ADVISICON Project Management Office Development and Microsoft® Office Project
CASE STUDY

Abstract

Portland General Electric (PGE) needed to make significant changes to its infrastructure in order to remain competitive as well as meet growing consumer demand. Given the size and scope of the project, it commanded the attention of the state of Oregon in addition to the corporate executives. Advisicon deployed a successful solution utilizing Microsoft technology to provide a flexible and scalable project management structure as well as detailed reporting functions. Additionally, Advisicon curriculum was used for training and education to create a supportive organizational environment.

Portland General Electric (PGE):

Portland General Electric (PGE) was on the precipice of change. Faced with growing energy requirements, a need to install a two‐way communications system and the ability to collect and process this data, a new system needed to be implemented. The changes and systems needed to meet these demands were required to be fast, efficient and effective.

For PGE, deployment of advanced metering systems was considered the next step in the quickly evolving utilities sector. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) describes the automated collection of meter data over a fixed communications network (sometimes called automated meter reading AMR). With more than one‐third of all electric utilities in North America already having this type of system, PGE was positioning to provide demand response and direct load control programs to its customers. Considering that by 2010, experts project 40% of utility customers in the U.S. will have “smart metering”, the conversion was also of tremendous interest to the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

Upon conversion to the AMI system, PGE would become one of the largest deployments in the U.S. with approximately 850,000 meters installed. The rationale for installing an advanced metering system included:

1. Cost savings
2. Elimination of inaccurate, missing or problematic reads
3. Improved customer service

• Identify project controls, office portfolio and program needs and plans
• Identify existing architecture for supporting project and resource management
• Create a project and resource scheduling roadmap for software implementation

• Identify organizational and cultural sticking points and adoption roadblocks
• Document, summarize and present the plan for review by key stakeholders allowing approval to move forward

• Effective project portfolio management standards and workflow reporting on projects, resources, deliverables and cross project dependencies
• Detailed project planning and ensured timely collection and interpretation of schedule data
• Supported organizational adoption through training and other educational efforts to expand user knowledge and leverage tool performance

• Timely information on project tasks, risks, resources and statistics allowing for enhanced visibility into the organization and more effective decision‐making
• Simple data entry with easily accessible reporting functions designed to pull data accurately and without human error
• More efficient resource allocation and better visibility into the organization.

• Microsoft® Office Suite
• Microsoft® Project 2003
• Microsoft® Access
• Advisicon curriculum for Risk Management and Project Training

USERS

• Project Managers
• Sponsors
• Directors
• Managers
• Resources