Reduce Risk, Increase Teamwork
July 27, 2010
As they say, the more public the project, the higher the level of scrutiny on the job. That means the project team—from the owner on down—needs to have a higher focus on managing risk. The more risk on the project, the more likely disputes will arise causing delays in the project. But technology can help prevent operational risk on a project, and teams with the foresight to recognize the benefits of this type of technology will reap the rewards.
One project that will remain in the public eye for years to come is the $3.2 billion Panama Canal expansion project. The Panama Canal currently handles 5% of world trade, but merchant vessels have been growing too large to pass through the canal.
This waterway expansion program will include a new set of locks, the excavation of new access channels to the new locks, and the deepening of the navigation channels. The new set of locks will allow the waterway to double its shipping capacity by 2025, which will be 40% longer and 60% wider than the original locks. Each lock will have three chambers and each chamber will have three water recycling basins.
To orchestrate such a large project, the Panama Canal Authority, www.pancanal.com, comprised a team of contractors and consultants from across the globe including CH2M Hill, www.ch2m.com, Englewood, Colo., as program manager, among others.
In addition to managing project risk, the challenges of a job of this size include linking all the global business partners and ensuring compliance with stakeholder requirements. However, collaboration technology can give teams the ability to effectively manage all of this.
On the Panama Canal project, the team is using project collaboration software from Aconex, www.aconex.com, Melbourne, Australia. Aconex offers online project management software for the construction, government and infrastructure, and energy and resources markets. With a heavy international focus, the company has recently begun working more with companies in the United States.
According to Aconex, the project team is made up of hundreds of organizations across the world, and will need to exchange tens of thousands of documents each month. Technology can help access, distribute, and track documents and correspondence, while also reducing exposure to risk.
Aconex says since the platform is in the SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, it was deployed quickly and across the globe within weeks. The system is being used in conjunction with other enterprise applications such as Microsoft SharePoint and Primavera Contract Management from Oracle, www.oracle.com, Redwood Shores, Calif.
While this project is large in scale and important to world trade, projects across the country can benefit from similar mitigation of risk and team collaboration benefits. Technology can serve as the platform to manage and track all communications and project materials, allowing for improved project delivery.