relating to finance, design, construction, maintenance and operation enables the group to provide its clients with innovative solutions.

"The objective was to exchange relatively large files, especially images, with our service providers and to do this quickly and with complete security. We also needed to improve the management of multiple documents by creating folders and to be sure that everyone was working on the same file and on the latest version of it," explains Fabrice Marrel, External Communications Manager at Bouygues Construction.

Previously, Bouygues Construction was using solutions that were "rather more traditional" via an FTP server, which offered very basic functionality. This solution enabled them to send a link via e-mail for the recipient to then be able to retrieve their file.

As part of an invitation to tender, the communications management team compared the Oodrive iExtranet solution with another solution available on the market which was also offering online project management. "That solution offered similar functionality to iExtranet. However, Oodrive presented us with a solution dedicated to communication, which therefore gave greater consideration to the issues we face. For example, one aspect of the functionality provides us with the opportunity of viewing images as a slide show, which helps us to make our selection more quickly," stresses Fabrice Marrel.

"What's more, when it comes to being user-friendly, Oodrive's iExtranet solution is clearly more intuitive and more attractive than the other solution. We have even been able to customise the solution to suit our image by tailoring it to our own graphic guidelines. It has a more professional interface, which enables our partners to develop in our own environment," he comments.

It is for such reasons that Bouygues Construction turned to Oodrive's online file sharing solution: iExtranet. "What really appealed to us was the possibility of exchanging folders easily and file version control, as well as being able to manage and control access and action rights on shared files. In fact, on the "administration" side, we can create any number of folders but we give limited access to our service providers. This means that all of them only see the files that directly concern them; something which is almost impossible to achieve with an FTP server. As regards confidentiality, we have undoubtedly improved our quality of service," adds Fabrice Marrel.

The choice of a trusted partner and an effective solution

The communications management team at Bouygues Construction manages a number of publishing projects. They began using the Oodrive iExtranet solution in April 2008 for a large project for the publication of a company manual which lasted for one year. It was important to be able to exchange Word files of texts for the book but also, and especially, to be able to share a large number of high-resolution image files. The external communications department needed to store all elements for at least the duration of the project. iExtranet made it possible to place images on the secure Web platform for file sharing, which made it easy for the editor to select the photos required. This solution also enables Bouygues Construction to exchange PDF scale models or book projects. File version control meant that the communications department could always be sure that everyone was working on the correct version of the document.

"We are currently working on annual report projects. These are recurring publishing projects which require 6 months of work. These are typically the types of project for which we rely on the iExtranet solution," explains Fabrice Marrel.

It was very easy for the team to make the transition and get to grips with iExtranet. "In my case, I had half an hour's training over the telephone, which covered everything I needed to know. I then began using the tool immediately with my colleagues. It is an intuitive tool, with an environment similar to that of Microsoft, so it's very familiar. We wondered if our service providers would get used to it as quickly as we did and up to now we have not had any negative feedback. It has not been necessary to train my colleagues or even our partners, which is definitely an advantage," adds Fabrice Marrel.

iExtranet guarantees secure and controlled document sharing for optimum project management

Bouygues Construction can see many opportunities for using the iExtranet solution: it is user-friendly, straightforward to use and can be customised and offers options for exchanging large files, version management (version control), slide shows, rights management and, not least, the option of having visibility across the whole of a global project. Fabrice Marrel also stresses the option available to the solution administrator to confirm a service provider consults a document, that the file has been successfully downloaded. Although Bouygues Construction makes little use of this functionality, it is something which could be of particular interest to large-scale projects.

"Once you have tried a tool like this, archaic solutions such as FTP servers inevitably appear rather old-fashioned. Using this solution really does add value," he concludes.