GroupeActive supports many self-employed people in their work, using key tools such as artificial intelligence.
To this end, the company has developed - in partnership with Witivio - an AI agent based on Microsoft Copilot Studio, to optimize the drafting of sales proposals, an essential step for experts.
The solution is proving its worth in the pilot phase: drawing up a sales proposal takes no more than two hours now, and the time taken to sign a contract has been divided by four.
GroupeActive is an SME with a staff of around ten, whose mission is to promote the development of VSEs and SMEs throughout France, by supporting independent professionals. CIOs, CFOs, HR managers, sales managers and supply chain directors: the company supports a network of 80 experts in launching and managing their businesses.
The aim is to provide them with a range of programs and tools, including AI, a technology that is set to transform their daily lives. Frédéric Barbier, General Manager, explains.
"Every day, we pool our individual intelligence with the collective intelligence of the network", observes Frédéric Barbier, "so why not use artificial intelligence to amplify the scope of our actions?". It all started there, when the SME became fully aware of the accelerating role that technology could play. "AI enables us to gain operational productivity, while anticipating the needs expressed by our experts and their customers".
It was against this backdrop that GroupeActive approached Witivio, the company's long-standing AI partner, and a specialist in deploying solutions for Microsoft Teams. "We've always operated in a Microsoft environment," he says, "so designing an AI project based on Witivio's expertise was an obvious choice."
“AI enables us to gain operational productivity, while anticipating the needs expressed by our experts and their customers.”
Frédéric Barbier, General Manager, GroupeActive
The aim is to imagine the tool that would be best suited to the field reality of GroupeActive experts and perfectly integrated into a known and mastered technological ecosystem. To this end, an ideation session orchestrated by Witivio helped gather the needs expressed by the community, outlining multiple use cases, one of which was identified as a priority: sales prospecting assistance.
"Our experts need to develop their business, and writing sales proposals is usually not their core activity. In fact, it's a major challenge," Frédéric Barbier emphasizes, not to mention the administrative burden inherent in the task.
Conversely AI, and more specifically AI agents, can provide the layer of intelligence needed to simplify this prospecting work. Through its "GAIA" program, dedicated to the design of AI-based tools, GroupeActive then entrusted Witivio with the development of an intelligent agent, tasked with supporting independent professionals in drawing up their sales proposals.
Known as "GAIA Propale", the agent was custom-designed using Microsoft Copilot Studio, and can be accessed via Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, according to the desired level of interaction. "All members can converse with this agent," explains Frédéric Barbier, adding that the solution can be activated at each key stage in the sales process.
Whether in a face-to-face meeting or via Microsoft Teams, the "GAIA Propale" AI agent works from the notes taken by the expert during the various customer meetings, and is trained to structure the data according to the SOFA model (Situation, Opinion, Future, Action). "By following a very precise methodology, the agent is able to draw up several chapters of a sales proposal, including elements linked to the prospect's context, needs and challenges, and does so extensively".
“Our members save an average of 75% on drafting time.”
Frédéric Barbier, General Manager, GroupeActive
Then, experts simply need to review and validate the chapters drafted by the agent, saving precious time, since a sales proposal can be drafted in two hours, compared with one day previously. In addition, the GroupeActive proofreading committee - whose task is to check the content of a sales proposal after it has been drafted by an independent - has reduced its turnaround time to just a few hours. "Our members save an average of 75% on drafting time," asserts Frédéric Barbier, "it allows them to concentrate more on defining their price and sales pitch. They are undoubtedly more efficient."
The conversion rate has also been boosted as the interval between proposal and contract signature is now divided by four. In other words, although GAIA Propale is still in the early stages of deployment, the solution is already proving revolutionary. "From now on, we can draw up a clear, relevant and personalized sales proposal in record time. This approach provides structure to our experts," enthuses Frédéric Barbier.
The system will be rolled out to the entire community in the coming months, as part of a dedicated training program designed to "maximize the agent's appropriation by teams, and therefore maximizing its effectiveness".
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