Partena professional: Entrepreneurship with entrepreneurs, and with Merak
15-03-2018 - in Merak
For the last 80 years, Partena Professional has been helping some 65,000 companies and 170,000 self-employed people with their staff policy and entrepreneurship.
The company was founded after the merger of the social groups Assubel and De Familie with HDP.
The intention is to operate a network of more than 30 sites nationally.
The transition took place five years ago and called for a partner to modernise the archive system.
Before the merger in 2012, each company had its own storage space in Jette and Erembodegem.
Each with its own specific classifications and reference standards.
At the end of the lease contract for the storage space in Jette, other solutions had to be sought.
Jean-Michel Daneau, Procurement & Facilities Director at Partena Professional: “Every internal archiving service worked in its own way, making us highly dependent on their knowledge.
This sometimes caused problems when certain people were not present.
We also had to work with files with identical numbers, which increased the risk of errors."
From dedicated in-house service to complete outsourcing
“We could have centralised the archives of Partena in a common storage room, but there were too many restrictions.
We visited several sites, but they did not meet our expectations, both in terms of cost and space.
They were either too big or too high for our needs.
We therefore chose to entrust the outsourcing of our archives to Merak.
They proved to be the best partner on the market for us,” says Jean-Michel Daneau.
Partena Professional saw above all a plus in Merak's overall approach.
“The indexing and classification of archives is a separate subject,” Daneau continues.
“Thanks to the professionals at Merak, we reduced both stocking and staff costs.
We were also able to increase safety, both in terms of file access and confidentiality, as well as in terms of their preservation and protection against fire and water damage."
Jean-Michel Daneau confirms the success of the move from Jette (Brussels) to a Merak storage facility.
“The Merak team took over the project from us, from A to Z.
And that in a very smooth way.
This move went ahead without any file being lost.
And there have been dozens of journeys with archives and thousands of files."
A close collaboration to meet a variety of regulatory requirements
Belgium has a number of inspectorates: RSZ for the social secretariat, FAMIFED for child benefits, RSVZ for the social insurance of self-employed persons…
Each agency requires different storage periods and therefore also a demanding management system.
“With Merak, it is perfectly possible to set an automatic date of destruction for files, for example for archives that need not be kept for life.
This automatic destruction saves us space and reduces the amount of manual work.
And therefore cuts costs.
The same authorities also regularly request evidence of customer data.
This process is much smoother today.
“With the management system for physical archives, we can recall files every week, or even more often, and send them to our headquarters or to the various agencies.”
The last major advantage is that the management system gives access by authorisation level.
This guarantees not only confidential treatment and the security of each file, but also compliance with the GDPR.
After the transfer of the warehouse in Jette, now it is the turn of the warehouse in Erembodegem.
This will be completed by the end of this year, which will enable the 1,500 employees of Partena Professional in Belgium to work even more efficiently.
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