Complex Program Management

CONNECTING PEOPLE AND POWER IN ENLIGHTENING WAYS

There may be no “I” in “team,” but there is in “unsystematic.” Which often describes the situation when employees are focused on their own tasks and problems instead of on working together.

Here’s an example: A federal utility was faced with the Herculean challenge of implementing new 20-year power sales contracts with multiple customer utilities. The contracts were slated to go into effect in less than three years.

Egad! was one response. What next? was another.

The federal utility needed to figure out how to put the various contracts into action and what the operational impacts would be to their business.

Danger: gridlock zone
The utility operations were a highly complex maze of systems, processes and people who were not on the same page. Front-office salespeople were writing contracts without consulting with back-office operations staff who sometimes didn’t even understand the new products.

Clearly, internal walls needed to be torn down and new connections needed to be formed.
ACME was brought in to help facilitate the direction from the COO and CIO and guide the organization through the new system design and implementation life cycle.
Working closely with key stakeholders and the client team, we began by helping structure the overall program, which included the reporting approach, sponsor teams, process mapping, testing, software deployment, timeline and critical milestones.

Power leveraged
By getting leadership backing right away, we made sure that everyone involved would be engaged and accountable. Eventually, the program was divided into 13 separate projects, many of which we supervised, providing management oversight, structure and discipline.
Our own internal QA processes and the way we share knowledge among our people and our clients has resulted in a synergistic, well-coordinated effort – particularly where there are overlapping design or integration points (business or technical). Twelve of the thirteen projects have gone live on schedule and last will be completed later this fiscal year.

People throughout the utility are now better connected and data is flowing through multiple channels. Everyone is on the same page (it’s a HUGE page), working as a team – just like ACME, which doesn’t have an “I” either.