South Florida Public Utility Uses Proliance
Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Dept. adopts project and portfolio management technology to gain greater efficiencies to improve community standing and optimize project planning and execution.
The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Dept. (WASD), www.miamidade.gov/wasd/, Miami, Fla., is one of the largest public utilities in the United States, employing nearly 2,700 people and providing direct water service to more than 416,000 customers throughout Florida’s Miami-Dade County. For consumer use, WASD draws and treats nearly 350 million gallons of water every day from the Biscayne Aquifer, consistently exceeding both state and federal drinking water standards.
One of the department’s biggest challenges around managing capital improvement projects has always been the allocation of resources. Silos of disconnected information made it difficult for various managers to track the status of a project and react accordingly. So, when WASD was awarded its largest capital outlay project to date, an HLD (high-level disinfection) wastewater treatment facility costing more than $600 million, the department embarked on a search for a comprehensive project management tool that would improve project planning, visibility, and execution—from inception to completion.
Impressive Implementation Strategy
WASD requested that Runding Corp., www.runding.com, Sarasota, Fla., an authorized Meridian Business System Integrator, lead the software implementation and provide long-term support for its PCTS (project control tracking system) initiative. A phased implementation of Proliance software by Meridian Systems, www.meridiansystems.com, Folsom, Calif., began in October of 2007 and was designed to ease adoption of the solution across diverse user groups with varied software skills. Proliance is an ILM (infrastructure lifecycle management) solution for large enterprises that plan, build, and operate complex capital projects, programs, and facilities.
Daily Work Journals were rolled out first, followed by RFIs (requests for information), submittals, and meeting minutes. Next, the WASD team worked their way through the field and office applications before moving on to budget and cost management. Technology training, performed in small groups, was supplemented by internally created “task aides,” or user manuals, that document how to use each function.
Throughout each phase of the implementation, WASD’s core team worked closely with Runding to ensure Proliance was configured to meet the department’s business needs and to migrate systems onto the new platform.
With nearly two-thirds of the projected 300 Proliance users already trained on the solution, WASD has seen significant benefits throughout the organization. The deployment of Proliance has not only improved processes, but it has given a broad range of stakeholders, including division chiefs, engineers, construction managers, planners, inspectors, and document control staff, access to vital project information.
Improving Community Standing
According to WASD, uniformity among documents like RFIs and meeting minutes was one of the first beneficial impacts of Proliance. Previously, each project manager used their own format, which made it difficult to recognize similar information across various projects. Standardized formatting has eliminated these inconsistencies. In addition, having all project information accessible from a single database has significantly improved efficiency.
To prepare for progress or status meetings, WASD used to print agendas and meeting minutes. Now, data from Proliance, including RFI and submittal lists, are projected onto an oversize screen. With the engineers, contractors, and construction managers all looking at the same information, decisions can quickly be made.
Completing contracts ahead of schedule helps improve WASD’s image within the community, which had been suffering due to poor execution of capital improvement projects. Visibility into project status across all divisions has led to better planning and anticipation—and smoother hand-offs throughout the project’s plan-build-operate lifecycle.
Even the IG (inspector general) has benefited from WASD’s Proliance solution because he no longer has to spend countless hours digging through paper-based files to perform reviews and audits. With access to Proliance, the IG now reviews documents online, which saves the Office of Inspector General money.
Optimizing Planning and Execution
As WASD heads into its final phase of major implementation—advanced costing—it continues to develop processes and reports to optimize project planning and execution, and Runding continues to play an integral role in the development of the department’s PCTS. One example is the creation of a structured approach to optimize contract management and use of the department’s ER (expenditure requisition) form from a committed cost standpoint.
“Our goal with Proliance was to achieve the ability to move a project to completion in a more efficient way,” says John Chorlog, associate director, Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Dept. “The consolidation and standardization of processes onto a singular system supports this effort. Our people now have a database-driven system that allows them to manage their resources and plan ahead for things like funding and equipment purchases. I see this as the greatest benefit of our Proliance solution.”
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Meridian Systems
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www.meridiansystems.com
Meridian Systems, the Plan-Build-Operate technology solutions leader for project-based organizations, provides software solutions to effectively manage capital building programs and facility assets.