Case Study - Large Public Utility

Project: Development, Maintenance and Enhancement of Mission Critical Java-based Applications

Executive Summary Our client is the seventh largest public utility in the United States, offering electric, water, and sewage services. In the midst of a major capital campaign, our client has managed to hold rates firm without an increase in seven years, and is recognized as one of the top performing utilities in the nation in service quality, customer satisfaction, and cost effectiveness.

The Business Challenge Our client was experiencing both inconclusive returns on investment in IT and slow project timeframes for completion. Business users within the company were dissatisfied with the effectiveness of the services provided by IT, which led to managers procuring their own services outside the process. This resulted in a fragmented technology base, reactive project management, and increased cost of IT services. The CEO set a goal to be the #1 service provider in the nation, and the CIO stepped up to the challenge by seeking to transform the relationship with the internal business users and to dramatically improve the ROI of IT projects.

Challenge Being Met Working with the CIO, FirstShore helped to create a business structure whereby both business users and the IT professionals identified key business problems, prioritized the requirements of the potential solution, and committed to a 15-week delivery cycle for solution implementation. FirstShore technical architects, application developers, and senior project managers delivered projects that have implemented groundbreaking advances in how the client does the following:

• Determines if and when to drill new water wells. Savings in the first year amounted to over $4M
• Manages outages, with real-time linkage between field maintenance, customer service center, sales personnel, and key clients impacted by outages
• Communicates information about key projects, including web-based tracking and input
• Determines the impact and importance of the many environmental risks and standards related to providing utility services

Services Provided
Outsourced technical competency relative to the following:

• Database Design and Architecture
• Web-Architecture / Framework design (J2EE)
• Browser-based Interface & Creative Graphical Design
• Rapid Application Development
• Java, JavaScript & JSP language development
• Application maintenance and enhancement

Benefits Being Delivered
The client has achieved:

• Greater collaboration between business users and IT
• New automation of key business processes
• Proactive notification and servicing of key customers
• A reduction in the time and cost required for developing new applications
• Reduced IT support costs
• Enhanced reporting, system integration and administration capabilities

< < Back