IBA is a company active in several technological fields, mainly that of particle accelerators: proton therapy for the treatment of cancer, production of radioisotopes for medical diagnostic purposes, and the use of radiation for industrial purposes (for example, sterilisation of medical devices). In this context, user manuals are crucial documents in several respects.
In 2021, we began a migration project to move from the platform used for managing our manuals to a new technological environment. The organic growth in the volume and complexity of our manuals (between 15,000 and 20,000 pages in total) could no longer be managed by the platform we have been using until now.
What were your reasons for deciding to work with Passwerk?
We very quickly identified the need for additional resources to support this migration.
We had already been introduced to Passwerk. We therefore went back to them because their services and skills seemed to be perfectly in line with our needs, and above all with the values supported by IBA.
IBA received B Corp certification in 2021. This is granted to companies that integrate social and environmental objectives into their business model and their operations. Working with Passwerk was initially a good opportunity to bring more inclusivity to our company.
We therefore began a collaboration with Passwerk, and Louise and Iris joined the documentation team in August of this year.
How did this collaboration happen?
It began with several interviews with our future collaborators' coaches, including highly didactic and pragmatic training on the human and practical approach to adopt with people with an autism spectrum profile.
This training was very useful in helping the team to prepare as well as possible for welcoming our future collaborators. This meant that we had to significantly improve our training materials and the explanatory guidance for the tasks that Louise and Iris would be required to perform. This took longer than expected, but it also had a positive impact on the progress of the project.
What was the role given to Iris and Louise?
Their role was initially to run migration scripts and verify that these were performing correctly. This is a task that cannot be automated, because the database forms are not the same. Each document has its own particular characteristics, and eventually the templates for the final documents had to be adapted accordingly.
We were very quickly able to observe the effectiveness of the two consultants, who worked with a speed and accuracy beyond our expectations.
How did Iris and Louise integrate into the team?
The integration into our team worked out perfectly, smoothly and positively.
Because they proved to be more efficient than we had anticipated, we continued the project with Iris only. Our team struggled to keep up the pace of support needed for Iris and Louise’s tasks, despite the fact that we had even increased the number of tasks that we could entrust to them on the project. This opened our eyes: what we initially thought was an opportunity to make our society more inclusive showed us the potential for making use of the strengths of Passwerk’s consultants.
After six months, we can observe Iris’s remarkable blossoming within the team. She spontaneously takes initiatives, suggests improvements in the migration process, and even takes the lead in planning meetings. In short, Iris is an integral part of the team, even going along to participate in ancillary activities related to the day-to-day work: team-building, after-work drinks, etc.
We plan to entrust her with more responsibilities in 2022, and to give her new tasks to perform in the context of the validation process for the new platform.
This collaboration experience with Passwerk is a complete success, and we will most certainly be able to reproduce it in other teams within IBA. We have no hesitation in recommending Passwerk's initiative to other companies.
Pierre Géruzet, Head of Documentation