Engipedia - Knowledge management software (2016)

Company: Renault Group

Year: 2016

Location: Paris, France

When I joined the Renault Group as a project manager in 2014, I didn’t know a lot about the automotive industry. I knew the name of the major brands and models but that was about it.

During my first week, I remember attending my first meeting with an ex-colleague and the amount of both French and English acronyms, codes, and abbreviations was so overwhelming that I didn’t understand 95% of what we talked about. I started to write down everything, asking everyone in the team what was the meaning of specific acronyms and abbreviations and once I had a good understanding, I tried to find the source or a better explanation on the intranet.

A few months later, I learned that an Excel file had been created by some members of the team but the problem was that the file wasn’t stored on a central SharePoint but offline. Everyone who had the file was updating its own offline version and no one had the same, up to date, version which made no sense to me. I knew I could do better than that, for myself, the team, and the entire group.

One day, after searching for a specific acronym, I found an internal wiki - called Protopedia - that had been created by someone in the “Prototype” department which was great but the site lacked a lot of entries. I immediately started to add everything I had on my end. The site started to gain traction as it was well indexed by the intranet search engine which led the original creator of the tool to contact me to better understand why and how I was using Protopedia. I took the opportunity to ask my team members how they used the tool and what could be implemented to make it better and more user-friendly. I compiled their feedback, added mine, and presented the slides to Pascal Candau - General Manager of Renault Romania - who created the tool back when he worked in the prototype department from 2001 to 2008.

Impressed by my presentation, he set up a meeting with Denis Molle - Director of Engineering Information Systems - who was already convinced as he used the tool extensively when he started his new position in 2015. I was appointed Project Manager of this project and worked with developers in France and India on the new version of the tool, implementing everything I suggested in my presentation. Right after its launch, the tool - renamed Engipedia - became Renault’s internal knowledge management software and is now used every day by thousands of employees around the world.

• Project size: 4 people (France / India)
• Project length: 10 months