November 2009: "Voix du Nord" Newspaper: a Successful Modernization
Late 2007, the press group "La Voix du Nord" (1400 employees / 5 daily papers published - 475 000 newspapers) started a major internal reorganization. Very much impacted, the maintenance department acquired the software CARL Source Factory in September 2008. Its goals: computerizing the management of its production facilities and supporting the modernization of the technical team work methods.
The software was quickly deployed and today, "Voix du Nord" exploits CARL Source "Equipment", "Work" and "Planning" modules. Because of its simple handling and easy setup, CARL Source has been well accepted by the technical teams faced for the 1st time with a computerized work environment. In the short term, "Voix du Nord" also intends to manage its stock and maintenance contracts with CARL Source. In 2010 CARL Source will be interfaced with ERP systems to manage purchases and with a Building Management System (BMS) to reinforce the preventive maintenance done on the rotary printing presses.
August 2009: CARL Transport Equips the New-York City Subway
In August 2009, CARL Source Transport has been installed at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City.
At the same time, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway (South Korea) also confirmed its choice for CARL Source Transport.
After Madrid, Algiers, Paris, Turin... these new great references in the field of public transportation confirm CARL Transport success all around the world.
May 2009: SIFER 09: 6th International Railways Exhibition
To discover CARL Transport, our solution dedicated to subways, trains and tramways, you can meet us at SIFER'09, in Lille (France) on 26-28 May 2009 (stand 1/654).
SIFER is an international exhibition entirely dedicated to the rail industry: rolling stocks, infrastructures, software solutions...
April 2009: Interalpin: the World’s most Important Trade Show for Mountain Equipment
CARL Software will be present at Interalpin'09, in Innsbruck (Austria) on 22 - 24 April 2009.
Interalpin is the world’s most important trade show for the cable-car industry, artificial snowmaking, winter service appliances and ski area management.
To discover our software solutions for this field, meet us on stand N507.
April 2009: 2008 Turnover Increased by 11%, 12th Consecutive Year of Growth
Turnover in 2008 was € 6,803 K, up by 11% compared to 2007.
This means that CARL Software, which was founded in 1985, has now recorded growth in its turnover for 12 consecutive years, keeping at the same time a high net profit rate (between 8-10% during the last 4 years).
The net profit was € 533 K, or 8% of turnover.
We should point out that the company has consistently been profitable since its founding.
Total amount of loans was only 1.8% of turnover.
CARL Software was awarded the 3+ rating by Banque de France: the second best rating on a scale of 12 values (from 3++ to 9), testifying to its strong ability to live up to its financial commitments.
For further financial information, the full balance sheet and profit and loss account for 2008 can be accessed here.
“In a difficult economic context, CARL Software maintains a regular growth and a good profit rate, strengthening CARL’s market leader position in France (comparison of revenue in France for companies specialised in this market).” says Eric Bonnet, CEO and founder of CARL Software in 1985. “For the past several years, with a view to ensuring transparency for its customers, CARL Software has been one of the few unlisted software publishers to make its financial statement public as soon as they are known.”
“The most important thing for a company setting up today is to be reassured about the future of its investment. In this regard, CARL Software records strong growth with an established profitability, and maintains a clear and sustained product policy, backed by stable shareholding. The stability of a product policy is the essential condition for innovation without leaving one’s old customers in the lurch.”
February 2009: CARL CMMS Escorts the Brinks
The Brink's is known worldwide as a global leader in cash transportation, business and security services and ATM maintenance management. The company has chosen CARL CMMS to optimize the management of its equipment and fleet vehicles.
In 2008, the Brinks CMMS Project team, with the assistance of CARL Software, was able within a few months to put CARL’s CMMS solution into production. The software is now used by 65 Brinks agencies.
Today, the CMMS manages:
- The monitoring of maintenance contracts management for counting and safety equipment,
- The planning of regulated shooting sessions for security officers,
- The maintenance of the armored vehicle fleet.
September 2008: CARL Software Affirms its Commitment to Sustainable Development
Making the best use of available resources and reducing consumption are often among the reasons that motivate companies to use Asset Management or Maintenance Management software.
