Veolia

Veolia is the global leader in optimized resource management. With nearly 171,000 employees worldwide, the company designs and provides water, waste, and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. But providing 95 million people with drinking water and 63 million people with wastewater service is not a small task.

Managing such large and geographically dispersed teams requires clear communication, constant collaboration, and the ability to work efficiently from any location. To achieve this ideal work environment, Veolia has implemented the Secure Any Time Any Where Any Device project (SATAWAD) to provide employees with a secure and mobile workplace. Through this project, Veolia employees have redesigned their way of working and eliminated many technical constraints around storage, security, and file access thanks to cloud-based, collaborative tools. 

Veolia needed a diagramming application that met their SATAWAD ambition. The company has so many processes that need to be followed in order to best meet customer needs, but documentation wasn’t helping team members to perform these vital processes. Processes were often a) not documented, b) documented in lengthy text that was hard to comprehend or share with others, or c) documented only locally on individual computers or with multiple versions across numerous devices. In order to effectively summarize and optimize their many industrial and IT projects, Veolia needed a solution that would allow them to document processes in an easy-to-understand format, share those processes across the company, obtain feedback on processes, and implement changes. 

As they investigated different solutions, Veolia found that Lucidchart was the only solution able to meet their requirements. The visual workspace allows employees to create visuals without the constraints found in other software and offers the ability to work on any device, powerful sharing capabilities, and real-time collaboration. 

Creating visuals

Lucidchart makes it easy for anyone at Veolia to create their desired visual with “zero training.” From process flows to network architecture to wireframes, employees are now creating diagrams daily.
 
Alexandru Neatu runs a team of business analysts in Romania. When he first started, processes were written out and very hard to follow. The team decided they wanted to use BPMN to document processes visually instead, and now they map out all their detailed process flows in Lucidchart. These visuals have increased understanding across teams and minimized the misinterpretations wording can cause. Alexandru and his team also use Lucidchart to outline integrations, map out networks, and build quick wireframes. They love the exhaustive libraries Lucidchart offers to aid in diagram creation, such as the AWS shape library. 

In Ireland, Remi Danvin is a project manager focused on improving internal processes. He relies on Lucidchart to diagram what a process currently looks like so he can identify bottlenecks and determine how to solve them. By mapping it out, Remi can make sure his understanding of the current process is correct so he can dive into the areas needing improvement. He and his team start out with templates in Lucidchart, simplifying the creation process so they can spend more time optimizing. Their documents contain multiple tabs so they can include an overview diagram as well as more detailed views. 

Yann Guyot is on the Veolia team in France. He creates diagrams to document processes and procedures regarding Veolia water technologies. This diagram is embedded in Veolia’s internal wiki to provide easy access. Through these visuals, Yann can clearly communicate instructions vital to streamlining operations, and he has links within the diagrams that take people to additional resources on a certain topic or process. He has even implemented data linking to allow people to update a spreadsheet with their metrics and have that data updated instantaneously on the Lucidchart diagram, providing an interactive experience for his team. 

Working from anywhere

Lucidchart is cloud-based, so even though Veolia’s teams are scattered across the globe, anyone can access the solution at any time. Lucidchart is also platform-agnostic, which means employees can even access the application via their Chromebooks or mobile devices for quick access—a key requirement from Veolia’s SATAWAD project.

Alexandru says, "I always have two tabs open—and Lucidchart is one of them. That way even if I need to just quickly sketch something out, I can hop into Lucidchart at any time.” 

Lucidchart has become Veolia’s single source of truth for processes. Diagrams are always available and always up to date. For example, Remi recently resurfaced a diagram he made six years ago so that a colleague could reference the visual rather than searching through pages of notes. 

Sharing across the org

Alexandru says:

“My team is 10% faster in exchanging information thanks to Lucidchart.”

Colleagues can easily share diagrams across and within teams to communicate information. For example, once a business analyst has finished a diagram, it is passed to the developer for implementation. Diagrams can also be added to larger text-based documentation and serve as additional summaries and clarification. Alexandru uses Lucidchart’s integration with Google Docs and Sheets to insert diagrams into existing documentation. 

Sharing visuals increases understanding, especially for the communication of technical concepts to a variety of audiences. Remi explains:

“Pictures are better. It’s so much easier to ask people to look at a diagram than it is to read a 20-page document. You can get people on the same page, and you can narrow the focus of a discussion to a specific piece of the document.”

Yann uses Lucidchart on a daily basis to share technical information about complex subjects in a way that is easy to understand.

Since Veolia has so many locations across the world, employees are often moving between offices. Yann relies on Lucidchart to help employees come up to speed quickly when they enter a new location. Visuals make it easy for employees to consume and retain new information. 

Alexandru loves that even after sharing a document, he maintains control with features like revision history. He is able to see who did what when so he can note when specific changes were made and revert back to previous versions if necessary. 

Collaborate in real time

Rather than static images, these Lucidchart diagrams are living documents constantly revised and updated. Employees can work together on a single document and see changes and comments in real time. Even if employees aren’t licensees, they can still view a document to provide valuable feedback. This real-time collaboration is crucial for Veolia, as processes are constantly modified and everyone needs to have access to the most up-to-date version at any given time. 

According to Veolia’s CIO Office Director,

“Lucidchart is the only solution we recommend in our internal marketplace, and subscriptions are increasing quickly.”

Veolia employees around the world are taking advantage of the clear communication, seamless collaboration, and increased understanding working visually provides.