At a glance
La Poste replaced its on-demand crisis-management processes with an automated solution based on Microsoft products. It’s scalable, transparent, flexible, real-time and device-agnostic.
Outcomes
- Streamlined crisis management and business-continuity planning.
- Supports 10,000 managers of daily business continuity and crisis management, affecting 100,000 workers at 5,000 locations.
La Poste is a state-owned public limited company; a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts and the French State. Carbon-neutral since 2012, it delivers 17.9 billion items worldwide 6 days a week. The La Poste Group is committed to regional coverage with more than 17,000 retail outlets and 15,000 points of access to postal services. The Group is divided into five business units: Services-Mail-Parcels, La Poste Network, Digital Services, GeoPost and La Banque Postale.
Open to change
La Poste was using manual processes to share critical information such as emergency measures and business continuity plans throughout its organization. The organization was prepared, but this traditional top-down approach was entirely one-sided and inflexible. Management wanted to change that. Their vision was a more open and automated process that could add value by allowing information to be modified at each level of the hierarchy.
Bringing their vision to life required a system that could:
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- Unite local branch managers and executive management in a collaborative environment.
- Publish updatable models of business continuity plans for branches.
- Analyze reporting of branch updates.
- Allow new users at all levels.
- Open up communication with crisis unit and branch managers to consult on crises.
- Automate the existing manual process of sharing excel files through email.
Apps, automation and agile
La Poste worked with Atos to build and execute a proof of concept, which later became a solution based on key components of Microsoft Power Platform for business intelligence, app development and connectivity.
The solution includes Power Apps (specifically canvas app features) and Power Automate to design forms and automate their workflows. SharePoint stores all the documents related to emergency measures, procedures and strategies. A REST API handles scalable data transfer activities and Dataverse stores the activities.
The project team followed an agile approach to capture ideas and requirements in epics and stories. It took multiple sprints in multiple Power Apps environments during development and go-live.
The solution has simplified assignment of roles, permissions and user access to their regions’ websites only. The application can be consulted from a cell phone, tablet or computer. And it works in downgraded mode in the event of a cybersecurity crisis or internet outage. As a last resort, it is available in paper format.
When it matters most
With a single application, the users of La Poste – Post&Parcel – in charge of business continuity measures and crisis management can now have real-time access to the necessary information as well as to the emergency measures that have been previously defined. It also improves seamless access to the office for all authorized users on a computer or from a mobile device.
Users have easy access to information about the impacted sites, the risk levels to which they are subjected and a collection of responses that are already set up or that allow them to build in real time a solution to a problem that has not already been anticipated. Finally, the solution has a display of information relating to ongoing crises or allowing them to be anticipated.
Why Atos
Atos is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with core expertise in Power Services. Our Power Platform Centre of Excellence continuously adds innovations and IP such as in-house tools and accelerators to our capabilities. With more than 180 Power-Platform-certified experts around the world, we’re ready to help you leverage Power Platform and the entire Microsoft product stack to their full extent.
Related resources
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LinkedIn article
La Poste Group’s new crisis management and business continuity information system
By Thierry Lafon, Crisis Management Coordinator and Strategic Intelligence Analyst, La Poste