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e-Builder.net Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) Helping the 8th Largest Water & Wastewater Utility in the U.S. Save $330K/year CASE STUDY GOVERNMENT
e-Builder.net
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) Helping the 8th Largest Water & Wastewater Utility in the U.S. Save $330K/year
CASE STUDY GOVERNMENT
e-Builder.net [email protected] | [email protected]
Washington Suburban Sanitary CommissionHelping the 8th Largest Water & Wastewater Utility in the U.S. Save $330K/year
PROFILE
§ Serves almost 1.8 million residents in Prince George’s County and Montgomery County, MD
§ 460,000 customer accounts
§ Operates/maintains 8 water/wastewater plants
§ Approximately 5,500 miles of fresh water pipeline
§ Nearly 5,400 miles of sewer pipeline
§ In FY 2014, WSSC invested over $220 million to improve aging infrastructure
§ In midst of 5-Year IT Strategic Plan to leverage technology to provide first-rate, reliable customer service, greater business efficiency and growth, and effective stewardship of the environment.
§ WSSC developed a 30-year infrastructure plan to replace defective pipes.
CHALLENGES
§ Systems Inspection Group internal audit red flagged report processes.
§ Reliance on plethora of spreadsheets for filing, sharing and reporting project-related data
§ Limited remote accessibility
§ Redundant data entry
SOLUTION
§ Fully deployed e-Builder SaaS program management system in Systems Inspection Group
§ Established clearly defined and prescribed Daily Inspection Reports process
§ Single source for storage/management of correspondence, documents and monthly quantities and costs.
BENEFITS
§ More than $333,000 annual savings in increased efficiencies
§ Inspectors save 50% in admin tasks (between 20 and 40 minutes per day)
§ Collectively, all 59 inspectors save 20 to 40 hours per day
Ross Beschner, Systems Inspection Group Leader
“e-Builder offers the flexibility to access the system from virtually any place at any time, which is a huge advantage.”
CASE STUDY GOVERNMENT
e-Builder.net [email protected] | [email protected]
Washington Suburban Sanitary CommissionHelping the 8th Largest Water & Wastewater Utility in the U.S. Save $330K/year
BACKGROUND
When you’re as big and as busy as the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), becoming more efficient is not only important, it’s a necessity. Serving almost 1.8 million residents, the Laurel, MD-based WSSC is the 8th largest water and wastewater utility in the U.S. It operates eight water and wastewater plants and maintains more than 5,500 miles of fresh water pipeline and almost 5,400 miles of sewer pipeline.
The commission’s Systems Inspection Group is responsible for water and sewer replacement and renovation work. For fiscal year 2012, the group has 32 sewer rehab projects planned totaling $43 million, and an additional 39 sewer rehab projects on the books, which will cost another $32 million.
Not long ago, an internal audit noted some red flags in change management and document security processes, prompting the agency to rethink its technology-driven solutions.
CHALLENGES: PAPER PROCESSES & DISPARATE APPLICATIONS
WSSC inspectors are tasked with tracking and reporting work in the field on multiple projects using agency-issued laptops and an air card. Traditionally, WSSC relied heavily on spreadsheets for project documentation with information copied, consolidated and transferred multiple times throughout a month. Data entry was time-consuming and performing an analysis was challenging.
Under ideal conditions, inspectors needed about 20 minutes to fill out anywhere from three to seven separate reports, adding up to 40-80 minutes per day to complete reports, depending on wireless access.
Once recorded in the field, inspectors then re-entered the same data into a monthly tracking spreadsheet. Data from monthly tracking spreadsheets were checked by two or more individuals and then transferred again to a monthly report spreadsheet and double-checked again. Collectively, the checking and re-checking took between three and four hours and were fraught with potential errors.
The integrity of data was also disconcerting. We could have multiple versions of the same report floating out there somewhere. And without the means to track changes to the groups’ Daily Inspection Reports, errors could be costly. WSSC is paying the contractor based on the information that is being inspected in the field. If for some reason, [information] gets changed and there’s no track record of that, then the contractor might get paid twice or not at all.
Facing issues with data duplication, limited ability to store and analyze data and uncertain security, WSSC executives realized that needed a project management system and workflow.
