1. Innovation in Building Materials:
Implementing a collaborative
intelligence platform in India using
Digimind
Carla Monfray – Lafarge
Nelly Gillibert - Digimind
II SDV Nice – 14 April 2014

2. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
Agenda
Lafarge profile
Lafarge Construction Developments Labs
Digimind
Collaborative intelligence project with CDL India

3. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
Lafarge profile
World leader in building materials
Major player in the cement,
aggregates and concrete industries
We contribute to the construction of
cities throughout the world with
innovative solutions, providing cities
with more housing, and making them
more compact, more durable, more
beautiful and better connected.
Operating in 64 countries
65 000 employees
€15.8 billion annual sales
1 570 production sites
Listed on the Paris Stock Exchange

4. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
A powerful worldwide R&D
Budget: 120+ million euros in 2012
No.1 world research center for construction materials
and a network of Construction Development Labs (CDL)
A network of 1 000 dedicated staff
Lyon
Vienna
Chongqing
Mumbai
Algeria
Rio de Janeiro Kuala Lumpur
Montreal
Houston
BeijingToronto
Cairo
+50 concrete labs located in most of our countries
1 world research center
3 Technical Centers with some relays in 6 countries
4 Construction Development Labs (>10 by 2015)
3 news Construction Development Labs under construction

5. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
Directly linked to the Research Center & Corporate
Innovation
Located near Lyon, nearby the Research Center
Internal scope of clients: Research Center; Corporate
Innovation Segments, Excom, Countries, Technical
Centers
A team from 8 to 12 people managed by Nathalie Gautier-Hamel
To seek out and exploit all external information that might have an impact on
the Group’s products, technologies and future innovations.
To manage documentation and information technologies to support researchers
and monitoring team.
Technology & Competitive Intelligence Dept.

6. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
Construction Development Labs: Innovation to
our customers
Experiment with in-house innovative materials, products &
systems within the framework of a system-performance
evaluation
Benchmark and analyze the performances of new and existing
construction systems as well as innovative alternative solutions
from competitors
Show that innovative materials, products & systems developed
by us meet design expectations and could ultimately obtain
jobsite/market acceptance
Create innovative system solutions for sustainable
construction
The ambition while building CDL organizations is to bring innovation closer to
markets, accelerate and innovate locally by developing products & systems for
construction.
This ambition is organized around 4 main missions:

7. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
Construction Development Lab in India
Listening to the needs of local construction players
Focus on effective partnerships with local
construction players. That's one reason why
Mumbai was selected to house the CDL: architects,
property developers, construction companies,
consultants and academics are notably active.
India a high potential market
India showcases considerable housing and
infrastructure needs, and could become the world's
third largest construction market by 2018.
Inaugurated in March 2012, in Mumbai, with a team of around 20 researchers,
to develop innovative cement and concrete products, to design building
solutions and systems adapted to the emerging Indian market.
A cross-business line development center
The CDL gathers researchers profiles with specific
competencies in architecture, structural engineering,
precasting, etc.

8. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
Digimind at a glance
N°1
LEADERLEADER
$10M
TURNOVERTURNOVER
40
R&D
PEOPLE
R&D
PEOPLE
95%
Customer
satisfaction
100
EMPLOYEES
199815 YEARS
EXPERIENC
E
15 YEARS
EXPERIENCE
Boston
Paris
Rabat
Grenoble
Amsterdam
Singapore
Beijing – Shenzhen
Digimind Office Digimind Resellers
Berlin
London

9. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
Customers’ cases
R&D
Type of project :
Technologies and
competitors
portfolios
Project size :
500 users
Type of project :
Competitors
monitoring
Project size :
15 countries
2000 end users
Technology & CI
Type of project :
Technologies and
competitors
portfolios
Project size :
25 users
2 countries
Marketing
Type of project :
Competitors
Products
Project size :
500 Sales people
Strategy

10. © Lafarge 2014 – All rights reserved *
Collaborative intelligence
Do you have concerns regarding
collaboration?
1) Do you struggle to get
information from people within
your organization?
2) Does your intelligence
organization involves several
business units or countries ?
Consequences :
- Heightened quality and
organization of intelligence at every
stage of the process
-Time saved
-Immediate increase in productivity
for intelligence professionals.
- Personnel are more motivated.
- Analyses are more comprehensive
and reliable.
- More intelligence projects can be
launched.

