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A key player in the property development market, Bouygues Immobilier is a company that signs contracts with a wide range of stakeholders. In particular, with customers, investors, partners, etc. Find out more about electronic signatures for construction.

While it may seem complex at first glance, this process is actually fast and fluid. In particular, it benefits from electronic signature. Here are the details.

An emblematic subsidiary of the eponymous group, Bouygues Immobilier is made up of 3 major divisions:

  • Housing: dedicated to the development and sale of residential properties in France for customers and investors,
  • Commercial real estate: offices and premises,
  • UrbanEra: urban planner, designing mixed-use, environmentally-friendly neighborhoods.

In 2021, the company recorded sales of €2,116 million. Of which 88% came from the housing business.

Optimizing real estate signature processes

Back in 2014, the company turned its attention to a particular process that was both time-consuming and inefficient. It had everything to gain from being dematerialized: the signing of contracts.

Bouygues Immobilier's core business is simple. It involves finding land; buying land; designing projects; building them; selling them; and providing after-sales service. All these steps generate a large number of contracts to be signed by customers, investors and partner companies. Until now, all this was done by hand.

Multiple electronically signed documents

In addition to contract management, Bouygues Immobilier had identified a paper-intensive process: signing contracts.

"In the vast majority of cases, we carry out our projects as separate trades. For one project, around twenty different trades will be involved. Structural contractors, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc. are all involved.

For each of these trades, we launch a consultation process to select the companies we're going to work with. We then get them to sign their contracts. Each contract is made up of a very voluminous common file and a market document specific to each company.

On one operation, if I piled up the papers, it would be the height of the Paris courthouse, i.e. 160 m high!" Abderrahmane Atmani, head of digital transformation at Bouygues Immobilier.

A solution combining agility and technical expertise

Aware of the cumbersome nature of these handwritten signature processes, the Bouygues Group subsidiary wanted to study the conditions for dematerializing them. However, it was not until 2016 that a call for tenders was issued. This was entirely dedicated to the dematerialization of contract signatures. On this occasion, several editors were consulted, and Lex Persona was finally chosen to support the company.

" I've rarely seen such an agile team, focused on its customers and ready to find appropriate solutions. The technical aspect was also very important. Works contracts can involve documents ranging from 500 MB to 4 GB. When we launched the consultation, we carried out a POC with Lex Persona to sign up to 10 GB of data.

This proved to us that the platform had particular capabilities and could handle the load " Abderrahmane Atmani, Bouygues Immobilier's Digital Transformation Manager.

Supporting the transition to electronic signatures at all levels

For Bouygues Immobilier, everything then accelerated. Work on the project to dematerialize the digital signature of contracts began in 2017. It went live the following year. Change management was also carried out internally, with the support of the e-signature publisher. electronic signature.

" Lex Persona provided training for our key users. In other words, one manager per region, who was then responsible for supporting our regional staff in the transition to electronic signatures. Right from the pilot, in June-July 2018, the feedback was very satisfactory." Abderrahmane Atmani, in Bouygues Immobilier's digital transformation department.

By 2019, 100% of contracts will be signed electronically . With security that is greatly appreciated by users.

The electronic initializer, the driving force behind Bouygues Immobilier's dematerialization project

Building on this initial experience, Bouygues Immobilier is pursuing its dematerialization initiatives. The company is also offering its architects the option of integrating electronic signatures. The reservation process (VEFA: Vente en l'Etat Futur d'Achèvement) is also dematerialized. This has accelerated the digitalization of Bouygues Immobilier, with the aim of achieving 88% of contracts signed electronically by 2021.

Since 2018, over 16,000 electronic initialers have been signed! And the trend seems to be accelerating. Particularly with the opening up of the signature service to cross-functional uses for all Bouygues Immobilier departments.

Concrete benefits that open up new perspectives

For Abderrahmane Atmani, the switch to electronic signatures is synonymous with numerous advantages. Saving space in all the company's branches; process optimization; improved customer and partner experience; ease of use; etc.

The Lex Persona solution also has a wide range of uses. It can be used to sign PDF documents as well as DWG files (AutoCad). Or even BIM (Building Information Modeling) formats.

" Other projects are underway, notably to digitalize our works processes." Abderrahmane Atmani, in Bouygues Immobilier's digital transformation department.

 

Want to go further? Find out how electronic signatures can be used in the real estate sector.