CYPE has developed the program for structural design and calculation of the analysed materials' quantities used in the regional technology centres of the POINT.P brand for Saint-Gobain Distribution, the leading company in the distribution of building materials in France with a total of 851 points of sale in the country and nearly 11,000 employees. We spoke to Eric du Passage about the development agreement between CYPE and Saint-Gobain.
What is the aim of the collaboration agreement that you have with CYPE?
With CYPE, we are developing a tool for structural analysis, quantities and cost estimations for single-family dwelling structures, in particular, structures with one-way floor slabs with joists and hollow blocks. This tool will be used by POINT.P’s regional technology centres, which are at the service of agencies and clients every day to carry out optimised estimates of structural elements in single-family dwellings.
If you already have a tool for structural analysis and management, what motivated you to make a new one?
We have used this tool for 15 years and it has already crossed the line of obsolescence. In fact, it was not updated from a regulatory point of view regarding the Eurocodes or to the latest version of the CPT technical specifications for slabs (publication of the French public body, CSTB). It was even disconnected from the new information systems we had developed internally, such as the product databases. For these reasons, we decided to improve the tool by collaborating with CYPE.
What motivated you to collaborate with CYPE for this development? Did you have any other alternatives?
We consulted several software publishers on the market to develop the tool and CYPE caught our attention. CYPE has certainly been able to meet our specific needs – the single-family dwelling market in France, with one-way floor slabs with joists and hollow blocks. The software company has managed to show a real understanding of our markets, specifically in France, and they have been able to respond to our needs with great flexibility. At the same time, they have been very competitive in comparison to other software publishers on the market.
Are you satisfied with the collaboration agreement?
Yes, we are satisfied with the collaboration. For over a year now, CYPE has managed to really meet our needs and be a source of advice and proposals to improve what already exists, and thus better meet the daily requests of professional customers in the field of structures.
What benefits do you think you will obtain from using this new tool?
From now on we will have a much more ergonomic tool, much simpler with regards to graphic data entry of projects. Above all, it is a tool that will allow our regional technology centres to definitely improve their productivity and quality in the creation of their bills of quantities, which will be more complete and also with an element of variety that will be possible from now on.
Will this tool be compatible with BIM? What are the prospects for Saint-Gobain Distribution Bâtiment France?
The great advantage of CYPE is that this software opens the door to the world of Open BIM and the IFC format that we can now provide to our clients, builders of single-family dwellings.
