At a feedback conference during the Learning Technologies 2025 exhibition, Nawel BARISSOULE, HRIS Project Manager, and Hervé GEST, Head of Tools and Training Ecosystem Department at TotalEnergies Learning Solutions, presented their strategy for optimising user support on their training platform Lizzy (Cegid Talentsoft) with the Shortways assistant.
What was the project context and its challenges?
Hervé Gest: TotalEnergies Learning Solutions is a shared services centre that centralises training at an international level for the entire company. At the beginning of the project, between the deployment of Lizzy (Cegid Talentsoft) from 2019 to 2021, a significant change management and communication effort was made, with extensive support and training initiatives. Each business unit had a super key user, acting as a bridge with the change team, ensuring information was passed down to subsidiaries and companies while training all employees.
Initially, communication focused on how to use the tool. We maintained an ongoing communication strategy, but it was more about new features and product updates rather than the core functionalities we assumed were already acquired. However, the “key users” from 2021 have since changed roles, leading to a loss of knowledge over time due to internal mobility. Additionally, we did not anticipate evolving the tool as much as we have.
We are now working to address this knowledge gap, particularly with the help of the Shortways digital assistant and by implementing a long-term, structured support approach.
We have rebuilt an entire training programme dedicated to HR professionals to ensure that every new HR team member has a solid understanding of Lizzy and can, in turn, support their team.
This highlights the importance of continuous self-assessment.
As part of this, we conducted a satisfaction survey on the Lizzy platform in early 2023. The key takeaway was that employees used the platform only 3 to 4 times per year at most. This infrequent use resulted in employees feeling lost when they returned to the platform, as they had lost their familiarity with it. Despite our training efforts, they struggled to navigate the platform—searching for buttons, the catalogue, or how to register for courses. Our goal was to determine how best to support employees upon their return, avoiding the need to re-explain everything each time.
Another challenge was related to our shared SharePoint, where we stored practical guides and user manuals for every possible action on the platform. Often, users would download these files locally. Despite our efforts to update and maintain the latest versions on SharePoint, employees would rely on outdated local copies, thinking, “I have it saved already, so that’s enough.”
This is why we saw the digital assistant as a key retention solution among other initiatives (such as redeveloped job-specific training, e-learning, virtual classes, etc.). Each step-by-step guide is continuously updated and remains interactive in real-time. We can centralise all our change management and communication resources and adapt them as our platform evolves.
Why did you choose Shortways?
Hervé Gest: We opted for the Shortways solution after being introduced to it by consultants. At the time, we were unaware of the tool, but we quickly realised that it was already integrated with the Cegid Talentsoft platform.
Since it was functional, easy to implement, and met our needs, we wasted no time launching the project with Shortways.
In our ongoing efforts to challenge ourselves and strive for optimal performance, we considered an alternative solution—a chatbot. We ran a parallel AI project with a chatbot, but it was unsuccessful as the technology was not mature enough. For instance, if employees asked governance-related HR questions, even when provided with relevant documents, the AI might suggest HR policies that did not align with the company’s values or governance structure. Moreover, within TLS (TotalEnergies Learning Solutions), HR policy is not within our remit—that responsibility lies with the headquarters.
Nawel Barissoule:
Our users often mistake Shortways for a chatbot. We strive to change this perception, as it is crucial to explain the difference.
There is a prevailing trend towards AI integration, but in HR policy contexts, the limitations make it challenging. Shortways is a middle ground—it is neither an autonomous system lacking control over information (like the chatbot we tested), nor a fully interactive tool with a live agent. We control the information, write the help content, manage official documentation, and ensure it is accessible to employees in a self-service manner.
Hervé : A small anecdote from the project—throughout development, we debated:
1. Should we name the digital assistant?
2. Should we give it an image?
At the last moment, we decided to represent it as a robot, but we did not name it, thinking we already had too many (Lizzy, Lizzy Play, etc.). Ironically, users started calling it “Nono the Robot”, proving how much visual representation impacts perception.
