Effective collaboration is the key to success
by Dak Liyanearachchi

For a global company, forming close relationships with external organisations and finding an efficient method for teams world-wide to work together has never been so important. At a time when to achieve ‘more with less’ appears to be a core objective for most businesses, the need for effective collaboration and communication processes is greater than ever.

Traditional methods of managing projects have demanded a radical rethink in recent years. Corporate projects have become more decentralised in how they are managed and projects are becoming more complex. The number of people involved in projects has continued to grow and delivery times continued to decrease. Ways of managing projects need to reflect these changes.

To reduce risk and ensure successful project delivery, it is of paramount importance that the whole project team have a common view of the current state of the project and that each team members must know what their responsibilities are.

Trends

So, how do you take control of your projects? And how do you make sure that your project team knows what the current status of the project is? A straw poll of attendees to ProjectWorld in October last year by Projectplace Ltd, highlighted a concerning trend amongst project managers as 85% of those questioned cited e-mail as their primary form of collaboration and project control. But e-mail is simply not up for the task of project control and collaboration. Are there other solutions? Many companies have opted for an Extranet solution to enable project collaboration, but as a result suffered from the long development and implementation times, increased security risks and sheer cost.

A solution that has proved increasingly popular is to use a web-based collaboration service. Applications Service Providers (ASPs), such as Projectplace Ltd, have converged web-based collaboration software with project management applications and are now offering a cost-effective, secure service that allows project teams to share project-related information. A web-based project collaboration service offer project teams for example document archive, planning and tracking mechanisms, project calendar, discussion forum etc., which enable easy collaboration and communication.

Managing the impossible

The oil business is a prime example of a truly global industry. With facilities and offices spread across the world, projects can often be difficult to manage, particularly with the number and location of the external organisation that typically get involved. When called upon to develop and produce a new type of production facility, BP’s Upstream Division selected a web-based collaboration service, Projectplace, to ensure the success of the project.

As one of the largest oil exploration companies in the world, BP has interests in 25 countries through four divisions and has over 10,000 employees. One of those divisions, BP Upstream, is based in Aberdeen and is responsible for exploration of oil and gas in the North Sea.

The Clair Project

The Clair Development is the name given to projects taking place in the Clair Oil Field, situated in the North Sea. The development includes a fixed platform in 500 feet of water, with an outfitted operating deck weighing 10,000 tons. In October 2000, BP Upstream in Aberdeen awarded contracts to Mustang Engineering Inc and Noble Drilling, both based in Houston, Texas, for the FEED and Engineering elements of the project. This approach broke new ground within BP for UK-located projects.

“All in all there were 150 people involved in the Clair Project, with over 100 of them needing to be in contact on a regular basis,” said Graeme Hall, supply chain manager for the BP Clair Project (West Shetland area). “We needed a system that would enable us to collaborate, discuss and share documents on a timely, world-wide basis, and we needed it immediately.”

The Projectplace solution

“Selecting a service was not an easy process, as a number of requirements needed to be satisfied,” said Hall. “In previous projects we had tried to use available applications such as e-mail and BP’s Intranet to enable collaboration, but they were far from suitable. Opening the intranet up to external organisations was deemed too much of a security risk, while e-mail failed miserably in trying to cope with the large files which needed to be shared (typically over 20MB). There was also no way of tracking the progress, which is so essential for successful project management.”

Hall turned to his IT department for advice and it was on their recommendation he chose Projectplace.

Projectplace is a pure web-based service, which has the functionality to provide project managers and all members of the team with the tools to run projects effectively. The fact that it may be accessed by project members anywhere, anytime, means it is particularly attractive to the Clair project, where there was a need to work with geographically-dispersed departments and external organisations. It also provides excellent security so that the integrity of any internal networks is not compromised, as can happen with an Extranet.

The benefits of Projectplace

Hall has found it a huge advantage to use an ASP, particularly as any future upgrades to the service are performed automatically with no disruption, while any new functionalities is available to all users immediately. As an added bonus, the ASP model also means there is no capital investment.

“Projectplace has been designed to be intuitive so even people with limited PC knowledge can use it almost immediately. For those who were initially wary of it, a small amount of training got them up and running,” said Hall. “One of the great advantages from a project management perspective is that all tasks are now so visible to the teams that an amount of peer pressure is generated. This means tasks happen on time as any lateness is immediately obvious to the project manager and others.”

BP Upstream has been using Projectplace for 18 months now and Hall is delighted with the results. Typical documents shared on Projectplace include planning information, design information, technical drawings, risk management data, technical data, plans and strategy documents. The tracking facility has also proved extremely useful.

“The thing I like about Projectplace is its simplicity and the fact that it is a global service,” said Hall. “It is separate from BP’s networks and allows project members to access and communicate across what is in effect a global extranet.”