On January 19, 2022, we met Julien Bourguignolle and Quentin Raffaillac-Desfosse, works managers at Viafrance Normandie. A subsidiary of the Eurovia group, which has 43,000 employees, this company specializes in road and sewerage works.
The Normandy agency works on all types of roadworks (roads and other networks). Whether it's blacktop (asphalt), whitetop (civil engineering) or drainage. On maintenance contracts for urban areas, "there are a lot of repetitive services," says Julien. It is difficult to plan the intervention of the teams, and to follow the sites without necessarily going on site. On small projects, the economic equation is not easy: the works company has to make the DICT, ask for the road orders, and produce an attachment, but the works managers simply do not have enough time in their day to do this follow-up.
"We tried Google's Mind Maps software to plan the rounds of the job sitemanagers," Julien continues. But the general public software is not designed for the agency's business: the interface is fun, but it is not possible to extract reports or to share progress with the project management.
👉 See how some customers are using Kraaft on their road maintenance leases.
Viafrance Normandie also started last summer a job site rehabilitation of a former refinery in the 76. On these types of job site of several months, the follow-up required by the control of work "is relatively pointed (...) They ask us to establish the milestones, the stopping points, and to communicate in a reactive way" adds Julien.
But the challenge remains the adoption of the new tools by the heads of job site. Without their support, it is impossible to value the additional work and to comply with the new regulations on marking, staking and validating photo reports. Again, they have enough work to do without becoming computer scientists! "And telephones are not necessarily adapted to fast navigation" adds Julien.
"I must admit that it's surprising, there are chefs with whom it goes very well whereas I expected it not to go at all" begins Quentin. Kraaft offers a mobile application similar to WhatsApp, which allows to create a conversation by job site. You can simply upload information: photos, videos, voice notes, GPS points. And validate stop points, declare hazards, or share reports with the customer directly from the messaging system.
"I discovered Kraaft through Julien who used it on one of his big projects, and I immediately thought that it could be useful for maintenance leases", says Quentin. The satellite interface allows to position the interventions, by adding a date, a person in charge and a color code on their state of progress. The job site manager fills out the intervention form, adds a photo, and validates it when it is finished. This makes it possible to send a report to the project manager. Or even to integrate it directly on the platform, as is the case for the Rouen metropolis, which recently joined Kraaft.
"When we have a deal, it's going to make my life easier. In fact, that's what I'm looking for, a tool that allows me to save time in my daily work, because the days are too short to do everything we have to do, and if we can save time on that, it's time that we can devote to other things." (Quentin Raffaillac-Desfosse, works manager at Viafrance Normandie)
"The advantage for me was the information feedback and traceability, as much for the preparation, execution (....) as for the establishment of milestones," explains Julien. On large projects, hazards are a daily occurrence. The ability to explain them and share them with the client as they occur is often the reason for the project's profitability. In a few clicks, the manager shares a photo:hazard is time-stamped, geo-located, and the driver (when he finds the time!) can make a report in accordance with the market format.
"Don't hesitate to give good ideas to make the tool evolve" says Julien. Every month, the users of the application benefit from an automatic update, which includes the most popular ideas reported by its users.
✅ Easy to use in the field for the managers job site
✅ Less travel by work supervisors for small jobs
✅ Shared map tracking interface with the customer on maintenance contracts
✅ Real-time tracking of job site hazards and generation of extra work reports
✅ Adaptability of the tool and reports to the market
"When the job site is 3 minutes from the depot, I can go there. But when I have an hour's drive, the fact that I have to travel is an hour saved on the way there, an hour saved on the way back: two hours in the day when I do something else." (Julien Bourguignolle, works manager at Viafrance Normandie)
