The Challenge
As the IT Director at Héroux Devtek, Michael Parke leads a major business transformation initiative—a multi-year, multi-site Greenfield SAP ERP implementation designed to replace legacy systems across Canada, the US, the UK, and Spain. The project directly involves over 40 people, spanning external consultants and internal teams. As the scope of the project developed, critical challenges surfaced:
Complex governance across multilingual, multinational teams
High risk of scope creep, misalignment, and costly disputes
An overloaded IT Director juggling project delivery and daily operations
"I can't be everywhere all at once. I needed a way to know what was being decided — even in meetings I wasn't part of."
Michael Parke
IT Director & ERP Project Lead, Héroux Devtek
The Tato Impact
To maximize the project's chances of success, Michael became one of Tato's earliest adopters. The results transformed how they work.
Always in the loop
Tato automatically captured key details and decisions, giving instant visibility into project progress—even for meetings Michael missed.
"I loved seeing decisions from meetings I wasn't even in. I could immediately step in if something didn't look right. The automated RAID log can totally change our governance."
Eliminated blind spots across workstreams
Caught potential issues before they escalated
Improved visibility across teams and sites
Fewer meetings, deeper engagement
Michael trusted Tato to document meetings, letting him focus on the most strategic work.
"I used to spend meetings typing detailed notes. Now I can fully engage—or even miss a meeting entirely—because Tato captures every detail."
Freed leaders to focus on strategic work
Enabled multiple project streams to run in parallel
Tracked every decision across bilingual meetings
Ended the "he said, she said"
Tato made project decisions instantly searchable, ending debates over who said what.
"People come to meetings months later convinced we agreed on something… except everyone remembers it differently. Tato became our unbiased third party—just facts."
Resolved misunderstandings in minutes
Avoided long commercial disputes
Maintained momentum across a complex, multi-region project
The Results
- Over $500k saved — by resolving commercial disputes with facts.
- Hours reclaimed weekly — eliminating time-consuming scope clarifications.
- Improved trust — between internal teams and integrators thanks to transparent, factual records.
Strategic Takeaways
- Better governance — Real-time visibility and accountability across all project streams.
- Permanent memory — Enables knowledge continuity over many years of the project lifecycle.
- Culture shift — Fact-based decision clarity, reduced finger-pointing across teams.
"Tato was one of the best decisions we made on the project and I wouldn't want to do this project without it."
