Camille Wanty (BEVOLTA): "Integrating complexity to offer simplicity"

Software engineer formerly at Merrill Lynch and Morning Star, the co-founder of BEVOLTA translates the expertise gained in finance into the Supply Chain optimization solution. His specialty : producing simplicity from complex data.

The challenge : enabling companies to forecast and adapt to market demand in a volatile context, to know what they should produce or purchase in the short term.

“ What I wanted to do with BEVOLTA was to extract hyper-clear data on the management and optimization of stocks and supplies within the company. This simplicity had to be the entry point, especially in an increasingly complex and fluctuating context .”

The one who has been operating behind the scenes for 8 years with his team of developers shares here 5 keys to the success of the BEVOLTA platform.

#1 Customer Experience & Ergonomics

When you are passionate about design, experience, and usability, you love to put yourself in the user's shoes to understand how they will appropriate the tool, anticipate their needs, and provide them with concrete solutions. This creative freedom and the ability to choose among the latest innovations that seemed most relevant to the user is a point that distinguishes BEVOLTA from most software vendors.

However, let’s recall this essential point : a tool must certainly be effective, but one must also want to use it ! Moreover, an ergonomic tool is primarily an effective tool.

As for AI, why not, but any innovation, whatever it may be, must primarily improve users' daily lives. This is precisely what the 5 tools of the BEVOLTA platform offer in their enhanced version (presented at the Supply Chain Event).

#2 Integrating Complexity

Since the creation of BEVOLTA in 2015, the focus has been on designing a simple tool. It may seem a bit cliché, yet it’s complex !

This involves integrating complexity to highlight only what is relevant to the user. We must identify what constitutes a priority for them so that they do not always have to make the effort to distinguish what is important from what is less so.

Take the example of planning calculations : instead of displaying all raw data, we only highlight priorities and exceptions so that the user can focus on urgent matters, visualize priority levels, and adjust them. This is one of our specificities; we rely on our users’ knowledge to enhance their ability to make better decisions and deliver high-value analyses.

In practical terms, the user just has to validate or adjust according to their own rules; they no longer have to start an analysis from scratch as is the case with most traditional ERPs.

On BEVOLTA, business rules are integrated upstream, and priorities are presented visually; this is a huge plus.

#3 Responding to a Constant Need for Evolution

When we created BEVOLTA, we started from the observation: users have a constant need for evolution which we must address from the beginning so they can project themselves with the solution. It seems obvious, yet few solutions offer this.

This explains why most IT managers hesitate to evolve their solution due to the cost it entails, considering it often involves external service providers, all with a lengthy process. Also, in practice, teams often tend to move away from a Solution to return to EXCEL and try to adapt to the changes in their profession.

To respond to this, we put scalability at the heart of our tools : we must be able to integrate changes at any time in the user's profession and guarantee that their future will be taken into account without having to go through an external provider.

This flexibility is a very strong need, particularly in a context of variable requirements.

I remember, for example, the solution we implemented for our client Nobodinoz (children's fashion brand) in 2016. Since then, the solution has considerably evolved as the client's business has scaled up, along with their needs which have significantly expanded.

#4 Combining Technology AND Service

BEVOLTA is not just technology. It is also a support service for the company in its development. This notion is absolutely key in a complex BtoB environment like ours. The service conditions the performance of the solution and maximizes its potential usage by users.

At BEVOLTA, the tools are configured according to the business rules of each client, with setup done in conjunction with the support team; this is an integral part of the service. All developments are “ in-house ”, and we remain the client’s partner during the setup and throughout the life of the software.

#5 Enhancing Business Knowledge

Our great strength is having digitized business knowledge to systematize and ensure that knowledge is shared beyond the key person.

BEVOLTA's business expertise has been forged over 8 years of applied research with a wide range of clients. It has also been recently strengthened by a partnership with MGCM Academy – the leading organization in professional training in Supply Chain. This expertise is highly valued by clients as their challenges and needs evolve.

Thus, when their business knowledge is limited, as happens for new players experiencing rapid growth, we help them integrate into the configuration of their business rules things they may not have necessarily considered.