Mountains, water, air and nature in general have always featured strongly in CARL Software’s communications, and this is not a mere coincidence; for they epitomise the company's ongoing concern with environmental matters.
It is for all these reasons that we have decided to reaffirm our commitment to sustainable development by drawing up a corporate charter of best practices. The charter aims to reduce the company's ecological footprint in our day-to-day business (paper usage, energy consumption, travel, and so on).
Going further, CARL Software has also selected a new electricity supplier, Enercoop, the only supplier which buys all its electricity from renewable energy sources. Enercoop has been awarded the WWF's EVE label for green electricity, and is by far the highest-rated provider on Greenpeace's Ecolo Watt benchmark. From now on, our software will be designed exclusively using electricity from renewable energy sources.
CARL Software is proud of this commitment, a practical expression of the values on which we have built our success.
September 2008: InnoTrans Exhibition in Berlin
CARL Software will be present at InnoTrans in Berlin (September 23-26).
InnoTrans is a major international trade fair for Transport Technology (Innovative Components, Vehicles, Systems...).
On this occasion, CARL Software will present its dedicated solution CARL Transport on UBIFRANCE's stand (Hall 4.1 / Stand 215).
August 2008: CMMS CARL Transport has been Chosen by Algiers Metro
First put on the drawing board back in the 1970’s, Algiers’ underground rapid transit system will be put into service in a few months’ time.
The transit system will have a capacity of 41,000 passengers an hour (150 million passengers a year), operate on a headway of as short as under two minutes, and boast a peak speed of 70 km an hour. Fully automated, it will be run by Siemens’ Trainguard-MT CBTC, an automatic train control system already being used in cities such as Paris, Barcelona and Budapest.
Operation and maintenance of the Algiers Metro has been entrusted to RATP, which runs Paris’ public transport system. After a rigorous selection process, RATP selected CARL Transport as its CMMS. CARL Transport will allow RATP to track maintenance on the system’s rolling stock as well as its fixed assets.
CARL Transport is designed to achieve the following main objectives:
- Provide detailed descriptions and histories of rolling stock and fixed assets,
- Schedule corrective and preventive maintenance work (in-house and subcontracted),
- Scheduling of maintenance on train components and of industrial infrastructures and assets,
- Optimise maintenance inventories and purchases and automate administrative tasks,
- Set up a tracking system to view equipment events when and as needed (maintenance workers and accreditations, part history and origin, maintenance reports, etc.),
- Manage safety (authorisations, hot work permits, etc.) and optimise the management of regulatory inspections,
- Track performance indicators,
- Use CARL Transport’s EDM (Electronic Document Management) feature.
July 2008: Commercial Success Following the Launch of CARL Source
CARL Source, our new web-native software package, has been available for only a few months and it has already seduced numerous new customers.
Among these, we can name Bacardi - Martini (distillery), the hospital of Armentières, the "Conseil Général du Rhône", Leroy Somer Industrial Automation and plasma fractionation specialist Octapharma.
CARL Source was also selected by EDF and Atos Origin for what can be called one of the largest european projects of the decade: the replacement and management of EDF 's 35 million electric meters. CARL Source will be directly involved in the technical management of the new meters.
Click here for more information about CARL Source.
April 2008: 11th Consecutive Year of Growth for CARL Software
Turnover in 2007 was € 6,152 K, up by 14% compared to 2006.
The net profit was € 576 K, or 9,4% of turnover, improved compared to 2006. Operating profit progresses to € 722 K, +13% compared to 2006. This profitability improvement was done without reducing R&D costs, which have increased in 2007.
Total amount of loans was only 2.3% of turnover. Equity capital has grown by 34% to € 2,283 K.
April 2008: EuroMaintenance Exhibition in Brussels
CARL Software will participate in the 19th Euromaintenance conference and exhibition that will be held April 8-10 in Brussels (Belgium). Euromaintenance is a major European event which focuses on how to optimise maintenance and decrease total manufacturing costs. On this occasion, CARL Software will be organizing a free conference: "Assets Management: maximize maintenance's results using TPM (Total Productive Maintenance)". This conference is based on VALEO's experience with TPM.
