Network Rail is the ‘not for dividend’ owner and operator of Britain’s railway infrastructure, which includes the tracks, signals, tunnels, bridges, viaducts, level crossings and stations – the largest of which are also managed. Network Rail aims to provide a safe, reliable and efficient rail infrastructure for freight and passenger trains to use.
Challenge
Network Rail was using disparate planning systems across the organization and was looking to improve overall efficiency and control and achieve project management excellence. To achieve these goals, Network Rail had chosen to implement Oracle Primavera P6, Time & Labor, Oracle Projects, Risk Management and Estimating. This large number of applications would also involve a considerable amount of customization and integration. Network Rail asked Ten Six to lead the Primavera P6 implementation and it’s integration with the other Oracle applications.
Ten Six Approach
After conducting an initial assessment it was agreed that the high level approach should consist of a three phase implementation:
- Phase I – Competence (Implementation)
- Phase II – Capability (Embedment)
- Phase II Excellence (Consolidation)
Some of the expected benefits to this implementation included:
- Report performance of Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
- Create less labor-intensive business plans.
- Forecast use of resources in support of the National Works and Resource Plans.
- Compare project with project to identify best practices and areas for improvement.
- Reduce time currently spent consolidating data, reporting and measuring performance.
- Reduce duplication of work across departments.
- Improve the investment planning framework.
- Instill confidence in the consistency and accuracy of data we produce for both external and internal consumption.
- Enable staff to move from one project to the next without having to learn new procedures and tools in the PM functional areas.
- Coordinate Possession Management across all projects where changes to schedule or possession are visible.
More specifically, a huge amount of design and configuration was required as well as working very closely with the other application implementation teams. These teams consisted of Network Rail employees and teams from other consulting organizations that specialized in implementing particular Oracle applications. Some of the implementation goals of all the applications were:
- One set-up & coding system across the applications
- Electronic workflows used to track key processes (e.g. authority approvals)
- Simplified and consistent process across the whole organization
- Data entered into one system only and at source
- Information only handled once
- Compliance with Investment/Finance regulations
- No duplication of reporting and control requirements
In addition, the approach to customization and integration involved closely working with consulting partners with the following ground rules:
- Build a ‘sandbox’/prototype to demonstrate rapid results
- Create conference room pilots to prove the solutions by configuring the applications
- Develop customizations/ extensions
- Build a pre-production system for acceptance and user testing, and training
- Create data conversion routines
- Training, learning and adoption
- Transition to Production
Given the scale of the implementation, the Ten Six team focused on the delivery of the Primavera P6 application, it’s integration with other Oracle applications, migration of data, relevant processes and the training of a large user base timed with the rollout.
Results
We are pleased to announce that Network Rail successfully introduced a new consistent planning, cost management, risk and estimating tool-sets and processes across a user base of 1,000 people. This constituted one of the biggest systems and process implementations of its kind in Europe. We were able to establish schedule and cost baselines for over 2,000 projects, representing over £2bn of spend per year. We successfully migrated over 10 million individual data items from legacy planning and cost control systems (Primavera P3 and PMCS) to Primavera P6 and financial management system.
To address the people aspects of this implementation, Ten Six supported the delivery of over 7,000 man days of training including combined customized Primavera P6 and process training program. Formal mentoring and coaching programs were also put in place to support the rollout.
Finally, we documented and briefed the Network Rail team on core Controls, Risk, Estimating, Project Planning and Possession Planning principles.
The Network Rail Director leading this implementation commented on Ten Six’s performance.
“Ten Six was critical to the success of this huge implementation project. Their team successfully delivered one extremely challenging and large component of this program. Their control over their part of the program together with their communication processes took a considerable part of the risk away. This confidence in their delivery allowed me to focus on other areas of the overall program that had significant challenges.”