Case study
Alstom
Discover how Alstom uses Sinequa by Argonos to connect enterprise information, streamline engineering and sales processes, and achieve millions in estimated savings across complex transportation…
At a glance
The challenge
Alstom employees had to search across hundreds of applications and disconnected information sources to find the documents and data needed for complex, long-term transportation projects.
The approach
Alstom deployed Sinequa by Argonos to unify enterprise search and develop tailored applications for engineering, parts management, contracts, and sales.
The deployment
A Sinequa customer since 2017, Alstom expanded from enterprise-wide search of its management system to business-specific applications integrating structured and unstructured data.
The outcome
Estimated savings of $40 million in engineering and parts management and $6 million in sales proposal preparation, alongside a 5–10% reduction in time spent gathering and interpreting contract information.
Customer Overview
Alstom is a global leader in the transportation sector, offering a broad portfolio of high-speed trains, metros, monorails, trams, turnkey systems, services, infrastructure, signaling, and digital mobility solutions.
Its large-scale transportation projects can take decades to complete and involve extensive collaboration across engineering, operations, procurement, legal, and commercial teams. With more than 74,000 employees across 105 operations in 70 countries, supported by a supply chain that includes 40 tier-one companies, Alstom relies on access to technical and operational information throughout the project lifecycle.
Challenges
Alstom manages projects of exceptional scale and complexity, often spanning several decades. Employees and suppliers work with hundreds of applications, including OpenText/Documentum, SAP, IBM Notes, SharePoint, and Microsoft Office. These systems generate large volumes of technical documentation, contracts, operational records, and other business data stored across multiple environments.
With information distributed across disconnected sources, employees were spending as much time searching for relevant content as they were using it to support their work. Finding the right engineering specifications, identifying existing parts, accessing previous sales proposals, or reviewing contractual information could require navigating several systems.
Alstom needed a unified way to access information across its enterprise systems, while supporting the specific requirements of different business functions and making better use of existing data.
The Solution
Alstom has been a Sinequa customer since 2017. The platform was initially deployed as an enterprise search solution, enabling employees to access information from the Alstom Management System (AMS), the central repository for company policies and documentation.
Building on this foundation, Alstom introduced several business-specific applications as part of its digital transformation, including a parts finder, parts costing tools, contract management, and an engineering portal. The ability to tailor these applications to the needs of business users became a key differentiator.
Sinequa by Argonos brings together structured data, including extracts from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, with unstructured content from SharePoint, OpenText/Documentum, and CSV files.
By indexing information across these sources, the platform enables employees in both general and specialized roles to find and use relevant content through a unified search experience.
Why Sinequa by Argonos?
Unified enterprise search
Connect information across applications and repositories through a single search experience.
Business-specific applications
Support parts discovery, costing, engineering, contracts, and sales with tailored workflows.
Structured and unstructured data
Index PLM and ERP extracts alongside documents from SharePoint, OpenText/Documentum, and CSV files.
Knowledge reuse
Help teams find existing parts, technical knowledge, past proposals, and contract records.
Business Impact Across Key Functions
By connecting information across enterprise systems, Alstom has reported measurable benefits in engineering, sales proposal preparation, and contract management. The following results are company estimates.
Engineering & Parts Management
Alstom engineers and designers work with approximately 3 million parts. Access to existing parts information across the company and its supply chain helps teams avoid unnecessary manufacturing duplication and reduce design errors.
These improvements have generated an estimated $40 million in savings.
Sales & Proposal Development
Previously, limited access to RFP materials and sales information across countries meant proposals were often recreated rather than reused.
Sinequa by Argonos helps sales teams retrieve and reuse existing content, streamlining proposal preparation and generating an estimated $6 million in savings.
Legal & Contract Management
Better access to contracts and claims information helps legal teams and contract administrators locate, review, and interpret relevant documents more efficiently.
Alstom reports a 5–10% reduction in time spent gathering and interpreting this information.
What They Say
Sinequa’s Intelligent Search platform’s in-depth analysis provides Alstom’s employees with a thorough understanding of unstructured data, including the text from complex technical and normative documents. This allows greater efficiency and real-time savings for Alstom’s data scientists.
Tristan Le Masne
Vice President, Internal Audit & Internal Control at Alstom
