How Pigment improved budget forecasting for the Ville de Lyon

At a glance

• Ville de Lyon wanted a more strategic, collaborative budget process
• The intuitive design of Pigment, combined with the prospect of easy adoption through partner BearingPoint made Pigment the clear choice
• The city involved operational and resource teams (IT, Finance, HR) to co-create a budget portal and establish a robust data network
• The result: simpler collaboration, real-time budgeting processes, and better decisions

Challenges with the existing financial information ecosystem

As France’s second-largest economic hub and a leader in digital innovation and entrepreneurship, Ville de Lyon is thriving, with over 500,000 residents and rapid growth. To sustain its innovative services, the city embarked on an ambitious modernization of its information systems. Legacy tools for monitoring investments had become obsolete. Despite regulatory constraints on budget processes, the city sought a more strategic approach that incorporated the objectives of its 250 distinct professions.

A key managerial challenge lay in breaking down organizational silos to foster a culture of collaboration and data-sharing.

Ville de Lyon required:

• A shared tool to integrate diverse data sources (databases, user inputs)
• Advanced scenario planning capabilities
• An intuitive solution to be used by both end-users and data analysts
• A solution that simplified processes, rather than creating more

Pigment, an opportunity for accelerated digital transformation

After conducting multiple proof of concepts (PoCs) with available solutions on the market, Ville de Lyon selected Pigment, thanks to user experience, flexibility, and commitment to a co-build implementation approach that saw all parties work together to set up use cases in Pigment.

During a one-day PoC, three pairs of providers and their implementation partners were tasked with building applications live for all supporting departments (HR, IT, and Finance). Pigment excelled at aligning technical, human, and strategic needs.

The implementation began in April 2023, following Pigment’s co-build implementation methodology, teams joined workshops to co-design models, test and refine applications, train users, with final deployment in July.

A project steering committee met weekly. The project was delivered successfully thanks to a precise project brief, while ensuring agile, co-construction with operational teams and project resources. A seamless relationship with Pigment and BearingPoint further boosted the city’s confidence, making the deployment collaborative and iterative.

Pigment’s implementation established a solid foundation for efficient financial management and offered an enhanced user experience for departments, the finance directorate, and elected officials.

What’s next?

As a next step, Ville de Lyon plans to expand Pigment’s use cases to support advanced forecasting simulations and deliver even more reliable financial forecasting.

Key results achieved with Pigment:

• Time savings: 39 days saved on manual data entry
• Efficiency gains: Over 100 days saved during the annual budget process
• ROI: Over €40,000 to date

Pigment has empowered Ville de Lyon to modernize its financial operations, enabling strategic, collaborative, and data-driven decision-making while setting the stage for continued innovation.

Read more about Pigment for public administrations here.