Co-constructing a customized logistics solution for S.M.A. with BearingPoint and Kbrw

Context: meeting a specific logistical need in overseas France

The Service Militaire Adapté (SMA or Adapted Military Service) , which is part of the French Ministry of Overseas Territories and a key player in the training and professional integration of young people in the French overseas territories, relies on structured logistics to carry out its missions. Until now, the flow of goods and equipment had been managed using software developed in-house.

Faced with the decision to decommission this solution by the end of 2025, the SMA made the strategic choice of a dedicated solution adapted to its scale.

The SMA called on BearingPoint (a management and technology consulting firm) and Kbrw (a French software publisher specializing in the digitization of critical operations), to imagine, design and deploy a new Logistics Information System, christened ALIZÉS (Approvisionnement Logistique et Inventaires Zonés pour les Équipements du Soutien - Logistical Supply and Zoned Inventory Management for Support Equipment).

In particular, this involves :

Deploying a simple, easy-to-use tool to manage the inventories of its various regiments in a context of high user turnover linked to the Annual Mutation PLan, resulting in a loss of knowledge and best practices.
Guaranteeing the follow-up of equipment and material recipients and beneficiaries.
Ensuring traceability of inventories, in line with the requirements of transparency and accountability inherent in the management of public funds.

Operational collaboration and partnership

The ALIZÉS project is part of a close co-construction dynamic between Kbrw, the SMA command and equipment officers, BearingPoint experts and local RSMA (Régiments de Service Militaire Adapté, aka Regiments) referents.

While BearingPoint led the strategic definition and change management, Kbrw adapted its supply chain orchestration platform to the specific needs of the SMA and its users:

Frame and validate functional and technical requirements with key SMA users, drawing on BearingPoint's business and process knowledge and Kbrw's technical expertise;
Adopt an agile development approach fully involving key users and end-users to ensure that the solution developed matches field requirements, thus ensuring optimal appropriation and successful adoption of the tool by all users;
Ensure personalized support for key users, spread across territories and regiments, during the data recovery, training and testing phases, to facilitate adoption and keep the project on schedule. Right from the start, in-depth scoping workshops identified operational requirements, designed key workflows and validated the first functional models.

Key functionalities deployed for SMA :

To meet the needs identified in the field, we implemented 5 main functionalities in an agile deployment approach, in close collaboration with key users:

Operational dashboards: stock valuation, order tracking, distribution of items by RSMA.
Automated financial tracking: inventory valuation according to item condition (new or used), dynamic calculation after each operation.
Assisted inventories: generation of printable lists, assisted data entry, discrepancy management.
Integrated document management: automatic generation of administrative forms
Intelligent import of orders: analysis of Excel files, error detection, processing of substitution or surplus cases.

This participative approach ensured a perfect match between the delivered solution and the users' reality on the ground.

Designed as a pragmatic, modular solution, ALIZÉS enables RSMAs to :

Efficiently manage their inventories spread over several overseas territories, both locally and worldwide;
Track the movement of loaned, used or recycled items;
Ensure full traceability of goods distributed to beneficiaries (supported, companies, families, external);
Valuate inventories financially according to their status (new, used, refurbished) in real time;
Automatically generate the administrative documentation required for logistics follow-up.

ALIZÉS is designed to meet the specific logistical and operational requirements of the SMA:

Customized interface by role: equipment officers, warehousemen, accountants, CFOs, etc;
Complete asset lifecycle management: from purchase (central or local) to disposal, including loans, distributions and returns;
Rich, dynamic business repositories: items, stocks, beneficiaries, packages, locations, etc.

The objective is clear: to ensure that all new materials officers are trained directly on the new system, and thus usher in a new, more fluid, reliable and centralized logistics era.

Results and benefits

Full deployment in less than 6 months for all 8 SMA regiments (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Mayotte, Martinique, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Réunion) and the Périgueux Training Center;
Standardization of logistics practices within the various regiments, taking into account the coordination constraints linked to the geographical and temporal distance between the RSMAs and while retaining the flexibility required by their local specificities;
Successful general adoption of the tool by all regiments, with significant gains in time and ease of use;
A tool that is operational and mastered as soon as new equipment officers take up their duties;
Better visibility of logistics flows, inventories and asset values;
A controlled transition thanks to an adapted data transfer strategy (orders, stocks, repositories, beneficiaries).

Key success factors

Close collaboration between all SMA, Kbrw & BearingPoint stakeholders;
Strong involvement of users and the chain of command in the project;
Close proximity to users, including regular face-to-face meetings despite distance and time difference;
A solution that adapts to the specific features of each regiment and standardizes practices for better management throughout the SMA;
A collective adventure in the service of ever more agile and humane logistics.

Conclusion

Through this project, the ADM is embarking on a structural modernization of its logistics practices. Relying on Bearing Point's expertise and Kbrw's technology, the SMA is equipped with a finely-tuned, long-term tool designed to support the day-to-day operational challenges of its regiments around the world.