February 2008: CARL Software, CARL’s new brand name
CARL International has adopted a new brand name that better highlights our speciality: CARL Software.
This new name, along with a new logo and a new graphic style guide, will be used for all our products and services.
This does not mean that CARL International has undergone any revolutionary changes or adapted its structure. The CARL Software name aims to put more emphasis on our core speciality as software designers. Our new logo simply highlights the importance we place in offering innovative products and services. It supersedes the previous logo (opposite) which we had been using unchanged since 1992. This more modern visual identity accompanies the launch of our new range of maintenance management and asset management software, CARL Source.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the confidence you have placed in us for over 20 years.
November 2007: CARL Source, a new web-native software package
Building on its 20 years of experience in asset management and maintenance management systems, CARL Software announces the launch of its new application range, CARL Source. The software was previewed to the CARL user Club in June 2007, then shown publicly for the first time at the Maintenance trade fair in Paris in November 2007.
The CARL Source project represents 65 man-years of development time and an investment of over five million euros over the last five years. The new product has been completely overhauled to suit today’s new maintenance and asset management requirements. Based around a web-native architecture, CARL Source meets the latest technological requirements (Web 2.0, Java, XML, Web Services, SOA, etc.) and the needs of users in the field.
Like its predecessor, CARL Master (a maintenance management application created in 1996), several versions of CARL Source are available for different sectors: Factory (industrial equipment), Facility (real estate, facilities, technical equipment), Healthcare and Transport.
A major aspect that sets CARL Source apart from its competitors is that users are not bound to proprietary solutions, in that open source products can be used for all components of the architecture. It can also operate with leading proprietary solutions (BEA, Microsoft, Oracle, etc.).
Click here for more information about CARL Source.
October 2007: 3rd European Manufacturing Strategies Summit in Düsseldorf
CARL Software will participate in the 3rd European Manufacturing Strategies Summit (EMS) in Düsseldorf (Germany), the 4th and 5th of October 2007. EMS is the must-attend event for senior manufacturing practitioners to hear the most up-to-date case studies, network with peers and do business.
April 2007: 11th Consecutive Year of Growth for CARL Software
Turnover in 2006 was € 5,402 K, up by 5% compared to 2005. The net profit was € 540 K, or 10% of turnover. Equity capital has grown by 46% to € 1,707 K.
March 2007: The Marseille Public Transit Authority Chooses CARL Transport
Following the Madrid metro contract, the Marseille city council has chosen CARL Transport to manage the maintenance of:
- Its 600 buses,
- Its two metro lines,
- Its light-rail lines that will soon be opened to the public,
- Its engineered structures (tunnels, bridges, fixed installations, etc.).
The RTM (Réseau des Transports de Marseille) is a public transit system used by one-fifth of Marseille’s population each day. RTM vehicles cover nearly 100,000 km per day—equal to two and a half times around the world!
This transport system serves the city of Marseille as well as the neighbouring towns of Aubagne, Allauch, Plan-de-Cuques, La Penne sur Huveaune, and Septèmes les Vallons.
You can also read press articles about Marseille Transport System.
January 2007: CARL Master Equips Europe’s Largest Water Treatment Plant
CARL Software had already acquired several years of solid experience in the field of water treatment. Notable examples include the decision by ETDE in 1997 to equip SILA (Syndicat Intercommunal du Lac d’Annecy) with CARL Master. Following the positive reaction to this installation, in 2004 ETDE installed CARL Master at SIAAP (Syndicat Interdépartemental pour l’Assainissement de l’Agglomération Parisienne) on the Grésillons treatment plant.
In 2005, SIAAP commissioned a consortium comprising OTV and Degrémont to build Europe’s largest nitrification/denitrification unit at the Achères plant. Built to treat 2,000,000 m³ per day, it will also eliminate ammoniacal nitrogen from waste water starting in 2007. CARL Master has also been chosen to equip this leading-edge plant.