Nous avons peut-être commis une erreur en mettant un robot parce que tout le monde pense que c’est un chatbot. Et c’est intéressant comme anecdote parce qu’il y a un vrai sujet d’image et de qu’est-ce que ça fait derrière ? This was perhaps a mistake, as it reinforced the misconception that it was a chatbot. It’s an interesting case study in branding—should we use an avatar or a human figure to signal that there is no AI behind it? In the end, our users still refer to it as “the chatbot/the little robot”, no, it’s not a robot…
What was the project scope?
Nawel : The Shortways project was implemented internationally. Our target audience included all 80,000 users of the training platform. To optimise support and manage project scope effectively, we divided it into two phases:
- Phase 1: Focused on the front office, for all employees.
- Phase 2 (upcoming): Will address the back-office for HR professionals, involving more complex tasks like managing training actions, user groups, and budgets.
What methodology did you use?
Nawel : We based our approach on all our existing practical guides and procedures, identifying the ten most frequently performed actions by employees, such as searching for a course in the catalogue, enrolling in training, or checking past training history. Our starting point was our knowledge of the tool and how it was used, and the questions we were often asked: ‘How do I register? Where can I find my history? Where can I find my document? Where is the catalogue?’… From the business and employees feedback, and from the cases where we were asked for the most assistance and support.
We’ve turned these practical guides into step-by-step guides within Shortways. We built them with the Shortways teams who worked with us, and we tested them.
We decided to launch a pilot project. We launched a pilot with 30 users from diverse profiles (general employees, HR staff, and managers responsible for teams or not). We gave them access to this sandbox environment so that they could test it for a few weeks. Each week, we sent out a Google Form to gather feedback—what they liked, what surprised them, and what they felt was missing.
This two-month pilot allowed us to adjust content, refine our offerings, identify things we hadn’t thought about, and ensure we were fully prepared for the platform’s production launch.
At the end of the pilot, we adjusted all our content and all the services we made available as we went along, and went into production.
We closely monitored feedback and leveraged Shortways’ reporting features to track usage trends, identify language preferences, and pinpoint the most searched keywords—helping us uncover unmet user needs.
By gradually enriching the assistant’s content over several months, we received positive user feedback confirming that they now understood how to use the digital assistant, and that it significantly improved their experience.
This has enabled us to support this sometimes rather specific population, who only come to the training tool once or twice a year, with live support, via step-by-step instructions on where to click: they let themselves be guided by the assistant.
We involved the branches in this pilot to get their support, so they could act as relays in terms of communication with their populations.
Why did you choose to start with the largest user population?
Nawel : We didn’t start with the largest group in terms of sheer volume of users but rather considered complexity.
The front office is the simplest part, as the actions performed by users are standard and relevant to everyone—every employee at least has a basic “collaborator” role, making their use cases relatively straightforward. We deliberately chose this simpler scope to test, get hands-on experience, familiarise ourselves with the Shortways digital assistant, and refine best practices (for example, ensuring step-by-step guides don’t have 50+ steps). This approach also allowed our users to adopt the tool naturally and integrate it into their daily workflow. Securing early buy-in was crucial, and it was very well received—which means we can now transition them more easily into a second, more advanced pilot phase.
Another key reason was to ease the burden on our support teams. Front-office actions are much simpler, meaning fewer complex support requests. We are currently in our Move to Run phase, where Phase 1 has moved out of project mode and into production. I’m now handing everything over to the RUN teams, who will continue maintaining and evolving the digital assistant for the front office autonomously.
The next step is Phase 2, which we’ll soon be launching as a new project. This phase will focus on back-office actions and be dedicated to our HR teams. This is where things get significantly more complex. Unlike front-office users who simply search for and enrol in training, HR teams will be building entire training programmes, managing target audiences, and handling associated costs. Processes will be more intricate, with multiple ways to complete a task, a vast amount of information to manage, and numerous configurations to test. Even for us as administrators, setting up step-by-step guides for these workflows will be much more demanding.
Can you share a Shortways use case?
Nawel : Beyond our traditional paper-based guides, we provide quick tips and short interactive videos focusing on specific topics. For instance, ahead of Annual Individual Appraisals, we released a Lizzy tip video explaining how to find relevant training programmes. We also created a Shortways digital assistant introduction video to give users an overview of its functionalities. This was embedded into a pop-up that automatically appeared upon their first login to Lizzy.
