On January 26, 2022, we met Geoffrey Laguardia and Abdelhakim Bouaouilou, works manager and head of job site at SRBG Saint-Germain-en-Laye. A subsidiary of the Eurovia group, which has 43,000 employees, this company specializes in roadworks and other networks. For several months, Geoffrey and Abdelhakim have been using Kraaft on the extension project of a LIDL logistics platform in the Paris region.
The difficulty of the project, which is divided into some twenty lots, is cohabitation with other companies. For SRBG, which is in charge of earthworks, drainage and soil treatment, damage and inconvenience on job site are a daily occurrence. "Here, we put back some gravel: we filled it in because there was a small subsidence at the level of the concrete wall, but it wasn't our job to do so," explains Abdelhakim. These hazards are not always well explained to the project management. And the client, who cannot be at job site every day, often lacks visibility.
To document such events, Abdelhakim always keeps a small notebook in his pocket. In the evenings, when he's no longer managing the dozen or so team leaders and workers on the project, he writes reports back to the office that he sends by email, along with photos he takes from his phone or receives on WhatsApp. "The problem with WhatsApp is that it's a catch-all (...) But the bosses do have the reflex, there's a fear of switching to a new tool." The phone call is also convenient to communicate on these unexpected job site, but for Geoffrey, who receives dozens of them per day, the volume is difficult to manage.
"Kraaft is used to follow up and present the different hazards to the customers, it saves time and explains the subjects better" explains Geoffrey. "I use it every day, like Facebook or WhatsApp" continues Abdelhakim. "At the beginning, the bosses told me we had WhatsApp: why are we going to use Kraaft? (...) We started to understand when we saw the possibility to classify all the problems".
The public works agency had to explain a contingency that dated back 5 months ago. In a few clicks, using an event, chronological or cartographic search, Geoffrey was able to find the event in question. And generate an anomaly sheet in the market format. "The client noticed the quality of the reports," says the works manager.
Yesterday I had an appointment on another job site at 9am, we had an unexpected event here at 8am, and in 20 minutes I had the time to generate a report in my car, following the photos sent by the boss (...) I just had to export via the application: everything was dated, classified and geo-located, and before my appointment the report was already sent to the client. (Geoffrey Laguardia, works manager at SRBG Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
But Kraaft is also used to communicate on the positive progress of job site. "I use it to advertise job site. I showcase my work, I even use some of the photos for my Linkedin", says Abdelhakim. The photos of the markup have become a reflex in the evening, to show the teams that it has been put in place. This is a very interesting use for maintenance leases, which are important markets for the Parisian company.
✅ Easy to handle by site managers
✅ Reactive communication with the customer in case of breakpoints.
✅ Time saving on report generation and formalism appreciated by the client
✅ Easy to search for information: chronological, on satellite map or by event
✅ Valuing work: a tool for communicating the successes and challenges of the job site
"I've been using Kraaft for a year and a half. I use it every day, like Facebook or WhatsApp. Today, Kraaft is not my first job site, it follows us." (Abdelhakim Bouaouilou, head of job site at SRBG Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
