During a feedback webinar with the Orange team, Magali THOMAS, Thomas POIRIER and Benoit LAMPURÉ shared their innovative approach to business ticketing in Oracle ERP Cloud, leveraging the Smart Ticketing solution co-developed with Shortways.
What is the context of the Oracle ERP Cloud project at Orange?
Benoit Lampuré: The objective and strategy of our department is to roll out Group-wide solutions across all our countries or geographies. That’s the case with our ERP, which we’ve been deploying across the Group since 2016.
To recap, we were one of the first customers to implement the Oracle Cloud solution back in 2016, with initial deployments in Belgium and Poland, and we quickly moved on to France.
France is a major project in terms of user volume and the transformations required. All SaaS migration projects are significant change management initiatives, but in France we had around 8,000 purchase requesters. So, we’re working on the Procurement, Purchasing, and Finance areas. Among these 8,000 requesters, there was a mixed population of professional and occasional users.
In addition, we have a shared services center for accounting with about 400 people, and a high volume of invoices to process, more than one million per year.
Overall, we needed to support all these teams not only with ongoing training, but also by regularly reinforcing best practices.
Given the scale of this project, the change required, and the number of users involved, we very quickly realized we needed a digital assistant. That’s why we deployed the Shortways solution directly within the standard ERP as early as 2017.
We gradually extended it to other solutions managed by the Finance Department with a web interface, such as our EPM solutions for Performance Management and the Group’s Consolidation solution.
How is Procurement Support organised at Orange?
The support system for Orange’s procurement users (prior to Smart Ticketing)
Thomas Poirier : Faced with thousands of users, some occasional, some professional (and grouped into support cells), we immediately set up a dedicated Procurement hotline team to be able to respond to their needs.
Before Smart Ticketing, we mainly used phone support, a channel our users greatly appreciated. We also had a generic email address which we later replaced with a form.
Our hotline is supported by other channels. First, there’s in-app help via Shortways, directly within the ERP.
Around that, we also provide training, both e-learning and in-person training (often delivered by members of the hotline team). We also have a communication setup for push emails.
We have a chatbot which we’re currently updating and enhancing with AI.
Finally, we maintain an intranet to collect and store all our updates, training materials, and support documents.
How has Procurement Support evolved?
The Evolution of Procurement Support at Orange
Magali Thomas : Historically, users could reach our support team in writing via the generic email address.
In June 2022, we decided to activate the support request feature included in the Shortways solution. At the time, two main reasons motivated this:
Firstly, it allowed users to send a message to the generic support mailbox while staying within the business application – already a real added value. It also enabled users to include a screenshot with a single click to enrich their query. The aim was to make the written channel more convenient and attractive.
During summer 2023, Shortways presented their new Smart Ticketing feature. At that point, the Procurement team had already launched a project to replace the generic email with a ticketing tool (in this case, Jira). This tool was implemented in September 2023. However, by the start of the new term, we decided to explore the possibility of implementing Smart Ticketing in addition to Jira, which led us to roll it out in June 2024, with full integration to Jira.
What were the motivations to activate Smart Ticketing?
Magali Thomas: The idea behind this activation was to keep the user within their business application when creating a ticket. Because in September 2023, when we implemented the ticketing tool (Jira), users had to go through a URL to create a ticket in that tool… meaning they had to leave their business application. Smart Ticketing, thanks to the Shortways Assistant, made it possible to create a ticket while staying within the ERP system.
The second reason was that Smart Ticketing offers a dedicated space to access the message history, which brings added comfort and a real benefit compared to checking the support team’s replies in an email inbox. Since these emails often land among hundreds of others, having a truly dedicated space in the Shortways Assistant for support replies is a significant improvement.
Finally, the third reason is that it enables our support team to receive higher-quality tickets. Smart Ticketing provides the ability to automatically capture data from the user’s screen, sparing them from having to enter all the information manually. And that was really the decisive argument. We were therefore able to implement the solution while remaining connected to the ticketing tool we had just rolled out.
How does it work within your application?
Screenshot of the Smart Ticketing form shown during the webinar, within Orange’s Oracle ERP Cloud environment
Magali Thomas : In this example, as a user, I’m going to submit a purchase request, and an error message will appear. I then want to contact my support team. To do this, I simply click on the Shortways Assistant on my screen, fill in the form, and with just one click, I can add a screenshot of the error message or even attach a file.
Once my request is sent, a summary appears on screen. What’s particularly useful is that data has been automatically captured from my screen and added to the ticket, which is then sent to the support team.
I can also share this request, for instance if I’m going on holiday and need to hand over the issue to a colleague.
The tool also allows me to access the history of my requests and review my previous tickets even before creating a new one, as I might find the answer to my question there.
In just a few clicks, I was able to create a ticket via Smart Ticketing, which was sent to the support teams. They handled my request using their Jira tool and responded, and I was able to view the messages and replies directly within the Assistant.
It’s worth noting that with every status update, whenever my colleagues process the ticket or reply to it, an email is sent to my inbox to notify me, prompting me to check my message history and view the response.
What were the steps involved in implementing Smart Ticketing?
Magali Thomas: The first step was to establish the connection between Smart Ticketing and our internal ticketing tool, Jira which we had already chosen. This required us to involve the technical teams responsible for Jira.
In parallel, we were able to start the second step, which involved the Procurement Solutions teams working on identifying the relevant use cases.
