Project Portfolio Management

C&I Engineering is an employee-owned engineering, procurement, and construction management firm offering a wide range of services for refineries, chemical plants, utility facilities, and more. C&I is recognized in the industry for delivering exceptional results on mid-cap projects of $1-40 million. Here are 5 key ways that C&I is using EcoSys Enterprise Project Performance (EPP) software to ensure project benefits realization.

Benefits Realization at C&I Engineering

5 Ways Enterprise Project Performance Software Helps Benefits Realization

1) Optimizing Resources

A key aspect of benefits realization is ensuring you are getting the most out of your project resources. 

One of C&I’s goals is to “work intelligently.” This means consultants need to be doing the right thing at the right time. Integrating its EPP and ERP systems creates an integrated solution for managing resources. This allows all C&I employees to manage their time within the EPP system. Resource management capabilities help ensure consultants can work with multiple customers at a time. As a result, they are able to maximize value-add for their clients. 

2) Leveraging Quick Insights

Another way to improve benefits realization is having good information for decision making. It is hard to keep projects on track if you are not confident in your data. Therefore, quick access to reliable information is important to when taking action that can save projects.

EPP systems help by serving as a single source of truth for all project data. As a result, C&I has accurate and up-to-date project information. Then, the data can be analyzed by any dimension or level of granularity. Robust dashboards and reports are delivered in real-time to decision makers. 

3) Increasing Predictability

Executives hate surprises. Therefore, increasing the predictability of projects is often a top priority. This is because nothing derails project benefits realization like late forecast changes.

Utilizing KPIs available in the EPP allows C&I to track the predictability of projects and project teams. Therefore, they have created a culture of accountability and transparency. Furthermore, this more open and collaborative culture has been combined with the ability to consistently analyze project data and trends. As a result, forecasts are not only more accurate, but they are delivered earlier in the project. This enables management to take corrective action while it can still have an impact on project success. 

4) Capturing Knowledge

One of the major trends in the Engineering and Construction industry is a growing talent gap. Consequently, many organizations are looking for ways to capture knowledge and increase efficiency. If they are not able to, the ability to realize benefits from projects will suffer.

Like most companies in the industry, C&I is also dealing with an aging (and retiring) workforce. For them, this also included the founders of the company. The EPP system allows C&I to capture the internal best practices and standardize them across all projects before they walk out the door. Additionally, the user-friendly interface of the of the EPP increases user adoption and shortens the learning curve. This means new hires can get up to speed quickly. 

5) Streamlining Work Processes

It is common for organizations to use Excel spreadsheets and siloed point solutions when executing projects. This leads to low efficiency, data errors, inaccurate reporting, and reduced chances of project success.

Using the EPP, C&I is breaking down siloes of information that existed between different departments, disciplines, projects, people, and tools. As a result, they have dramatically increased efficiency. Incorporating more business process into their EPP system allows C&I to consolidate systems, boost collaboration, and reduce time spent on manual, low value activities. 

Conclusion

By using an Enterprise Project Performance software platform, C&I Engineering has shifted their mindset. Instead of only focusing on improving outcomes of individual projects, they are also considering the achievement of business objectives for ALL projects. This includes making better use of their resources across projects, making good decisions based on good data, making projects predictable, institutionalizing knowledge and best practices, and streamlining processes to work more efficiently. As a result, C&I is maximizing their project benefits realization.

Want to learn more about how EcoSys Enterprise Project Performance software maximizes value by helping C&I’s employees efficiently allocate their time to projects? Read the full case study.