Loxam
Leading equipment rental firm improves customer service and environmental sustainability by transforming content management with OpenText™ Core
About Loxam
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Branches:1,091
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Employees:11,800
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Based in:France
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Operates in:30 countries
Summary
Challenges
- Timely document access for customers and internal teams.
- Inefficient processes for document upload and retrieval.
- Significant storage requirements for paper contracts.
Solution
- Deployed a secure, scalable SaaS solution to manage content.
- Harnessed APIs to update content store and integrate with ERP systems.
- Organized content to help users surface relevant information.
Results
Improved customer service and productivity
Enhanced sustainability with paperless workflows
Increased revenues with faster equipment servicing
Challenges
- Slow document upload and retrieval processes hampered efficiency
- Time-consuming processes impacted customer service response times
- Millions of paper contracts were costly to store and made it difficult to achieve ESG goals
As the leading equipment rental provider in Europe, Loxam helps construction and civil engineering companies keep large-scale projects running on schedule. With branches in 30 countries, the company operates an equipment fleet of more than 600,000 assets—from powered access systems to heavy-duty, earthmoving machinery.
“To operate as efficiently as possible, we rely on fast access to documentation,” explained Stephane Aldeano, corporate senior technical director at Loxam. “For example, customers sometimes check user manuals when starting work, while our workshop teams need to consult repair guides and spare parts catalogs to keep equipment in pristine working order. In addition, our commercial teams need to quickly access equipment documentation when preparing customer quotes.”
To build a central repository for business documents, Loxam previously relied on a legacy content management platform; however, the system was challenging to manage and support. Uploading documents and retrieving archived items were time-consuming processes that made it difficult to offer responsive services to customers and internal teams.
Loxam also relied on paper to support many of its workflows. For example, the company creates millions of new contracts every year. Previously, these were printed, signed by customers, then filed in binders alongside hard copies of invoices. Inevitably, this approach consumed significant amounts of physical space at each branch.
“We are always looking to improve our processes; that’s how we strengthen our position as a European market leader,” noted Aldeano. “To enhance our quality of service, we looked for a modern content management platform that would help to accelerate our document upload, search and retrieval processes.”
At the same time, Loxam aimed to implement more environmentally sustainable workflows. “Our corporate strategy focuses on making a positive impact on the planet,” added Aldeano. “As part of this, we wanted to move to paperless working.”
Faster document retrieval enables us to offer more responsive service to customers, which will help to ensure we remain their number one choice for equipment rental.
Solution
To digitize paper-based workflows and optimize content management processes, Loxam deployed OpenText Core—a scalable cloud platform that will reduce IT management costs and enable over 3,500 business users to access key documents.
Products deployed
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OpenText™ Core
Simple, agile, and secure cloud-based content management that integrates into crucial business process applications
Services provided
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OpenText™ Professional Services
Leverage a team of certified OpenText™ consultants with more than 25 years of experience with the highest level of Information Management services
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OpenText™ Learning Services
Grow and diversity skills with learning options designed to build and certify proficiency across OpenText’s product suites
Deploying a secure, scalable SaaS solution
During the selection phase, Loxam targeted a solution that was easy to use and offered seamless integration with its ERP system and robust protection against cybersecurity threats. The company was also keen to implement a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to avoid the cost and complexity of managing software. OpenText Core ticked all the boxes.
Aldeano explained, “Our internal IT team is always stretched, so we follow a cloud-first policy. The OpenText SaaS solution will simplify management and support tasks and save time for our team. We have stringent requirements around cybersecurity, and OpenText Core complied with all our policies.”
Harnessing built-in APIs to update the content store
Initially, Loxam ran two pilot schemes using OpenText Core, before engaging OpenText Learning Services to lead a series of training sessions, including the User Adoption Strategy Development FasTrak to maximize adoption. After migrating data from the previous content management platform, the company went live on Core in France and Denmark and is now planning to roll out to more locations.
“OpenText Professional Services provided valuable support during the implementation,” said Aldeano. “The API capabilities of OpenText Core are excellent and made it easy for us to integrate the solution with our RentalMan ERP system. We now update our content store with new documents from multiple sources each day using the API integrations.”
Organizing content to help users find information
Today, more than 3,500 users at Loxam locations in France and Denmark are using OpenText Core to store and access documents—from workshop teams checking maintenance guides to office teams checking safety reports for customers. Within the OpenText solution, the company uses Business Workspaces to organize and link different types of content.
Aldeano continued, “We set up Business Workspaces for every equipment type and brand model, plus five million document subfolders. The OpenText solution makes it easy to locate related content, too. If a user is checking equipment technical specifications, they can quickly pull a commercial document to see how a specific brand model meets customer requirements.”
With OpenText Core, we will move towards paperless working, which will help to reduce our carbon footprint.
Results
With OpenText Core, Loxam is replacing slow, complex processes with streamlined document workflows—improving agility and enabling quicker, easier access to documents for internal teams and end customers.
Improved customer service and productivity
As the full deployment continues, OpenText Core is helping users at Loxam to upload and retrieve documents faster than ever. Where the previous content management system required users to browse across different pages to locate relevant items, the OpenText solution provides powerful search capabilities that help to increase productivity.
Aldeano noted, “We estimate that branches are saving 30 minutes per week in locations that have deployed OpenText Core, which they can spend on value-added work. Faster document retrieval enables us to offer more responsive service to customers, which will help to ensure we remain their number one choice for equipment rental. Internal stakeholders pull information quicker, too, which boosts our operational efficiency.”
Enhanced sustainability with paperless workflows
Loxam is also taking steps towards achieving its environmental sustainability goals. Over the next 12 months, the company is aiming to digitize two million customer contracts, as well as other documents, which will save space in offices and branches and deliver valuable cost-savings on paper and print supplies.
“Previously, our offices and workshops were filled with paper, whether it was equipment manuals or spare parts catalogs,” added Aldeano. “With OpenText Core, we will move towards paperless working, which will help to reduce our carbon footprint.”
Increased revenues with faster equipment servicing
Loxam is also planning to use OpenText Core to offer customers online access to documentation, including contracts, quotes, and safety reports. The company has also begun to explore using the OpenText Core mobile app to enhance its maintenance and repair processes.
Aldeano concluded, “We have started to give technicians tablets with the app pre-loaded, which allows them to access manuals, make repairs, and order spare parts there and then while in a branch or out on a job site. This will enable us to get equipment back in working order and ready for rental again as quickly as possible, helping to drive higher revenues.”
