Case Study Scottish Water Work And Asset Management Systems (WAMS) Implementation
In July 2003, DART were awarded the contract to implement Ellipse 5.2.3 for Scottish Water’s Work And Asset Management System (WAMS).
Ellipse went live on 5 April 2004 and the WAMS Project closed at the end of May 2004, after a support phase.
The DART implementation team delivered the project under budget and six months ahead of tendered guidelines.
The significant time savings were achieved by:
- DART Consultants, with more than 60 years of combined Ellipse/ MIMS experience, were able to contribute their existing knowledge and experience to deliver immediate results
- Completion of the Process Confirmation Forums and Business Requirements workshops within the first month, working within a disciplined methodology, with strong Consultant leadership and committed business participation
- Strong management, not allowing scope-creep
- Handing of any necessary additions to scope concurrently with the original requirements
- Amalgamated three planned, phased Go Live dates to a single date
- Strong buy-in from the business to supply key business personnel on a timely basis for requirements gathering and design definition.
Under WAMS, the three former water authorities from the North, West and East of Scotland merged into one ‘Scottish Water’. Each former authority had its own processes and systems, and the WAMS Project required consolidation of data and creation of one common set of processes, based on a single set of key values.
New processes were developed in line with Scottish Water values. These were developed into technical design, which would ensure capture of required data. The data to be used in the Ellipse system was gathered from a number of legacy systems used by the former separate water authorities.
The WAMS Solution was designed to allow future growth and process improvement.
WAMS was tasked with achieving business benefits identified by senior SW Operational Managers, while seamlessly integrating with SW’s existing EAI infrastructure and financial/ purchasing/ HR systems. As well as the savings inherent in reducing the number of legacy systems, the company has gained benefit from timely access to corporate-wide ‘whole of life’ asset costing.
The WAMS Project encountered several significant challenges. DART Consultants worked together with business resources to overcome them all.
Challenges
Challenges faced during the WAMS Project included:
- Integration of core systems formed an essential part of the SW requirements, as the financial, Human Resources, payroll, purchasing, warehouse reporting, capital investment and geo-spatial information systems were all separate to the Work and Asset Management System (Ellipse). However, these other systems relied on information held within the Asset Inventory and other Work Order details, in order to consistently capture and report on information such as costs, given that the details are mastered in one system and published to other systems. This situation required an integration adaptor.
After investigation, it became clear that an integration adaptor would not be available as part of the software purchase, within project timescales. This would jeopardise the entire solution, as its integration was vital to the solution.
DART developed an application that fulfilled the need for all designed integration points. XML was designed in order to provide the data in a consistent, documented manner.
- Changes occurring in Supply Chain processes had an ongoing impact on the Solution and configuration. Significant effort (previously unpredicted) was required to rationalise the Catalogue within a changing business context.
- Reporting was intended to be performed out of the corporate data warehouse. However, for Ellipse-specific reports, it was decided that a separate Business Object Universe should be built on top of the Ellipse database.
This work was completed at the same time as reporting requirements were finalised. This enabled the work, which was not within project scope, to be completed within tight timescales without introducing additional risk to the project.
Training
A successful Train the Trainer approach for the WAMS Project yielded a valuable long-term asset for the business, in the form of competent and confident Trainers equipped to manage ongoing WAMS training needs within the business, throughout Scotland.
Ten SW Trainers were selected to undertake a Train the Trainer program led by DART Consultants. The detailed Train the Trainer materials then formed the basis of end user training materials developed by the SW Trainers, under the guidance of the DART Training Consultant. Specialist training such as that for Planner/ Schedulers and finance personnel, was provided by DART Consultants. The DART Training Consultant monitored and supported Trainers as they delivered end user training, and provided regular training reports to Project Management.
Transition
A Go Live Transition Plan and Support Plan were implemented, managed by a Transition Team within the Project. This included a User Support Hotline, site support personnel (SW business analysts and DART Consultants), and continuous monitoring and management by the Transition Team Leader and Project Management.
DART Consultants remained within the project to support a structured handover to SW staff who would take ongoing responsibility for ongoing support for the system.
DART’s delivery of WAMS for Scottish Water has been received with praise for our professional efforts and the ability to provide project deliverables on time or ahead of time.
More information about the Scottish Water WAMS Project is available on request.