Stéphane Targé
Diagnostica Stago is one of the world leading companies in the field of blood research. It develops and manufactures reagents and analytical instruments. Today, 300 employees use the project management software Artologik ProjectManager, and the number of active users is to increase to 460 by the end of this year.
St‚phane Targ‚, project leader for new technologies at Diagnostica Stago, was the one finding Artologik ProjectManager while searching the Internet: "I immediately found the Artologik website when searching on Google. I think I wrote 'time management software' in the search field. Our goal was to find one single application that could combine all the needs of the company and also work together with the rest of our software." "We chose Artologik ProjectManager for its ergonomics. We also had a great contact with the sales team at Artisan". The fact that Artisan had a French speaking sales staff was a prerequisite to Diagnostica Stago. Their management was indeed sceptical about making business with a company that was not based in France. "Since the Artisan team was responding so well and so quick to all of our questions, and in French, it did not take much time before the doubts of our directors vanished - and the software is just brilliant!"
St‚phane points out the fact that he could test the application without stress. "I could test online with some example data and then get my own try site for registering my own projects, customers and members. I could involve the whole team without having to install anything at all on our own web server! It was the very first time I had been offered such a possibility, and I loved it!" Artologik ProjectManager is the first software Diagnostica Stago purchased on the Internet. They usually do business with companies located close to them that they have known for a while, or even companies they come across on fairs. This however was not a concern for St‚phane: "I like new things. I really am into looking towards new paths."
The fact that the two companies are so far away from each other could have limited the communication possibilities. Though, St‚phane feels he has had a very good relationship with Artisan. It is easy with e-mails, telephone and web-based support. St‚phane considers Artologik HelpDesk the perfect solution for customers. He and a colleague came for a visit to Sweden and Artisan visited Diagnostica in France, twice. ProjectManager is for now only used by the French part of Diagnostica Stago, and mostly by the Research and Development departments. Eventually, all sections in France will use ProjectManager and ultimately the American teams as well.
For now, Diagnostica Stago uses ProjectManager mainly for time registration, and is planning on extending its use to project management very soon. For the software to fully fit their specific needs, Diagnostica Stago ordered some custom-made functions entirely developed by the Artisan programmers and also set up a connection between their internal reporting system and Artologik ProjectManager. "We have already benefited from one set of adaptations which we installed in the summer 2007, and are currently waiting for some more new features we recently ordered. As far as I am concerned, nothing is missing at this time! Our users really like the software too and are regularly asking for even more advanced reports. ProjectManager fits perfectly the use Diagnostica Stago has for it."
Read more about Diagnostica Stago on www.stago.com