Institute of Hydroelectric Studies and Design Reduces Operational Risk by 10% and Lowers Contract Management Costs with Project Management Solution
 
 

Institute of Hydroelectric Studies and Design Reduces Operational Risk by 10% and Lowers Contract Management Costs with Project Management Solution

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Founded in 1949, the Institute of Hydroelectric Studies and Design S.A. (IHSD) provides design and consulting services on large-infrastructure and industrial projects, including dams, hydroelectric power stations, canals, locks, and harbors. Its services include design, documentation, bidding, construction supervision, commissioning, project management and monitoring, and maintenance of completed structures. It works in Romania, as well as in 12 other countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

IHSD needed to reduce operating costs and grow its bottom line by better managing labor and materials. To support this goal, the company replaced an in-house, custom application with Oracle’s Primavera P6 to handle all phases of resource management, contract management, and scheduling for its complex structures. Using Oracle Primavera, it reduced operational risk by 10%, improved human resource allocation by 15%, maintained visibility into project status, decreased the time needed to build reports by 40%, and consolidated data for greater insight into companywide results.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Institute of Hydroelectric Studies and Design S.A.

  • “After analyzing multiple project management solutions, we chose Oracle’s Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8.1 and Oracle partner Smart Project Solutions. This has proven to be an inspired decision for our institute because we substantially improved project resource allocation and grew our bottom line.” – Dr. Gabriela Dimu, General Manager, Institute of Hydroelectric Studies and Design S.A.

  • Increase profitability through efficient planning and control of labor and material resources across multiple construction projects and geographical locations
  • Reduce operating costs, improve efficiency, and forecast revenues accurately for multiyear building projects
  • Increase insight into project status and employee allocation on projects to avoid surprises and maximize resource utilization
  • Establish accurate and comprehensive reporting on project progress, whether singly or in aggregate, across multiple geographies, to strengthen decision-making capabilities

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Deployed Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8.1 and Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Web Services to track employee skill sets and allocations on projects, improving human resource allocation efficiency by 15%
  • Decreased operational risk exposures by 10% by using Primavera to track materials usage, resource alignment, schedule standardization and centralized project management capabilities
  • Achieved a clear picture of which resources are available, versus allocation needs, helping to measure employee and equipment performance and manage companywide resources effectively
  • Leveraged efficiency gains to lower project execution costs and increase profitability
  • Improved ability to align projects with business and organizational goals, using Primavera’s project portfolio management to forecast revenues more precisely
  • Integrated Microsoft SharePoint collaboration tools with Primavera to route documents, increasing workflow efficiency and decreasing costs
  • Reduced by 40% the time needed for developing construction-management reports, due to Primavera’s comprehensive reporting capabilities, which provide managers with the ability to analyze schedules, budgets, and resource availability with ease
  • Improved on-time and on-budget completion of projects and enabled detailed project analysis at institute, department, team, and employee levels
  • Applied standard management processes across the company for improved resource analyses and optimized contractor and program management
  • Optimized contract management from contract signing to project delivery and invoicing with Primavera’s comprehensive project analysis capabilities for each specific company activity

Why Oracle

“Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management provides us with an overarching resource management solution that allows tracking all phases of our complex construction projects,” said Dr. Gabriela Dimu, general manager, Institute of Hydroelectric Studies and Design SA. “It is the only project management application that provides integration with Microsoft products, including Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Excel. This allowed our institute to maintain its Microsoft-based in-house applications within Oracle Primavera, as well as to increase collaboration and improve links between financial systems and our resource management application.”

Implementation Process

Oracle Partner Smart Project Solutions SRL implemented Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management and Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Web Services, along with custom software development for invoicing, over a six-month period. The implementation process covered contracts managemen, from signing to completion, labor resources management―including staff allocation, productivity, and resource use efficiency―cost management, invoicing, and management reports.

Smart Project Solutions SRL also provided training, using Oracle training materials as a base for creating customized training materials that combined interfaces with which employees were already familiar with Oracle Primavera enhancements. This enabled IHSD to retain access to information from long-term projects up to 30 years.

Partner

Oracle partner Smart Project Solutions specializes in selling and implementing Oracle Primavera and Oracle JD Edwards Enterprise. Its professional team consists of many specialists accredited by the Oracle University Knowledge Center, and it has more than 10 years' experience in presales, implementation and support for Oracle solutions.

“Smart Project Solutions was key to the project because it adapted the Primavera solution so that it could use existing forms and documents at our request. By retaining the original layout and content, we maintained interfaces to our project management applications that were familiar to its employees and avoided training costs,” Dimu said.

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