The same approach since 2015, with AI added to the toolbox
Alcyona supported SMEs through their digitalisation before applying the same method to AI and automation. What we know how to do has not changed: understand a business, design the solution that fits it, put it in place and make sure it is adopted.
What the field taught us
In the mid-2010s, many companies still worked with office files that were rarely shared, exchanged by email or dropped on a server with rudimentary access rights. The only databases in use were often those of the accounting software, its quoting and invoicing module and sometimes an intranet. Online business software was only just arriving.
Alcyona supported these companies end to end: audit of needs, workflows, procedures and data flows; presentation to the management board; solution design; development of a dedicated web application or installation and adaptation of a standard package such as Odoo; on-site deployment; change management and adjustments over several months based on user feedback; then ongoing follow-up and advice, including new modules when a new need appeared.
The value came as much from the audit and analysis as from the build and the support. A reusable application base made it possible to build a new application quickly for a new company, because needs were similar from one SME to the next.
This activity broadened to information system audits and consulting, then, when the GDPR arrived, to an outsourced data protection officer service run with a network of specialists. The rules for data use we now set in every project come from there.
What has changed, and what has not
General-purpose online software then covered a large part of these needs, at a cost no dedicated application could match. Today every company is digitalised in one way or another. The question is no longer how to computerise a process, but how to make tools, data and, now, AI work together.
The approach itself has stayed the same: start from work situations, decide where a change brings a real gain, design a complete system, put it in place and support the teams until it is adopted. AI and automation are added to the toolbox. The goal is still to improve the company’s productivity, products and services.
Large companies have their integrators and consultancies, and the AI offers designed for them are not sized for an SME. That is where we work: at the scale of the company, its tools and its teams, with scopes and budgets that fit it.
What we have built
Without naming our clients, here is the kind of system we have designed and delivered, with the real orders of magnitude of the time.
Retail
Multilingual online shop for a cosmetics laboratory, with stock management, several hundred products and international payment.
Healthcare
Platform hosting several hundred thousand websites of healthcare professionals with its search engine; platform of medical applications running in a browser, on tablet and on mobile; internal applications of an e-health start-up, including an internal messaging system.
Consulting
Specialised web ERP running all the processes of an international consulting firm; website of a management consultancy.
Employment
Job-support platform for an institutional client: four connected applications (candidates, employers, management, coaching) used by around a hundred advisers in some thirty agencies.
Industry and engineering
Web and mobile task management tool for a team of engineers cooperating internationally; sourcing and industrial purchasing platform for production launches, following an internal IT audit.
R&D and investment
Internal web ERP, web presence and hosting of an R&D and investment company.
These projects belong to digitalisation, not to AI. They show what we now apply to AI and automation: understanding a business and delivering a complete system that its users adopt.
Why entrust us with a project
We support leaders and their teams with the rigour they expect, and with respect and a real wish to see them succeed.
- 01
A proven end-to-end method
From audit to adoption, we have already run the full cycle: understand, design, build, deploy, adjust, follow up.
- 02
Knowledge of SMEs and their software
Accounting and sales management, business tools, data scattered across email, spreadsheets and shared folders: we start from what exists.
- 03
A design that connects what you have
Integrations, automation and adaptations rather than a pile of tools; AI only where it brings a real gain.
- 04
Support all the way to everyday use
Training by work situation, rules of use, adjustments based on team feedback and indicators tracked over time.
Why work with us
- 01
Qualified needs
We arrive with a business analysis, a scope and success criteria: you work on a real need, not an intention.
- 02
A complete design
The system is designed as a whole; your contribution has a defined place in it, with written responsibilities.
- 03
A client relationship we maintain
The client knows who is involved and on what. We never commit your name without your agreement, and we keep the relationship going over time.
Why we do not name our clients
Most of our work is done under non-disclosure agreements and with full discretion. We do not name our clients without their agreement, and most of our recent work cannot be named: the improvement in their operations, products or image belongs to them, and we do not want to weaken their credibility by exposing what they had to improve.
As a matter of principle, our clients keep the intellectual property of the work specific to them and of the source code produced for them. Our internal toolbox remains ours; it is licensed to them perpetually for the internal uses agreed during our engagement.
This is also why this site publishes neither named references nor figures for gains: what we state describes our method, our experience and the kind of systems we have built, not promises. Gains are measured in your company, against indicators defined together.
What we commit to
In place of named references, proof by method: eight commitments you can check from the first project.
- 01
A decision at each step
Continue, adjust or stop: you decide at the end of each step, on concrete deliverables.
- 02
The simplest option first
If a simpler process or conventional automation is enough, that is what we recommend, AI or not.
- 03
No gain promised before it is measured
Indicators are defined before go-live and tracked in your company, over time.
- 04
Written rules of use before go-live
Data used, access, retention, human review: nothing runs without these rules.
- 05
No proprietary platform
We assemble existing AI and tools; we sell neither a model nor a subscription of our own.
- 06
Your tools first
The solution builds on your software and data; we add nothing that does not really connect to them.
- 07
Transparency about who is involved
You know which skills are involved and on what, project by project.
- 08
Discretion and ownership of your work
Non-disclosure agreement, clients never named without consent, intellectual property of specific work and source code left to the client.
Let’s talk about your priorities
A first conversation of 30 minutes to an hour, by video call, to understand your situation and tell you whether we can help.