Sometimes, you can build Rome in a day. Well maybe a day, give or take. One of the things we pride ourselves on at Gaea is covering the entire spectrum of consulting and implementation projects. No project management information system implementation is too small nor is any too large. We recently completed a project for Long Beach City College (LBCC) where we conducted an onsite assessment of their business systems in just one day and then delivered our recommendations.
About LBCC
LBCC is a community college founded in 1927, with two campuses in Long Beach, California. LBCC currently has almost 25,000 students enrolled across 820 courses and 3,148 class sections. The two campuses cover 142.1 acres and employ more than 1,600 full-time and part-time staff and faculty.
The Challenge
During our assessment, we reviewed LBCC’s existing project management information system (PMIS), and met with the LBCC construction and program management team of approximately 20 people. LBCC’S PMIS was made up of several disconnected systems, including Oracle Primavera Contract Management (PCM) for project controls, PeopleSoft (ERP), Primavera P6 for scheduling. Other peripheral systems included email, Word, Excel, and hard copies of documents.
Our analysis revealed the lack of an integrated, end-to-end solution. The results? Low visibility, data-entry errors, data silos, redundant information, inconsistent coding, inconsistent storage, and duplication of work. In addition, a serious bottleneck was created by multiple users submitting data to a single system administrator for entry.
During discovery, the construction management (CM) team stated that the current system is operating at approximately 20% efficiency when compared to a fully-integrated, coded, and connected system with effective data entry and workflow processes. If a perfect system score is 100%, the goal of the LBCC CM team was to improve their PMIS to at least 65% through available means. The general consensus of comments related to challenge areas was the need to improve standardization of business processes (BPs) and system access. Improvement of these key fundamentals was required for timely data gathering, to support key performance indicators (KPIs) across management levels, and to increase and add business efficiency.
The Solution
Our recommendations covered several areas. One, a revision of current LBCC systems and processes in order to maximize productivity and reduce errors. Two, a potential new project management system and related processes that would enhance the ability of LBCC to manage projects and overcome current system limitations. And three, integrations and processes designed to provide end-to-end system support for program and project management.
LBCC could upgrade from PCM 13.0 to 14.xx under their Oracle maintenance plan, or to select another system. Our post-assessment report included additional recommendations for LBCC. By migrating from PCM to Unifier, LBCC would have a future-proof project management solution (PCM support ended in April 2016). LBCC would also have additional functionality that would prove to be very valuable in many areas as they moved forward.
Further performance increases were also recommended, including several integrations:
- integration with PeopleSoft (cost control)
- integration between PeopleSoft and the cost management system (document control), and
- integrating contract and financial management (cost control).
The fully-integrated system recommended by Gaea gives LBCC total visibility, maximum efficiency, and reduces manual processes and errors by a significant margin.
U.S. Communities for the Best Project Management Information System Pricing
In order to secure the best pricing for LBCC and to streamline the contract process, we leveraged our partnership with DLT Solutions and U.S. Communities. Another win/win solution for another higher learning institution!