During the month of February, we had the opportunity to discuss with Jean-Loup Masson, Innovation Director at Novacel, one of our new clients, about his experience using Strategeex for their innovation projects.
The company and its history
Novacel is a subsidiary of the Chargeurs group, which has a total of 2,000 employees and sales of nearly €600 million.)
The subsidiary alone has 720 employees and a turnover of 280 M€. Novacel is an industrial manufacturer of surface solutions.
ean-Loup Masson and his position as Director of Innovation
Since his arrival, Jean-Loup has been responsible for several missions involving marketing, CSR in France and innovation worldwide. Since September, he has held the position of Innovation Director and refocused his missions on innovation and R&D. His department oversees marketing projects, innovation projects and digital transformation.
The challenges faced
A reflection was carried out in the face of the various challenges that his department had encountered. The first theme was "How to keep coherence and the logic of project management while implementing innovation methods within the various projects".
For the Innovation Director, the move to Strategeex is linked to a desire to facilitate the coordination of R&D teams at the global level of the company. The project is also supported by Novacel's CEO, who wants to digitalize the processes to establish a better dissemination of innovation methodologies on the different levels of the company.
The first exchanges with Strategeex
For the Director of Innovation, the move to Strategeex is linked to a desire to facilitate the coordination of R&D teams throughout the company. The project is also supported by Novacel's CEO, who wants to digitize the processes to establish a better dissemination of innovation methodologies on the different levels of the company.
Why choose Strategeex
Since today they are more mature in using Strategeex, the solution is adapted to projects in R&D, marketing and innovation. The issues are both strategic and operational, two broad aspects that the software can cover.
Even though many people at Novacel know how to manage projects, the issue of variability is a source of uncertainty and using Strategeex allows us to manage this aspect to a minimum, according to the Innovation Director.
Other solutions used before Strategeex
Prior to our deployment, the Innovation department was running their own solution in Excel, which allowed them to do things well. But they found an excellent match with the Strategeex solution.
Before the finalization with Strategeex, they had a proposal for another system, which had some interesting things in detail. But the Innovation Director preferred to go with the Strategeex solution, which better met the challenges and objectives of the company.
« The solution is complete with a fair price. » - Jean-Loup Masson, Innovation Director at Novacel
The use of Strategeex in relation to their expectations
The visualization and sharing aspect is what Jean-Loup liked the most, and he found it easier to do and work with than Excel. In his opinion, it is a tool full of promise that will allow them to reach their objectives, to find phases of balance, in a good way during the year.
The Innovation department began its use of Strategeex with the training part, via the Strategeex Academy. Then, in a second phase, the different modules that allow them to set up and implement their projects.
The main advantages of using Strategeex
Sharing is really the argument that won over the Director of Innovation the most. He also appreciated the readability and adaptability of the solution. Risk management is an advantage over other solutions that do not offer this aspect.
The number of users of the platform within its team
Eventually, the solution will be used by a maximum of 25 people who will be distributed among the R&D, central marketing, and corporate marketing departments, as well as technical functions and the industrial part of the company.
The additions that could improve the platform according to his expectations
Following a preliminary use, Mr Masson thinks that it could be interesting to bring an option of automation of the KPI. The functionality would work on data included in the projects. In his case, for the moment, the manipulation is intended to be done via Excel exports.
The ability to operate in a "stage gate" with five different phases by proposing data cross-analysis is for him the aspect that will allow him to meet the expectations that his department may have.
Potential future use cases for the solution
At the beginning of the deployment, the use will be on small groups. But the long-term objective is to extend the use to the world R&D department, then to marketing. Then, we'll end up with the corporate department to challenge the entire company.
The last word
" Strategeex is interesting for its overview.”
"It allows us to segment markets, structure offers and manage portfolios with different readings, innovation, marketing, and strategy.
The adaptability of the solution to our segmentation (countries, markets) and to the multiple projects we manage, will facilitate management and decision-making.
The e-learning module associated with the tool will help my teams become more familiar with innovation practices and will strengthen our practices.”
- Jean-Loup Masson, Innovation Director at Novacel