The cosmetics industry leader embraces Low Code

Context

Our client is a French cosmetics company founded in 1909 and is now an international group and global leader in the cosmetics industry.

In 2022, the group generated €38 billion in revenue, representing nearly 20% growth compared to the previous year. The company employs close to 88,000 people worldwide and operates in 140 countries.

Challenges

Like many companies, the organization was impacted by the raw materials crisis, making supply management a strategic priority. In this context, the company aimed to develop a modern and innovative tool while improving existing processes.

The main objectives were:

• Improving the current process
• Migrating existing applications to Low-Code applications (targeting more than 80% of the group’s applications)
• Enabling Self-Service BI capabilities
• Implementing a fully integrated Power Platform solution

In collaboration with the client’s teams, a “full” Low Code / No Code approach was selected, notably leveraging Microsoft Power Platform and storing data in Microsoft Dataverse.

Solution and Methodology

The Talan team provided end-to-end support, from the build phase through to maintenance.

The solution architecture included:

• Power Apps for the front office
• Power BI for dashboards and reporting
• Power Automate / Microsoft Teams / Microsoft Graph API to generate Excel files
• Dataverse for data storage
• Azure Active Directory for access management and security
• Power Automate and DataFlows for workflows and daily updates from operational systems
• UX/UI support and guidance

Benefits

• Change management support for Self-Service BI adoption through Power BI, enabling users to create their own indicators autonomously
• Improved User Experience (UX) through redesigned and optimized screens, processes, and functionalities
• Ability to run allocation and troubleshooting simulations directly within the tool, eliminating reliance on Excel and manual re-entry processes, resulting in significant time savings for business teams
• Internal skills acquisition and capability development
• Deployment of a fully integrated Power Platform and Low-Code environment

KPI

The application has been deployed to more than 200 users worldwide. The user profiles include the central team responsible for raw materials management, plant managers, buyers, and a coordinator.