How VINCI Energies' IT support team built one source of truth across 110 spaces

The documentation existed. Finding it was the job.

VINCI Energies builds multi-technical solutions for energy, transport, communications and information systems across 61 countries. Its information systems department is 1,000 people responsible for the infrastructure, tools and support that keep the group running. For their IT support teams, finding the right answer quickly is not a convenience. It is the work.

The teams had already done the hard part and written their procedures down. The problem was where those procedures ended up.

• Five formats, no shared home. Word files, PowerPoint decks and OneNote notebooks, spread across SharePoint sites, Teams channels and Outlook folders.
• No way to tell what was still true. Without a single source or a consistent format, an agent could not know whether the page in front of them still reflected reality.
• Searching replaced resolving. Time that belonged to tickets went into hunting for information instead.
• Nothing to prioritise from. With no reporting on which procedures were actually used, there was no basis for deciding what to update first.

Eleven tools evaluated, one chosen, six steps to live

The team ran a proper selection: 11 tools evaluated, two finalists, hands-on testing with both. The ambition was set before the shortlist. One platform for all IT knowledge, 500-plus users, more than 1,000 articles, 100-plus dedicated spaces. Four capabilities decided it.

• Validity built into the article. Content creators attach expiration dates, with automated notifications when a review is due.
• Multi-language without the maintenance. With teams across dozens of countries, content lives in several languages and translates at the click of a button, so language stops being a barrier to finding an answer.
• A structure that matches the org chart. Each team has its own space, spaces are grouped by manager, and fine-grained rights keep some private without administrative overhead. Users contribute in their own space and read in the others, which holds quality without slowing anyone down.
• Tags and templates that surface knowledge on their own. Personalised tags feed smart tabs, widgets that group and present knowledge by topic rather than waiting to be searched.

What separated this rollout was the preparation. Before the platform opened, the team ran demonstrations, walked through the timeline, and held workshops to surface real usage needs. Only after several test sessions did it go live, which is why adoption was broad from day one: the people who would use it had already shaped it.

The success of a knowledge base depends mainly on the involvement of the staff, who have to write, correct and update articles on a very regular basis. So we needed a tool that was dynamic, user-friendly and easy to use. Elium meets these criteria perfectly!

Trusted enough to be used daily

The platform passed every target it was set: more than 1,000 active users, over 4,000 articles, and 110 spaces across the department's key topics.

Beyond the counts, the team reports a measurable improvement in efficiency and renewed confidence in the quality of the support they deliver. The knowledge base became something agents use rather than work around, which is the only measure that matters for documentation.

A dedicated community space keeps that going, where users learn about the platform, share practice and get help from peers rather than from a helpdesk.

The team has not stopped. Workshops with Elium are deepening the integration with the wider technology ecosystem, and a full satisfaction survey is already shaping the next phase.

For a support team, out-of-date documentation is not an inconvenience. It is bad advice given confidently, and an expiry date on every article is what stopped it.