Créée en 1978 afin de porter la voix des producteurs biologiques, la Fédération Nationale de l’Agriculture Biologique (FNAB) est à ce jour le seul réseau professionnel agricole spécialisé en agriculture biologique en France. En tant que réseau de proximité et de compétences, elle se compose d’une fédération nationale, et de groupements régionaux départementaux répartis sur le territoire. XWiki répond à un besoin de mutualisation très fort de la part de la FNAB, dans la mesure où celle-ci est une entité indépendante et qu’elle a des structures territoriales disséminées un peu partout en France. Les différentes entreprises qui composent la fédération travaillent en collaboration, ce qui constitue la richesse de ce réseau. Il existe donc un vrai besoin de mutualisation des connaissances, des savoirs et des documents à travers une interface simple et intuitive. La fédération dispose d'une richesse humaine, dont le savoir et l’expertise doivent absolument être transmis le plus rapidement et le plus fidèlement possible aux nouveaux arrivants. Afin que l’ensemble de cette communauté forme une fédération de connaissances partagées, il faut donc pouvoir mutualiser l’ensemble de ces savoirs en un seul endroit : XWiki.

1. CASE STUDY
Capitalize the
employees’
knowledge

2. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tél: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Site web: www.xwiki.com
2
Created in 1978 to represent the organic producers, the National Federation of Organic
Agriculture (FNAB) is up to now the only agricultural professional network specialized in
organic farming in France. As a local and competence network, it consists of a national
federation, and departmental regional groups spread across the country.
Inform, educate, mobilize, build a new model, provide expertise and share experiences...Through the
member organizations that comprise it, the FNAB brings together the organic farmers all around
France.
The generic term of organic agriculture includes biodynamic, permaculture, and all forms of farming
recognized by the authorities. From its very beginning, the FNAB works for a coherent, sustainable
and inclusive organic production.
The context
FNAB comprises multiple structures within its departments and regions, having the National
Federation as the national network head. Julien ADDA has been working for FNAB for the past 5
years. Its mission is to organize the work of the Federation, which relates essentially to information
management, sharing, training, expertise and representation.
The project
XWiki answers to a strong need of pooling for FNAB, as it is an independent entity and has
territorial structures scattered throughout France. The different companies that make up the
Sector: public
Need: a better exchange within
projects and an improved
communication
Solution: knowledge base
Product: XWiki Enterprise
“Within the federation, we have a high turnover. XWiki allows
us to manage this turnover by offering each new employee
access to the company overview, as well as to a much more
important knowledge base than within a standard intranet. The
platform can also manage meeting reports much more
collaboratively, having a clear visibility on the document and on
the comments made by the participants in the meeting. Blog
spaces have also been created in order to provide updates in
every collaborative space.”
(Julien ADDA, Executive Officer at FNAB)

3. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tél: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Site web: www.xwiki.com
3
Federation are working in collaboration, representing the richness of the network. There is therefore
a real need for knowledge and document sharing through a simple and intuitive interface.
The federation does not have substantial financial resources, but instead it owns significant human
resources, whose knowledge and expertise must be passed to newcomers, as quickly and accurately
as possible. Thus, in order for the whole community to build a shared knowledge federation, it is
necessary to be able to gather all of this knowledge in a single place: XWiki.
The XWiki solution
The federation uses XWiki on a daily basis. The homepage of the intranet offers news related to
organic agriculture and its activities. There are also many collaborative spaces, each corresponding
to a major theme, where different shared documents on the subject could be found.
Forums have also been created. They allow to identify the activities of various departments and
regions and to discuss future strategies. “It is about using every information from the emails to try
to implement it in spaces related only to those specific topics, and that would allow to keep all the
history of the conversation.” said Julien ADDA.
Management of internal knowledge – a guarantee for performance
FNAB has decided to use XWiki as a collaborative space to archive, manage and make available both
the knowledge of each employee and the internal and external processes of the federation. This
determination supports the ancient collaborators that could not claim to obtain such knowledge,
essential to their successful integration into the federation.
Thus, XWiki has become the place where information mixes, facilitating different reactions and
comments, and accommodating a set of instructions that will help the employee to integrate more
quickly into the company. All this knowledge is going to be used by all the existent members as well
as the newcomers.
Switching from email to a collaborative tool
Switching from an email system to a collaborative tool is a necessary and sometimes a difficult step.
It is a real cultural change that must engage all employees to adopt a new way of communication.

4. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tél: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Site web: www.xwiki.com
4
Many employees were still holding on to the email. Yet, the information overload caused by it, no
longer makes it a suitable tool for all businesses. Like any model of operation, it has its limitations:
difficult information management, complicated archiving, downward communication, disorganized
comments... We must therefore operate as mentors, so that employees begin to share information
spontaneously on a collaborative space.
In order to do so, FNAB has set up training courses to accelerate the appropriation of the XWiki
platform for all its users. Biweekly internal information letters were distributed in order to promote
this new model and to offer a few tips and tricks for improving the understanding of the tool.
This type of action can gradually develop collaborative spaces of larger or smaller sizes: "we must
make a permanent effort to return to the tool and to break the old habits." says Julien ADDA.
The updates were a determining factor for the adoption of the platform by the FNAB employees.
Indeed, the major political mobilization that is organized around the issue of agricultural subsidies
has led, for the first time, to a real activity on the platform.
"Suddenly and unintentionally, all users began to interact directly over the network. The subject was
very important to them and they all felt the need for discussions and debates." says Julien ADDA.
Once the platform was adopted, it was necessary to animate it, to continue with the same strategy,
to lead by example, to continue encouraging employees to work together.
"Today, we couldn’t go back, we came to realize that the email was such a divided tool, definitely
not suitable to our operational model. The collaborative system is a real challenge, but it is well
worth the effort."

5. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tél: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Site web: www.xwiki.com
5
The first results
Following the final adoption of the tool by the employees, the federation has every intention to use
XWiki in two ways:
• as a tool for managing its work, which will allow a single space complete project supervision
• for opening the network to external collaborators. It would not be a completely open network, but
will offer access to a number of dedicated areas, including the dissemination of information to the
outside

6. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tél: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Site web: www.xwiki.com
6
Testimonials
“The FNAB is based on cooperation and collaboration. It is for this reason that a platform such as
XWiki is adapted to our operational model.”
"Nothing is taken for granted, employees always have the reflex to personalize information. An on-
going effort will always be needed to have them return to the tool.”
"The platform offers interesting applications in the context of a project. The Tasks application, for
example, allows defining tasks and timelines.”