Certified as a Young Innovative Company, 45-8 Energy is growing fast. Can you introduce your company?
45-8 ENERGY is a company dedicated to the exploration and eco-responsible production of helium and natural hydrogen, supplied through short supply chains. A unique approach in Europe!
The five founding partners of 45-8 ENERGY, keen to turn their respective expertise (geology, geophysics, financial analysis and legal affairs) into an eco-committed venture, started from a striking observation: 100% of the helium consumed in Western Europe is imported from the United States, Qatar and Algeria, at a high energy cost and with a heavy carbon footprint. In 2018, this represented 31 million cubic meters, making it the world's second-largest market with nearly 19% of consumption.
From this premise, 45-8 ENERGY was born in 2017, based in Metz in the Grand Est region. Its innovative approach relies on the co-valorization of resources that can be associated with helium in certain geological contexts, such as natural hydrogen or carbon dioxide.
Exploring for helium, a rare natural resource that is strategic and essential to many industries (electronics, medical, aeronautics, aerospace), is an activity with many specificities. 45-8 ENERGY therefore runs several Research and Development projects in parallel, aiming to develop, in collaboration with academic and industrial partners, effective methods and tools suited to detecting these two resources underground.
In what context did you turn to Auguria?
“We ran a first benchmark of solutions in early 2020, because we had reached the limits of what Excel can offer us. We were losing a lot of time, and re-keying data was a source of errors. We chose a solution that seemed very user-friendly and functional. Six months later, the verdict was clear: the solution could not support our growth. We then turned to Odoo, which we had already shortlisted in our earlier benchmark.”
What are your challenges?
“The company is growing quite fast and we now have 3 subsidiaries. The need for multi-company management was therefore already a decisive factor in choosing our ERP. On top of that, we are a Deeptech company, and our time to market is long. We need a tool that can precisely support us as we accelerate our activity. All the more so as, alongside our core business, we run several R&D projects for which we need high-performing project tracking. As we are eligible for the Research Tax Credit, we must be able to justify all of our projects very precisely (time spent by employees, activities, etc.).”
Why did you choose Odoo? And Auguria as your integrator?
“We have no in-house IT skills, and we did not want to get into complicated developments. Odoo is extremely easy to use and intuitive. We also liked the Odoo suite because it offers a complete functional answer. Auguria was recommended to us at the same time as another integrator. We chose Auguria because it reassured us about its experience with Odoo, and about its willingness not to push us into additional and probably unnecessary developments. We had a good feeling with the people. That is important for the success of a project!”