Global Data Center

Learn how Avicado helped a global data center organization who oversees a large portfolio of retrofits turn their data into actionable insights on centralized dashboards – empowering team members at all levels. Avicado partnered with the client to understand their new data needs and business objectives as they were simultaneously going through a global PMIS implementation. Through close collaboration and partnership we were able to develop these new dashboards to aide in the overall PMIS implementation and adoption.

Continue reading to learn how this organization was able to save over 1300 hours with actionable data and streamlined processes!

• No standardized processes, defined terminology / calculations, nor measurable KPIs – making data health and reporting a big challenge.
• Silo’ed data and teams caused them to have an excess of dashboards that meant different things to different people – making it impossible to find a single source of truth.
• Without easy access to KPIs, decisions were being made retroactively instead of proactively – causing hiccups that could’ve been avoided with the right insights in the hands of the right people.
• Data warehouse was not consistently queried.

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• Enabled the client to be proactive to their daily data center management.
• Got everyone on the same page by providing a centralized location for users to view project insights.
• Defined and standardized critical terminology and calculations utilized across the global portfolio.
• Improved project quality by displaying data errors that need to be corrected so people understood what action was needed.
• Created a cohesive reporting experience by combining cost and schedule data from two different systems.
• Developed consistent data warehouse queries to improve overall data integrity.

Avicado evaluated the client’s current state in order to understand their business questions, gaps, and goals. We took on a project management and business analyst role throughout the client’s journey including documenting requirements, leading meetings, communicating with the client regularly, and monitoring progress.

In the end, we were able to universally define key terminology and calculations – getting everyone to speak the same language. We also simplified and streamlined their dashboards – replacing 15+ one-off dashboards with 3 comprehensive global dashboards that answered their important business questions, with more dashboards to follow.

Using these new dashboards, the client now saves over 500 hours annually on quarterly reporting alone and approximately 800 hours of updates and preparation for weekly team meetings. That’s 1300+ hours saved on just two processes, thanks to clean and organized data!

Customized Dashboards Created:

• Data Health
• Schedule Lookahead
• Budget

These dashboards don’t exist in a vacuum. They are all inter-related and pull data from a single data warehouse – making them highly reliable and consistent. These dashboards became the single source of truth that any stakeholder at any site could look at and get accurate, timely, and actionable insights.

Here are a few examples of how our client is using the dashboards:

• Quarterly + Capital Reporting – Previously a big manual task, stakeholders can now easily find the most important metrics and trust in its accuracy – saving them time and providing peace of mind. The global team can now be assured that everyone is using the same data so they can jump into the business discussions and spend less time gathering the data.
• Proactive Schedule Management – Now that the team has created and rolled out “Standard Project Milestones”, we can proactively flag upcoming milestones to improve visibility and encourage proactive communication and/or schedule updates if needed.
• Proactive Time Management – Project Executives are using near-end completion dates to be proactive and prioritize urgent action items – making better use of their time.
• Tracking Budget Health – Project Managers are using the variance health widget to indicate projects that are over budget and meet with project teams to create mitigation plans. Also, with the improved terminology definitions this has streamlined communication across the portfolio.
• Manage Upcoming Workload – Project Managers are using the ‘substantial completion milestone in 90 days’ to get a visual look into what projects are coming to a close along with the priority level.