CASE STUDY
Documentation of
an application
revamping program

XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
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Activating in 44 countries with more than 125,000 employees, Capgemini is one of the world's
foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. Together with its clients,
Capgemini designs and implements business and technology solutions, which meet their needs
and bring them the results they are expecting.
Very multicultural, Capgemini claims its own working style, the "Collaborative Business Experience" and
relies on a worldwide production mode, the « Rightshore® » which brings together the best talents
in the world, to make them work together as a single team on a project.
Capgemini Financial Services brings deep industry experience, innovative service offerings and next
generation global delivery to serve the financial service industry. With a network of 21,000 professionals
serving over 900 clients worldwide, Capgemini collaborates with leading banks, insurers and capital
market companies delivering business and IT solutions that create tangible value and results.
Context and Stakes
Concerning the IT projects, the documentation management, especially specifications, lead to recurring
organizational problems. Access to the right information for the right version is crucial in order to be
able to deliver the project on time and at the expected quality. This is especially true for large projects
(more than 100 Capgemini consultants) in "Rightshore ®" mode (i.e. France / India).
The use of numerous independent Microsoft Office files creates consistency problems and generally
slows down the access to information. Having the documentation in Web mode allows for an efficient
structuring, an easy access to the current version from any site and a quick search and navigation
across all specifications.
Sector: consulting, technology
and outsourcing services
Need: documentation tool for
a revamping project
Solution: documentation
Product: XWiki Enterprise
“I strongly recommend XWiki as a tool to manage
documentation for a large project. XWiki is stable and we have
been using it intensively for more than one year without
encountering any particular issues. We've also been able to make
it evolve in terms of configuration and adapt it to the
modifications in our production process (adding fields within the
pages, modifications in the structure, adding new reports etc.)”
(Pierre-Emmanuel Gros, Senior Engagement Manager,
Capgemini, FS GBU France)

XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
3
Capgemini had already implemented wikis on small projects to ease the collaboration between the
teams (communication, development guides/test/deployment, sharing best practices...). On some
smaller projects, Capgemini had already successfully tested management specifications, i.e. for interface
contracts.
As part of this project - an ambitious application renovation project- Capgemini conducted a
benchmark of all the wiki solutions available. It searched for the best wiki that would allow the
management of an "industrial" and large volume of pages, while offering good scalability.
A prototype built with XWiki was created internally and shown to the final customer, who validated
the tool.
Needs and Constraints
At program launch, Capgemini wanted:
 a quick deployment of their documentation wiki site
 the integration of some special navigation features
 the ability to manage a large volume of pages (approximately 30,000 pages)
 the documentation wiki structuration
 the configuration of some standard page templates
Among the differentiating criteria was a dynamic page template management, the ability to easily
implement/use specific navigation links, the easy implementation of the pages creation monitoring
reports.
The XWiki Solution
At launch, XWiki SAS implemented the website structure, the expected page templates, as well as the
special links between pages.
XWiki SAS also extended the initial base by implementing a new tree view, managing evolution
requests and developing overall management functionalities.
The two screenshots presented below represent custom page templates that XWiki SAS created for
Capgemini:

XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
4

XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
5
A real success
Today, there is only a single wiki version shared between the French and Indian teams. There are no
more version related problems, as was the case of the Word documents that Capgemini had to manage
in the past.
First results observed
We can notice:
 a better ability to work simultaneously on a single document base (up to 30 editors often
sharing the same pages)
 tracking facilitation for all pages (especially corrections in validation / recipe)
 reuse of the functional specification of application screens as online help
Testimonials
“Documentation management for IT projects (in particular the management of specifications) poses
recurring organizational problems. The use of documentation in web-mode, that is accessible in-
browser, brings more structure and allows easy access to the current/latest version whatever the
location. It also facilitates fast search and navigation.
I strongly recommend XWiki as a tool to manage documentation for a large project. XWiki is stable
and we have been using it intensively for more than one year without encountering any particular
issues. We've also been able to make it evolve in terms of configuration and adapt it to the
modifications in our production process (adding fields within the pages, modifications in the structure,
adding new reports etc.).
The strengths of XWiki Enterprise:
 the use of a structured database to store content and page templates.
 the ability to easily extend the "page templates" with macros for automatic application to all
pages .”