Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

Transcription

1 e-builder.net

2 Leah Mooney, Chief of Capital Construction Financials The software is mature. It s been around awhile. It s very robust, so it allows us to do a lot of different things with it. PROFILE Nation s second largest public transportation system Rail/bus services for City of Chicago and 40 surrounding suburbs Total ridership: over 520 million annually CHALLENGES Multi-year, multi-billion modernization program Discontinued program management software Limited transparency SOLUTION Program management solution built for transportation market owners Cross-project reporting functionalities Ability to simultaneously manage day-to-day project activities and project budgets RESULTS Established process improvements and standardized workflows Increased transparency Access to real-time data Minimizes duplicate data entry Faster/easier cross-project reporting

3 BACKGROUND On an average weekday, approximately 1.6 million people in the City of Chicago and surrounding suburbs use rail and bus services operated by the, an independent governmental agency. Keeping transit services running smoothly requires a significant capital investment. We have over a billion dollars worth of projects, either in some phase of planning, design, or construction right now, says Leah Mooney, Chief of Capital Construction Financials for CTA. Currently, the agency is in the midst of an aggressive multiyear modernization program to improve the speed, comfort and reliability of the system. As part of this program, more than $5 billion in system improvements have been completed, begun or announced. These improvements include building new or rehabilitating existing rail stations, modernizing rail and bus fleets, implementing new technology for commuters, and upgrading infrastructure such as viaducts, tracks and substations. Project costs range from several hundred thousand dollars to multimillion dollars. CHALLENGE: LIMITED PROGRAM MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONALITY The CTA was an early adopter of electronic program management software; unfortunately, ProjectNet, the system they had come to rely on since 2001, was discontinued by the vendor. The CTA used the situation as an opportunity to find program management software that offered greater capabilities. While ProjectNet provided data security and document control, it lacked a number of key features and functionality including the ability to customize. They also wanted cross-project reporting functionalities; a single interface where data on multiple projects can be accessed and consolidated for at-a-glance updates to cut down on time spent copying and combining information, as well as resultant errors. The solution also needed to have robust reporting capabilities for reporting on cost and budget information and the ability to manage projects and costs. We thought it would be good to be able to merge functionality and be able to have the same system that we used to manage the project on a day-to-day basis also be used to manage the project budget, explains Mooney. SOLUTION: STANDARDIZE & STREAMLINE In its search to find an alternative software program to use, the CTA utilized the expertise of Kristine Fallon Associates, Inc. (KFA), an information technology consultant and member of the Chicago Transit Partners program management team, to help in the procurement process. One of the priorities for the new solution would be its ability keep an audit trail of when documents were uploaded, who was looking at them, who had responded and when. It was equally important to have a system that allowed CTA staff to create customized workflows that molded to CTA business processes.

4 Other criteria included a system that was: Implementable within six months; Hosted by an external transportation market-focused vendor Specifically designed for the management of construction and design projects (not just a generic solution for managing documents and processes) As a public agency, CTA issued an open RFP to find the system with the best fit, with e-builder s solution emerging with the highest score. SPEEDY IMPLEMENTATION The CTA started using e-builder Enterprise in August 2011 for the $10.3 million Purple Line Viaducts project. Two other projects were also coming online and it was important for the team to have e-builder up and running. The implementation schedule was restructured so that the functionality equivalent to ProjectNet was available for these first projects within one month of purchase. Implementation of the remaining functionality commenced immediately thereafter and was later activated for the initial projects. KFA was on board to help and, even with the rapid rollout, the implementation was smooth and painless. The CTA currently has 1,250 licenses for the e-builder system. It s used by a number of departments within the CTA, including engineering, construction, finance, real estate, project controls, quality assurance and the CTA s internal inspector general staff. Externally, it s used by consultants and contractors, explains Peter Urban, KFA s Senior Project Manager for the e-builder implementation. It s also available to oversight agencies, so the funding agencies or grantors to the CTA have access to the system as well. This kind of transparency reduces concerns, improves the organization s reputation with constituents and simplifies audits. Further, CTA relies on e-builder to support the lifecycle of its projects. We re using it to manage projects from planning to design to construction, says Urban. The software is mature. It s been around awhile. It s very robust, so it allows us to do a lot of different things with it. HISTORICAL LOOK BACK Prior to e-builder, the CTA managed its project budgets and costs in a homegrown database application. With the roll-out of e-builder, the agency looked to move its historical project information into the new system. Approximately 4,000 existing budget and cost records were migrated into the e-builder system. e-builder s import tools allowed us to automate the import. Although this required preparation to get the source data into the proper groupings and formats, it allowed us to capture every record. The alternative, if no import capability existed, would have been manual entry, says Urban. The import process allowed us to get all the detailed transactions and prevent errors versus manual entry. It also enabled the CTA to retain the detailed records that existed in the original system. Reducing the number of systems used from three to two, and using e-builder to track budget information and project management information has reduced duplicate data entry and errors.

5 RESULTS PROCESS CUSTOMIZATION & TRANSPARENCY The biggest advantage for the CTA in using e-builder is that it has enabled the evaluation of current processes and facilitated process improvement activities. One of the features that e-builder provides us is not only can we report on the average turnaround time for this whole process, but we can look at it on a step-by-step basis, says Urban. That allows us to actually look at an eight-step process and see that this one step seems to take longer than all the others and take appropriate action. More granular reporting on specific tasks enables them to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the process and adapt workflows, if necessary. The agency uses e-builder s workflow functionality to standardize processes and enforce CTA s process requirements and measure effectiveness. Process customization is particularly valuable for managing alternative project delivery methods such as design/build projects. The agency also has greater data transparency and accuracy. For instance, if there s a potential cost change on a project, the forecast is automatically updated and anyone that has access to that information can see the change. All the information is accessible from one place and in real-time. By using e-builder instead of its homegrown database for budget information, CTA is able to manage programs and projects with project status reports that draw data directly from team members responsible for tasks. These reports are issued on a monthly or quarterly basis, both internally to the CTA s management, as well as to grantors or funding agencies. Uploading and sharing documents is much easier as well. INTUITIVE INTERFACES The interface is very intuitive, says Greg Bush, KFA s Senior Consultant on the Web-based Project Management Implementation Team. In addition to the ability to drag and drop many files to upload them, we can send files to non-users of the system through e-builder Enterprise. We can collaborate and ask for comments from them as well, he explains. We have one place to look for the info. We never really have to go to . Reaction to the system has been overwhelmingly positive. Word has spread about the functionality and user-friendly interface e-builder offers. And there is growing interest in using e-builder from other groups at the CTA. Other people see that this thing is powerful, that it s easy to use and they want to see if it can be used by their department as well, adds Urban. REAL-TIME REACTIONS The CTA can also customize reports for managers and other specific teams. Cross-project reporting, in particular, is ideal for general managers who are managing multiple projects at once and want to see trends and the dashboard function is a great way to get a quick snapshot of multiple projects progress. To Request an Online Demo Visit: e-builder.net or call