CASE STUDY GOVERNMENT
e-Builder.net [email protected] | [email protected]
Washington Suburban Sanitary CommissionHelping the 8th Largest Water & Wastewater Utility in the U.S. Save $330K/year
SOLUTION: INTEGRATED PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
WSSC’s Project Delivery Group had been using e-Builder since 1995 with great success. The agency opted to use the same project management solution enterprise-wide in 2010, with the primary goal to streamline inspection reporting.
Today, inspectors, contract managers and contractors are using the solution on a daily basis for daily reports, as an electronic filing cabinet for miscellaneous files, to track quantities and costs, to track submittals and to run monthly reports.
Specifically, the solution streamlines the preparation and filing of Daily Inspection Reports (DIR). The use e-Builder’s Processes module to execute DIR’s in a clearly defined and prescribed way, thereby eliminating confusion, improving efficiency and driving productivity. e-Builder is also being used to track correspondence, store additional documents and record monthly quantities and costs. WSSC is currently using e-Builder’s Documents Folders, Cost Module, Submittal Module as well as the Processes Module.
RESULTS
TIME AND MONEY SAVED
The improved efficiencies in inspection reporting have been beneficial for a number of reasons. The accuracy of the reports has improved greatly and inspectors are filing the reports daily as intended.
Since inspectors now spend considerably less time on administrative tasks, they have more time to spend in the field performing inspections. It’s estimated that each WSSC inspector now spends 50 percent less time on administrative activities. Collectively, all 59 inspectors are saving 20 to 40 hours per day.
Contract managers are also saving time. These individuals (16 in all) are each responsible for managing about six projects. They check each Daily Inspection Report for accuracy. Collectively, the group is saving approximately 32 hours per day.
Saving time means saving money. Project members estimate that the WSSC is saving more than $333,000 annually due to the increased efficiencies facilitated by e-Builder.
REAL-TIME REPORTING
Once inspectors file real-time reports from the field, the data is automatically collected and sorted into the ‘monthly’ report that supervisors can access as needed. Real-time data is at the fingertips of all stakeholders.
Answers to questions that used to take project managers considerable time to find going through multiple spreadsheets is now available in about 30 seconds.
INCREASED TRANSPARENCY
With all data stored in a single source, WSSC has established a traceable workflow. For instance, once the daily inspection reports are approved, individuals cannot go back and modify them, remedying concerns raised during the internal audit.
Depot managers know who is checking reports on a daily basis and group leaders can track employee progress on tasks. That same visibility enables contractors and inspectors to view, store and exchange information related to sewer projects on a daily basis.
Contractors also appreciate the way e-Builder enables them to access information in a more expeditious manner than in the past. Now WSSC can run a daily item estimate sheet report off of e-Builder that shows daily how much work has been completed; the contractor can run the same report and see exactly what’s been approved and what he should be getting paid for. The contractor has visibility into the accounting daily instead of just at the end of the month.
CASE STUDY GOVERNMENT
e-Builder.net [email protected] | [email protected]
Washington Suburban Sanitary CommissionHelping the 8th Largest Water & Wastewater Utility in the U.S. Save $330K/year
To Request an Online Demo Visit: e-Builder.net or call 800.580.9322
FEWER ERRORS
The practice of cutting and pasting data from one spreadsheet to another has been discontinued. By using e-Builder, there are no errors in transferring redundant information to multiple reporting spreadsheets.
Keeping track of which version is the most up-to-date is no longer a concern either. The system’s filesharing features ensure that people are working on or looking at the most current version of a document. With the check-in and check-out feature on e-Builder, it makes it very simple to be able to keep track of who’s got it checked out and when it’s checked back. Every version is still in e-Builder if WSSC has a need to access it; the system creates a document history.
IMPROVED ACCESSIBILITY
Since e-Builder is a web-based system, difficulty logging on remotely to an internal server and accessing multiple documents is no longer an issue. The data can be easily accessed from the field which allows our inspectors to spend more time in the field actually watching projects, but also [provides] the flexibility of doing their reports while on the jobsite.
e-Builder offers the flexibility to access the system from virtually any place at any time, which is a huge advantage.
Using e-Builder has streamlined the Systems Inspection Group’s processes, resulting in greater efficiency, more accurate data and improved performance of contractors and WSSC staff. Additionally, e-Builder’s ability to track versions, control access, and ensure data integrity proved that it could satisfy internal audits.
CASE STUDY GOVERNMENT
