Who is VINCI Energies?

VINCI Energies creates tailor-made, complex technical solutions and services for energy, transport, and communication infrastruction as well as construction, manufacturing and IT systems. VINCI Energies Oil & Gas is international, with 26 business units across 15 countries and around 2,000 employees.

How do you organize work at VINCI Energies, and how did it work in the past?

Jean-Gil Contreras, Development Director at VINCI Energies Oil & Gas: What’s particular about us is that we create proposals under three different VINCI Energies brands or other brands by trade.

Before XaitProposal, each office made its own sales and technical proposals and had its own technical libraries, using MS Word. For major bids, we outsourced the page layout and that would have to be done overnight to be ready and completed the next day.

What were the limits of this working method?

Jean-Gil Contreras: We realized we weren’t very effective with our proposals. Our customers wanted to know a lot about the business, CSR or innovation, for example, which are international and not always directly related to our trades. We didn’t have a common, streamlined base to draw from that was approved by the communications department.

As for the page layout, we had to have a layout structured for the different graphics charters of the Actemium, Omexom, and Axians brands with the VINCI Energies Oil & Gas identity.

When VINCI Energies decided to implement XaitProposal, what were the objectives?

Jean-Gil Contreras: Improving the application of the graphic charters for the different brands, saving time on the writing and layout of a proposal, a more professional-looking result, a shared library for documents… in short, a tool that would make it easier to draft proposals with the right content and the right look.

How did you come to use XaitProposal?

Jean-Gil Contreras: We recruited someone who had used XaitProposal in a previous job, and who wasn’t used to using standard Office tools anymore. After a demonstration by the Xait team, we were convinced by the shared knowledge base and the powerful layout tool.

When making the change, what were the main challenges?

Jean-Gil Contreras: The first challenge was having the right content for each business unit and the content that applied across the company. The second challenge was finding specific page layouts for the three brands with the possibility of customizing the logo. Finally, the last challenge was a big one, change management support, convincing the various business units that this would help them produce higher-quality proposals in a very short time.

Working in so many different countries, providing good training remotely isn’t always easy.

How did you implement the tool?

Jean-Gil Contreras: We did a lot of work to draft corporate content, content for CSR, innovation, environment, press releases, references, etc. to have it approved by the company communication department and divided among the 26 different business unit profiles.

The model proposals are now adapted with the trade colors, and it is possible to change the logo. We have five different charters. We started with maintenance, followed by the business unit in Bahrain, and the change was really welcomed; the business leaders were immediately won over by XaitProposal.

What do you think of Xait’s methods and the service they provide

Jean-Gil Contreras: Xait’s methods adapt to suit each business; they really try to understand our needs so that we learn how to use the tool and make the best use of it and are really able to respond to our customers’ needs.

Following advice from Xait, we had training sessions tailored for our users, adapted to their business. Our employee profiles can vary widely, some teams may be working remotely, and they can be writing in French or in English.

How did the teams react to XaitProposal?

Jean-Gil Contreras: It’s been a huge leap forward for our proposal writing, and there’s much less stress around the layout. The business unit managers immediately saw the advantages of this solution, and they’ve wanted to join in the fun. Some users were a little skeptical (“Why waste time learning a new tool when I can write my bids in Word?”), but that didn’t last long. We’ve noticed that when somebody tries XaitProposal for one proposal, they keep using the tool.

We’ve shown that this tool helps us be in control. For content, at any time in any country, the proposal writers have access to a library, the important documents are up to date, and they have time to focus on the essentials. As for the layout, the graphic charters are all followed, no more complicated layout has to be done at the last minute, and that lets the content take center stage.

From Cameroon to Abu Dhabi, the business units use a shared library and have all the elements they need to talk about the company’s strengths…

What do your customers have to say?

Jean-Gil Contreras: Positive feedback. We even have one customer who told us they’d never seen such a clear proposal.

What’s next?

Jean-Gil Contreras: Exploring all the functionalities the tool offers, improving our knowledge base and bringing more business units on board to share in the adventure.

“It’s been a huge leap forward for our proposal writing, and there’s much less stress around the layout. We even have one customer who told us they’d never seen such a clear proposal.”
— Jean-Gil CONTRERAS, Development Director, VINCI Energies Oil & Gas

About Xait

Xait is a global technology company founded in 2000 that produces and delivers software for document automation, collaboration and intelligent pricing. Our mission is to help enterprise clients win business by supporting their sales enablement efforts from quote to contract. We are passionate about challenging industry mindsets and developing products that improve the way people work together.