Communicating about the assistant in this way was highly appreciated by our employees. With just one click, they could watch a short explainer video saying: “Don’t be surprised. You may have noticed a new icon at the bottom of your screen—here’s what it does and how it can support you!”, and it’s really great.
This seamless and intuitive approach was a great success. Additionally, within the Shortways digital assistant itself, we made these tips easily accessible from any page on the platform. This has made navigation much more fluid and improved the overall user experience.
Step-by-step example from the Shortways Assistant in TotalEnergies’ training platform
Is Shortways easy to use?
Nawel : Getting to grips with Shortways is incredibly easy. The Shortways team guided us throughout the process, and we didn’t need to bring in additional internal resources to configure everything.
Thanks to their responsiveness and expert advice, implementation was straightforward and hassle-free. Initially, the team advised us: “For an optimal step-by-step guide, keep it to 7-10 steps—any longer, and it becomes overwhelming.” At first, we thought: “How will we fit everything into such a short guide?” But we quickly realised that longer guides became unreadable.
This kind of practical guidance was invaluable in helping us structure our content effectively.
The best part? If we receive feedback from users, we can immediately react and update content ourselves, without waiting for external intervention.
Our feedback is genuine—we love how Shortways has helped us. It delivers exactly what we wanted, and it works brilliantly.
Now, as we gear up for the more complex back-office phase, I’m rolling up my sleeves—I’m ready!
What are the key takeaways after 18 months? Have you found any unexpected uses?
Hervé : Shortways has also become a communication tool. We now use entry pop-ups for new announcements, which has proven highly effective internally.
But also as a support tool. We hadn’t anticipated it, but in reality, users are finding answers directly within the tool rather than reaching out to us. In a large organisation like ours, we have dedicated support functions available to assist employees. However, in smaller companies that may not have in-house consultants to handle tickets and queries, having a digital assistant proves to be particularly valuable. It acts as a support resource, helping users with questions like “Where can I find this?” or “How do I do this?”, providing immediate and accessible guidance.
Additionally, Shortways has unexpectedly served as a document management system, centralising all our communication materials in one place. Previously, videos, manuals, and guides were scattered across various SharePoints. Now, with Shortways supporting multiple formats, everything is centralised in one place. It’s much easier and more visible to find all the documents.
Shortways has ultimately enhanced user experience by simplifying tool adoption.
Do you think Shortways is just as useful for large corporations as it is for smaller businesses?
Nawel : Our experience can certainly apply to smaller companies as well because Shortways itself is a small structure. What truly made a difference in this project—allowing us to stay efficient and avoid wasting time—was the incredible responsiveness of the Shortways team.
On our end, things were moving fast, and at times we found ourselves stuck on certain points. But you were always quick to come up with ideas and solutions. We worked together on very specific aspects, sometimes refining targets or addressing elements that weren’t initially planned.
Whether it was our dedicated consultant or a member of the technical team, no one ever hesitated to tweak a line of code or adjust a configuration to ensure everything was exactly as we needed it.
Whenever we encountered minor bugs or roadblocks, the response was always swift. This high level of reactivity enabled us to drive the project forward, meet our requirements, and continuously refine our approach.
So, whether the company considering Shortways is a large corporation like ours or a small SME, it makes no difference—Shortways meets the needs of businesses of all sizes.
Hervé : And what can be interesting for a small organisation is that even we, as a large organisation, can’t always get the ball rolling on requests for development. Shortways complements SaaS platforms, helping organisations overcome limitations in existing tools.
Nawel : And a great illustration of this is a project we are currently working on together: a pop-up feature designed to meet a request from our Executive Committee to help identify whether a training course is mandatory for a specific job role. This was a limitation of our existing tool, and Shortways has been instrumental in helping us overcome it.
For the user, the process remains seamless and transparent, yet it addresses a need we couldn’t originally fulfil. This highlights the real value of Shortways as a complementary solution—enhancing functionality and expanding possibilities. And with so many ideas in mind, we’re excited to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible!
A big thank you to Nawel and Hervé for sharing their insights! See you next year once Phase 2 is launched for a data-driven follow-up!