P6 flows at Glanua

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Glanua – an industry leader in providing project solutions for the water and waste water industry – was proactively looking to enhance its programme and commercial reporting on a portfolio and enterprise level as part of its growth strategy in the UK. Time was of the essence, as key managers suddenly, due to Covid-19, could dedicate time to join the initiative, and this opportunity was likely be short lived. RPC successfully worked with the client to carry out the implementation and training using remote access technology.

Approach

The usual approach to this type of implementation involves a series of on-site meetings, workshops and user training. Plainly, this would not be possible during the lockdown period. With the client population spread across Portugal, Ireland and the UK, on-site workshops and training would have proved impractical, even in non-Covid times, so with the agreement of the client it was decided to run the workshops and the training remotely, using Microsoft Teams.

RPC had quickly come to grips with this technology, having identified it as the best way to deliver remote training when classroom-based training became impossible. It was also the tool of choice with the client. After the initial kick off meeting it was decided that 4-hour sessions, run weekly, would be the most efficient way of organising the meetings and Teams meeting calendar invites were arranged.

The first sessions with the system administrator’s setup the P6 EPPM structures, user names and profiles and other ancillary administration tasks. As some of the users had existing P6 knowledge their input to the workshops proved invaluable to ensure the configuration suited all current requirements and included the creation of placeholders for future projects.

The training both for users and the directors could now commence and a training needs analysis matrix identified the training topics for each user.

Main Challenges

This kind of implementation is our bread and butter work. Even working to a tight deadline like this one would not normally be an issue. We were already confident that working and training remotely would be possible from our perspective, so the obvious challenge in this case was for the client’s users to get used to attending a workshop or training session using Teams and also working from their home offices.

This of course had the usual distractions like mobile phones ringing and clashes with other meetings but also distractions caused by working from home, like dogs barking at the postman, somebody at the door and the noise and interruptions of family life.

We ensured that a suitable coffee break was scheduled in to give the eyes a rest from staring at the screen for a prolonged period. In terms of actually configuring the system and conducting the training, this way of working was a great success, as the Teams platform enabled instant screen sharing and the collaboration features like the chat room and the ability to share files on the Teams channel helped enormously. We have also established strong personal and professional connections between both organisations, and we are continuing our working relationship to deliver the Enterprise model for Glanua.

Benefits

• Enriched communication (chat, file sharing, video face to face);
• Focussed workshop and training sessions (short, sharp sessions);
• No travel or commute time or associated travel expenses;
• Implementation completed in fewer days than planned.