Finally, in late 2006, SIAAP installed CARL Master at its Seine Centre division, including the plants at Colombes (240,000 m³/day), Clichy and La Briche, as well as the Seine Downstream division including Achères in particular, except for the nitrification/denitrification unit.
By equipping SIAAP, France’s leading name in waste water treatment, CARL Software has confirmed its expertise in this sector.
December 2006: 25 Oil Depots at Total Managed by CARL Master
Total Logistics has just chosen CARL Master to maintain its 25 oil storage sites.
As a priority, the CARL Master CMMS will manage all of Total’s ISEs (Important Safety Elements), thereby helping it to meet all safety regulations applicable to oil storage. The plan is to extend the CMMS to all Total Logistics operating sites in the future.
Special integration work has been carried out in order to comply with the specific nature of this very demanding sector. The CARL Master software is also enhanced by an electronic document management system directly integrated in the CMMS, and multi-function alerters.
November 2006: CARL Software Continues its Growth in International Transit by Equipping the Madrid Metro
After recently equipping the Turin metro followed by the Tenerife tram system, CARL Software has been chosen to equip the Madrid metro with its CARL Transport system.
These international successes come on the heels of a number of major investments that were approved in order to develop a system specifically tailored to the transport sector. This solution now benefits from the experience acquired initially in France. For several years CARL Software has been equipping many public transit companies, including Orlyval (Paris-Orly rail shuttle) and the public transport authorities of Grenoble, Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand, to name a few.
September 2006: "Hospices Civils de Lyon" will Manage their 18 Facilities with CARL Healthcare
After being selected by the St. Nazaire university hospital, Neuchâtel hospitals, and many other health institutions, CARL Software was the successful tenderer to equip Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL). With 5500 beds and a total of 18 hospitals, HCL is the second largest group of public hospitals in France.
The CARL Healthcare software package will be installed for multiple site management of all 18 HCL hospitals, and will be used by the 350 employees at its maintenance and operations department.
CARL Healthcare will have to meet the following targets:
- Computerised management of the 80,000 service requests per year made by user departments to the maintenance department,
- Monitoring of internal preventive and corrective maintenance operations,
- Monitoring of preventive and corrective maintenance operations carried out by external service providers under maintenance contracts.
A wide functional spectrum will be deployed for this purpose, from service requests (work management), preventive maintenance, and resource management, to stock management, workflow, a decision-making package, and portable terminals. CARL Healthcare will also be interfaced with the buildings’ ERP and the BMS systems.
June 2006: CARL Software Equips Christian Dior Perfumes
CARL Software has just been chosen to equip Christian Dior Perfumes’ main production site at St Jean de Braye with the Enterprise version of CARL Master Factory.
Located near Orléans, the site employs around 1200 people.
April 2006: Excellent Results in 2005: 7% Rise in Turnover, Sharp Increase in Net Profits
CARL Software’s turnover for 2005 was € 5133 K, up by 7% compared to 2004.
Our net profit of € 468 K (9% of turnover) represented a very large increase in profits compared to 2004.
Financial costs were only 0.1% of turnover, whilst free cash flow was € 2177 K at the end of 2005, compared to € 754 K at the end of 2004. Net assets increased by 67% to € 1166 K.
October 2005: GrandVision Chooses CARL Master
GrandVision runs several specialist companies in the eyewear sector, such as Grand Optical, Générale d’Optique, Solaris, and Visual. All in all, they have around 1000 sales outlets in Europe, and a turnover of € 600 M.
GrandVision has chosen the Expert version of CARL Master Factory for its Aubergenville production site.
August 2005: Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG Veritas) Chooses CARL to Manage its Fleet of Ships
Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG Veritas) is a major name in the field of geophysical analyses of sea beds and land masses, usually for oil or gas companies. CGG operates a fleet of ships equipped with high-technology instruments, carrying out assignments all over the world. As these ships can remain isolated at sea for long periods, they encounter specific maintenance problems.
To handle the maintenance of this fleet and the configuration of its on-board technical equipment, CGG has chosen CARL Software systems.
