Federate the steering committee as an interim manager to transform the company

Before/After AirSaaS

Before the implementation of AirSaaS, the governance, the crisis resolution process and management by CADUCIEL were carried out through tools that every business once used: Excel and PowerPoint. The new strategic plan ideas were generated on post-its and consolidated on a slide. Thankfully, collection, processing and follow-up are now much simpler thanks to AirSaaS.

The context

Created in 1991, CADUCIEL offers IT services and digital solutions for pharmacies. CADUCIEL is a subsidiary of the CERP Rhin Rhône Méditerranée group, located near Besançon (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France).

The company CADUCIEL accompanies on a daily basis more than 300 pharmacies, whether they're independent or part of larger groups, in their digital transformation and the evolution of their business model.
Organization gathers 50 employees and a three million euros revenue in 2021.

Vincent POTEL joined the company as part of a turnaround problem as Interim CEO.

The job of interim manager consists in using an experienced executive to solve a problem: Interim steering committee, Project Management, Crisis Management (growth, restructuring, turnaround). Highly operational, Interim Managers provide operational and pragmatic solutions over a given period of time.

Taking on the challenge as interim CEO

Vincent made a triple managerial, technological and methodological transition. CADUCIEL has in fact revised its strategic and operational plan with Vincent's arrival, addressing four key challenges:

• The follow-up of innovation: An ambitious plan to relaunch and upgrade the company's pharmacy management software, to make it the reference solution in terms of pharmacy modernization.
  
  
• The financial challenge: When Vincent arrived, the company was making significant financial losses. In three months, the company reduced the loss projection by a third.
  
  
• The technical challenge: more than 300 CADUCIEL customers migrated in less than 18 months. They were all “replugged” with all connections: a technical achievement.
  
  
• The managerial challenge: A CEO arrived on Thursday, and an interim manager on Friday morning. The goal was to get the departments back on track.

The solution: AirSaaS accelerates the transition for corporate governance

Monitoring the transformation... with an adapted tool!

Intervening in a crisis context, speed was a key criterion for choosing the solution. “I was looking for a simple and easy-to-implement tool to monitor the transformation“ says Vincent POTEL.

AirSaaS has made it easier to take control of innovation management in the four defined areas of activity:

• The Pharmacy Management Software (LGO) and its marketplace
• Diversification
• Innovation: one of the subjects on which we have a strong ambition with Artificial Intelligence
• Setting up a team of experienced and multidisciplinary developers

In addition to managing transformation, simplifying reporting is key: ”I save hours of design” Vincent confides to us.

A tool that maximizes cooperation by “embedding” several services

”80% of crisis resolutions are human-related. The goal is to involve the teams in the success of the project” Vincent POTEL underlines. He tells us that he appreciates the fact that with AirSaaS ”Everyone has the ability to add information in the platform, and that this is done in more interactive way.”

An anecdote shared by Vincent reveals the natural adoption curve of a tool such as AirSaaS. At the start of his mission, the solution was not adopted by the company. It's from the individual use of the platform and the sharing he made of it with management that Airsaas' added value was perceived and recognized. Management is now using AirSaaS directly. ”We can only make progress on transformations when we have tech, finance and operations aligned with the steering committee” Vincent says.

A “business” tool for the interim manager

”An interim manager is both an architect and a mason” Vincent Potel explains ”We are there to solve problems and set up efficient business models”.

The business need is to be able to have a global and detailed vision. To better manage the project portfolio and the allocation of financial resources at the same time.

For the company, the use of this particular role makes it possible to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with internal career issues. Here, no future, no search for a permanent contract! On the contrary, the interim manager can focus on the problems.

“My job is to buy time. I save the shareholder time.” The reinforcement of an external interim manager is sometimes vital to get the company out of a dead-end. Vincent POTEL quotes Arnaud Marion “When you are hostage to a crisis, you cannot be the negotiator of this crisis.”.

Bonus section

Why is AirSaaS unique?

”Everyone has the ability to add plenty of information into the solution. It's a more interactive tool to truly engage teams, and to integrate several departments into the transition.”.

What's your favorite feature?

“The flash report: I press a button and the  PowerPoint reporting is generated! It saves me hours of design.“Vincent Potel tells us.

How do you calculate the ROI of AirSaaS?

”AirSaaS helped us overcome existing silos in the organization”. Even if Vincent POTEL points out that ”calculating a direct ROI is necessarily subjective, but the tool clearly made it easier for us to take control of management”.

In summary, for Vincent and his team, AirSaaS is a simple, intuitive and fast solution and he recommends its use.

Express Bio - Vincent POTEL

Certified interim manager from IFMT (Institut de Formation au Management de Transition), the IHEGC - Institut des Hautes Etudes en Gestion de Crise and a KEDGE executive MBA, Vincent POTEL has a strong background in the  management of Business Units (Financial, Sales and General Management). He officiates in industry, service and distribution, both in BtoB and BtoC, which helped acquire a global vision of the challenges of a company. Vincent is now Interim CEO.

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