The form contains two dropdown menus with categories, so we needed to work on that aspect. In our case, this step was relatively quick as we had already completed this exercise when we implemented the Jira ticketing tool. We were able to reuse those same categories.
However, it was also one of the more time-consuming steps, as we had to ensure consistency between both interfaces. Whether users were in Smart Ticketing or on the Jira interface, they needed to see exactly the same form with the same fields to complete.
The third step, which took us the most time, was identifying the screens and data to be captured.
This was particularly complex because Smart Ticketing isn’t deployed across the entire Oracle Fusion solution, we decided to install it only within our Procurement scope.
We had to define which screens would feature the Smart Ticketing functionality and, for each screen, which pieces of data would be useful to capture when a ticket is created.
For example, a purchase order number, a supplier’s name, a contract number, and so on.
And of course, we then moved on to the testing phase, which was carried out in collaboration with our support team, followed by deployment.
We estimated the full process would take around six weeks. Steps 2 and 3 were spread over several months because, initially, the solution was co-developed with the Shortways team, so there was a bit of a lead time at the beginning.
We also had purely internal technical constraints around the installation.
So overall, we can estimate that this work can be completed in around six weeks, especially considering that in our context, we delivered it in both French and English, as our ERP users are logged in using both languages.
The first step was to establish the connection between Smart Ticketing and our internal ticketing tool, Jira which we had already chosen. This required us to involve the technical teams responsible for Jira.
In parallel, we were able to start the second step, which involved the Procurement Solutions teams working on identifying the relevant use cases.
The form contains two dropdown menus with categories, so we needed to work on that aspect. In our case, this step was relatively quick as we had already completed this exercise when we implemented the Jira ticketing tool. We were able to reuse those same categories.
However, it was also one of the more time-consuming steps, as we had to ensure consistency between both interfaces. Whether users were in Smart Ticketing or on the Jira interface, they needed to see exactly the same form with the same fields to complete.
The third step, which took us the most time, was identifying the screens and data to be captured.
This was particularly complex because Smart Ticketing isn’t deployed across the entire Oracle Fusion solution, we decided to install it only within our Procurement scope.
We had to define which screens would feature the Smart Ticketing functionality and, for each screen, which pieces of data would be useful to capture when a ticket is created.
For example, a purchase order number, a supplier’s name, a contract number, and so on.
And of course, we then moved on to the testing phase, which was carried out in collaboration with our support team, followed by deployment.
We estimated the full process would take around six weeks. Steps 2 and 3 were spread over several months because, initially, the solution was co-developed with the Shortways team, so there was a bit of a lead time at the beginning.
We also had purely internal technical constraints around the installation.
So overall, we can estimate that this work can be completed in around six weeks, especially considering that in our context, we delivered it in both French and English, as our ERP users are logged in using both languages.
Toan Nguyen: I’d also add that the value of this work, particularly thanks to the categorisation, is that it sets you on a virtuous cycle of ticket analysis.
Because beyond just managing tickets, the goal is also to shed light on the mass of tickets that come in. Categorising them gives us visibility into the types of problems encountered by support and the helpdesk, especially the most common issues.
Can you already share some figures on Smart Ticketing since June 2024?
Evolution of the number of tickets received per channel by Orange’s Purchasing hotline
Benoit Lampuré: For the time being, we’ve chosen to keep a telephone hotline in place, as it remains popular and still accounts for the majority of support tickets.
That said, this isn’t the long-term objective, the goal is clearly to shift towards fully digital channels. Although we haven’t yet officially communicated the end of the telephone hotline, we can already see that usage of the Shortways and Jira tools is steadily increasing.
Nonetheless, we need to keep communicating about these new tools. Even though the solution has been live since mid-2024, it’s still relatively new compared to the telephone support option, which has been in place for many years. Some users are understandably hesitant to change their habits.
So it also comes down to communication, reaching back out to users to present the full range of support channels now available. It’s a transition that is gaining traction month by month and will ultimately lead to a fully digital support model.
What qualitative feedback have you received?
Magali Thomas : From a user feedback, two key points were raised.
First, the improved accessibility to responses from the support hotline via a dedicated space. This was seen as a real benefit compared to receiving emails, which may end up mixed in with dozens or even hundreds of other messages, often filtered through rules or folders. Having a dedicated space makes it much easier to track and learn from past interactions.
Many of our users don’t use the tool regularly and may have raised a ticket months ago without remembering it. Now, by simply accessing their ticket history, they can quickly browse previous requests. For example, if an error message pops up again, chances are they’ve encountered it before and could already have the solution just by checking their past tickets, something they really appreciate.
Screenshot sharing also helps to contextualise both the issue and the response. The support team can include their own screenshots or additional materials that the user can view directly within the interface.
As for feedback from our hotline team, the promise we made when introducing Smart Ticketing, that it would lead to more qualitative, useful support tickets, has absolutely proven true.
Thanks to the automatic data capture, our teams gain a much clearer understanding of the issue. As we all know, when users describe problems in writing, messages can sometimes be incomplete or open to interpretation.
Having factual, contextual data at hand enables the hotline team to respond more effectively without the need for constant back-and-forth with the user. It’s a real time-saver and has significantly streamlined our support process.
Thank you Magali, Thomas and Benoit for sharing your feedback!
What’s next?
Smart Ticketing will allow us to build on the knowledge and content provided by the support team by offering users FAQs in the same category as their ticket, aiming to provide solutions before the ticket is even submitted.
The goal is to encourage users to explore more answers on their own, following a “self-help” / auto-resolution approach.