The proposed system is based on CARL Master and uses a data synchronisation mechanism so that each ship can operate independently (without a continuous link to the on-shore database). Whenever the geographical location of the ship allows, it connects to a centralised database via satellite link in order to upload operating data to headquarters and to issue the necessary purchase requests to a central ERP or to update equipment references.
June 2005: Maintenance of the Eiffel Tower will be Handled by CARL Master Facility
The world’s most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, has chosen the CARL Master Facility CMMS to handle the maintenance of all of its facilities.
The Eiffel Tower is made up of more than 18,000 pieces of metal and many items of equipment and light fixtures on which its 6 million visitors depend each year (2004 figure). You can read here a press article about Eiffel Tower's maintenance system.
May 2005: 8th Consecutive Year of Growth for CARL
In yet another year of uninterrupted growth since 1996 (185% since 1996), turnover in 2004 reached €4811 K, up by 4% from 2003.
The net profit of € 106 K represents a 66% increase in profitability compared to 2003. We should point out that the company has consistently been profitable since day one.
The growth in turnover did not affect the size of our order book. In fact, in 2004 the company recorded € 5091 K worth of firm orders (more than the total invoiced turnover). This amount represents a 7% increase over the number of orders recorded in 2003.
It is interesting to look at a breakdown of the orders in terms of turnover by product type. Doing shows that the purely ‘publishing’ side of the business (granting of licences and annual assistance contracts) generated € 2585 K of firm orders in 2004, compared to € 2291 K in 2003. That amounts to an increase of 13% in just one year. Turnover for ‘service’ orders, at € 2026 K, increased by 8% over the same period, whilst miscellaneous products (hardware and software sales, etc.) fell by 18% (€ 480 K in 2004).
Clearly, CARL’s core business is what drives the company’s growth.
“CARL became one of the very first equipment management software providers when it was founded back in 1985,” says Eric Bonnet, CEO and founder of CARL Software. “Twenty years on, which is practically an eternity in the fast-paced world of information technology, we are proud to have provided great stability to the customers who have backed us over all these years. Our results for 2004 put us among the top-ranking players on this market in France. This is a testimonial to the relevance of our strategy, which is based on the coherence of our product offer and the high level of investment in our products (20 to 25% of turnover invested in R&D each year).”
February 2005: CARL Transport Chosen by SIEMENS to Equip the Turin Metro
Turin will inaugurate its new Metro just in time for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. The city’s technical teams chose CARL Master Transport to manage the maintenance portion of this major project. Their reasons for choosing CARL Master Transport? The extent of its functional options, its user-friendliness, its modularity, and the quality of its GUI. To handle the reliability and security of the ALV (Automatic Light Vehicle) installations and equipment, CARL Master Transport will be operated in multi-tree mode (geographical, functional, technical and accounts), and will manage tasks such as supplier contracts, maintenance and scheduling of repair work.
In terms of maintenance, CARL Master will be used to manage technical lots of items of sensitive equipment (rolling stock, control and supply systems including all fixed and on-board automation systems, train steering components and electromagnetic systems, centralised control room, garage and workshops, general equipment, etc.).
The Turin Metro includes:
- A 28 km line,
- 15 stations served by VALs (automatic light vehicles). Consisting of four carriages and with a total length of 52 m, each of the 23 VAL trains can carry 440 passengers.
- Every station is designed with three levels: entrance hall, mezzanine for channelling riders, and platforms with automated doors,
- Highly sophisticated security and equipment: the Turin Metro was designed with the highest standards of security in mind: no enclosed spaces, video surveillance and smoke detection system connected to the trains and the stations, intercom system connected to the control room.
This achievement further strengthens CARL Software’s presence in the field of public transit, following on from its supply of systems to the public transit networks of Clermont-Ferrand, Montpellier and Grenoble.
January 2005: CARL Master, the Key Tool of EDF’s Largest Real-Estate Site
Until recently the Cap Ampère site, owned by EDF (France’s electrical supplier) and managed by DIRIM (EDF’s real-estate division), was the only EDF property managed by an internal maintenance team (maintenance of EDF’s other sites was contracted out). By choosing CARL Master as its CMMS in 2001, the Paris Region DIRIM anticipated the ‘Real Estate Performance’ project imposed by EDF. The management of all buildings owned by EDF will be repatriated in 2005.
