Customer Story – Simplifying and Securing Attendance Tracking for a Major Industrial Group

Context

This industrial group trains between 20,000 and 25,000 employees each year, in France as well as internationally. Attendance tracking was previously managed using paper sign-in sheets followed by manual data entry, a process that was particularly heavy given the scale. Training teams had to handle a significant administrative workload, and retrieving evidence for audits or funding purposes became highly time-consuming, sometimes described as a “mission impossible”.

In the context of an internal transformation — increased digitalization, the creation of a shared services center, and the rollout of Workday — the company launched, through a formal tender process, a search for a solution dedicated to the digitalization of attendance tracking.

Challenges

The objective was to secure signatures and simplify a process that had become difficult to sustain at scale. The client also expected more reliable traceability and an automatic link with the master system, Workday.
The key priorities identified included:

• legal compliance and the non-repudiation of signatures,

• reducing the administrative burden related to attendance management,

• the ability to quickly retrieve evidence for audits (Qualiopi) or funding requests,

• the automatic feeding of signature records and skills histories into Workday.

Why SoWeSign?

The client selected SoWeSign for three main reasons: the use of a trusted third party guaranteeing tamper-proof signatures, the ability to co-build solutions with the teams, and the essential integration with Workday. The partnership has strengthened over time as the solution evolved into a Corporate version suited to the needs of a large industrial group.

Benefits

Before digitalization, some teams spent up to a full day per week on manual data entry. The use of SoWeSign eliminated this workload and allowed teams to refocus on training delivery and facilitation.

The solution also improved visibility into session attendance and the identification of no-shows, with a direct impact on training and logistics costs. Training data is now automatically and reliably integrated into Workday, strengthening data consistency and traceability.

Adoption and change management

The transition from paper to digital represented a challenge for the organization. Despite a simple signing process - only the medium changes - some trainers raised questions about the validity and security of digital signatures.

Change management remains a point of attention, particularly due to the turnover of “occasional” trainers linked to evolving skills needs. But the use of SoWeSign has gradually become embedded in day-to-day practices, thanks to the support provided, which helped reassure teams.

For the past year, a new process has enabled the planning and signing, with SoWeSign, of sessions addressing immediate operational needs. Training data (dates, times, participants, signatures) is then automatically returned to the master system, Workday.

Outlook

The benefits observed support the company’s intention to continue using SoWeSign across all regions of the group worldwide. Until now based on a voluntary approach, the deployment is expected to move toward a prescriptive model from 2026, with the management of any exceptions linked to local regulatory constraints.