A document solution for business and IT department operational activities

SNCF Voyageurs uses numerous documents for its operational activities, notably in the context of its project repositories (project documents, organisational documents, model documents, etc). Its principle needs focus on collaborative management functions (coproduction, version management, sharing links, etc) and advanced security rules.

The IT department of Voyageurs covers the IT systems needs of the Voyageurs business activity. It already had a solution to meet these document needs but intends to change it for an open-source solution. It requires an efficient, inexpensive and easy-to-deploy solution.

It identified the Nuxeo solution and called on Sollan to ensure that the solution covers all its needs and usage. The study validated the technical and functional coverage.

‘The strength of the Nuxeo solution is that it enables us to avoid a user licence and thus open the platform to any company by synchronising the business directory. We saw that deployment would be automatically facilitated thanks to document sharing with all persons in the company with an email address recognised by the directory. All that remained to be done was to position the right authorisations for the tool.’

Marie Lacrampe, Collaborative Work Manager

Operational and security challenges

‘The biggest difficulty was to ensure that, even while totally changing the tool, users would manage to find their way around. This was because we were conducting a change in the document management solution and not a set-up’,  said Marie Lacrampe.

Sollan was chosen to carry out the migration and deployment project. To ensure a good level of service, a cluster was set up to guarantee the availability of the platform.

In order to avoid a disruption of the service, content migration was carried out progressively while conserving the links of the old format, which required the production of a series of scripts to enable migration, the establishment of an adapted architecture and the operational maintenance of the two platforms simultaneously. Numerous tests were carried out upstream on different types of document.

Two pre-existing spaces for collaboration were carried over to the new platform, the communities and virtual offices, offering access to the resources necessary for the implementation of the projects with the associated authorisations. Over 450 communities were thus migrated. The solution was simplified with the deletion of certain little-used features of the old platform and work on the ergonomics of the solution was carried out.

After the deployment of the solution, an audit was performed by the SNCF Security team in order to ensure the total security of the platform. The various departments welcomed the new platform favourably. Thus, over 150 communities have been created since it was launched.

A solution designed for the long term

‘One of the successes of the project is to create a platform with little specific development.’

Thierry Carette, Services and Infrastructures Manager

Points of satisfaction:

• Platform received favourably by the departments.
• Low level of specific development.
• Implementation of an open-source solution, fitting the strategic orientation of the SNCF IT system.
• Reduction of platform ownership costs.
• A solution deployed to wider audiences.
• No document loss during migration from the old platform to the new one.

From the start of the project, the level of specific development was measured and monitored over time, enabling it to be kept to a minimum and thus reducing costs and the complexity of maintenance.

‘Moreover, the installation of the simplified version with Nuxeo Studio promises long-term quality of service, time savings and the possibility to avoid heavy impact analyses’, adds Marie Lacrampe.

About SNCF Voyageurs:

SNCF Voyageurs is the subsidiary of Groupe SNCF in charge of traveller transport on the French national rail network.