Each day, the DIRIM team responds to the needs of the 3000 employees spread over 166,000 m2 at the 5 hectare site. Its maintenance staff uses CARL Master to manage stock, purchases, and resources, and to ensure compliance with maintenance regulations imposed by the Seveso Directive and the ISO 14001 standard. DIRIM has constantly relied on the CARL Master’s reporting tools to preserve the skills of its maintenance teams and to make best use of the knowledge of EDF’s technicians. Doing so has enabled it to reveal the profitability of the maintenance team at Cap Ampère.
In early 2005 the CARL Master application at Cap Ampère will be migrated to Version 4.1, the database will be enriched with hundreds of articles and geographical points, and the operation of CARL Master will be extended to the management of subcontractor contracts.
December 2004: Award of Excellence in Maintenance at Johnson & Johnson with CARL Master
In 2002, the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical and cosmetics group created an “excellence in maintenance” seal of approval to reward the best units in the group. That same year, J&J’s Val de Reuil production site installed CARL Master software. Within two years, the maintenance team aligned its organisation with J&J’s best maintenance practice and boosted its performance, in particular thanks to indicators provided by CARL Master.
In 2004, Val de Reuil became the second of J&J’s 180 production units worldwide to obtain the award of excellence in maintenance. Only three sites in the world currently hold this seal of approval.
July 2004: Welcoming our New Customers
Among the companies that have recently chosen our systems, CARL Software is delighted to include some prestigious organisations covering a wide spectrum of businesses, such as Degremont, the Bordeaux and Rennes university hospitals, the public transit authorities of Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble and Montpellier, Emin Leydier paper mills, Lapp Muller, Renault Trucks, Spontex, Schrader, GTIE, UTAC, Sanofi Pharma, and, last but not least the Bordeaux city council.
More than ever, the CARL Software strategy is to offer software packages that are specifically tailored to the requirements of each business sector: CARL Master version Factory for industry, Facility for buildings and facilities, Healthcare for hospitals, etc.
April 2004: Renault Trucks Chooses CARL Master
Renault’s technical services department has chosen CARL Master to boost maintenance at the Renault Trucks plant in Bourg en Bresse, the only site in the world where the maker’s Premium and Magnum ranges of trucks are assembled.
With their CMMS, the maintenance units now participate in the continuous improvement approach of this world showcase plant, implementing the most advanced management and technical processes.
The plant is ISO 14001 certified and employs over 1000 people plus several subcontractors on a site spanning 117 hectares, of which 8.5 are under cover. The plant currently has two assembly lines, each one extending over more than 400 m, whose productivity will need to triple in the short term.
November 2002: French Electrical Utility EDF Chooses CARL Master
CARL Master has been selected to equip 95 of EDF’s sites throughout France with a 500-user licence deployed on an internet architecture. It will replace several dozens of commercial CMMS software packages which EDF no longer found satisfactory. CARL Software will retrieve the data contained in these packages.
This new project confirms the know-how of CARL Software in the field of maintenance management for major national infrastructures. A notable example is France Télécom, where CARL Master manages over 8 million items of equipment.
October 1999: CARL Software Becomes an Official Partner of AFIM
On 1st October 1999, Claude Pichot, President of AFIM (the French association of maintenance engineers and managers), and Eric Bonnet, CEO of CARL Software, signed a partnership agreement. This is the first time AFIM has signed this type of agreement with a software publisher. The agreement concerns two main areas:
> Research and Development Project
Together, CARL Software and AFIM are launching a research project that aims to improve certain functions of CMMS software, and most notably to improve functions that measure the true availability of production means.
> Active participation in AFIM seminars and think-tanks
CARL Software is making its expertise in the field of implementing Computerised Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) available to AFIM, whilst AFIM brings to CARL Software its solid experience of the world of maintenance and its constraints. Within this framework, CARL Software will provide AFIM with a number of top consultants who will be able to contribute in particular to seminars organised by AFIM.