11. Collaborative Intelligence project CDL India
Project objectives
Technological watch to identify innovating building methods & green
building initiatives
Global watch on construction market in India
Competitive Watch on construction chain actors (cement/RMX
concrete players; industrial costumers; developers; contractors buildings &
infrastructures; architects)
Monthly newsletter to the Lafarge India Executive Committee
Project Organisation
Team: 5 people, 3 from Technology & Competitive Intelligence Dept., 2
people from CDL India (project sponsor and an architect)
Duration: 3 months
Key sucess factors:
Dedicated resources
Weekly exchange by video conference

12. Your Title Here
Step 1: Scope definition
Step 2: Building your dashboards
Step 3: Fine tuning
Step 4: Training
Step 5: Functional Support / Q&A
…in 5 steps
PAGE 12
Digimind Project steps

13. 1
3
CDL India: Project steps
Scope definition
Objectives
Geographical & language perimeter
Intelligence topics to be surveyed
Building your dashboards: For each Intelligence topic
Type of information required
Sources : definition of agents to be set up
Keywords
Geographical & language perimeter
Fine tuning: Deliverables & their structure
Newsletter
Shared dashboard
Training sessions
Introduction to Digimind : 2 days
Project management & functional support
Regular project meetings

14. 1
4
CDL India: Sourcing
7 agents: approximately 2170 sources are monitored daily !

15. 1
5
CDL India: Keywords & Queries
General terms about construction + Technologic building terms +
Indian cities

16. CDL India : newsletter structure
1
6
10/12/2013 |
- Construction of Infrastructure in
India
- Regional development in India
- Developers trends in India
- Architectural trends in India
- Affordable housing in India
- Cement, RMX & aggregate
players in India
- Building materials, products &
systems in India
- Green technologies in
construction industry in India
- Innovative ideas & researches

17. CDL India : graphical visualisation
1
7
10/12/2013 |
A
B
C

18. CDL India : Lessons learned
1
8
10/12/2013 |
Critical aspects
Allocated resources from the client, in particular when foreign
languages are concerned (Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, etc.)
Project planning to be managed jointly
Regular Follow up of the project and client activities up to the first
deliverable
Tuning information period should not be neglected
Recommendations
Digimind technical terms: to be simplified to the client
Sourcing: privilege quality sources instead of quantity
Queries: render them as simple as possible!
Agents & Lists: take into account data visualization needs when
creating them
Tuning phase/Optimization: check information pertinence before
giving access to the client
Deliverable: assure that information flow corresponds to final
recipients expectations

19. Digimind & Collaborative Intelligence: advantages
1
9
10/12/2013 |
Development of project management skills at the Technology & Competitive
Intelligence Dept.
The client acquires a broader vision of the potential of Competitive Intelligence
as he is exposed to different types of information and working tools
R.O.I.POWERFUL AUTONOMY FLEXIBILITY
The most
comprehensive suite
of features integrated
into one single
platform
Save time on all low
value tasks:
Data collection
Data structuration
Deliverables creation
and dissemination
Add your own topics
by yourself, never
depend on anyone to
expand your
coverage
From 1 user in 1
department to global
organisations
throughout the world
R.O.I.POWERFUL

20. Thank you
Questions ?
Carla.monfray@lafarge.com
+33 (0)4 74 82 82 74
Nelly.gilibert@digimind.com
+ 33 (0)4 76 70 67 05