About these case studies. The case studies on this site are summaries of past projects carried out by a group of companies, published as general information. Digital Growth Notes did not carry out this work and is not connected to the organisations named. Names and marks belong to their owners.
Ausgrid
Challenge
Ausgrid employs over 2,000 field engineering and support personnel to maintain network infrastructure sprawling across more than 22,000 square kilometres.
To manage workflow and communication, the company used a custom, spreadsheet based scheduling system, which had fallen far behind what was possible utilising cloud-based collaborative technologies.
As a result, different personnel worked from conflicting versions of the schedule. Field workers lacked confidence in the data they were sent. Jobs were cancelled because key equipment hadn’t been booked.
Tech Products
- Google Cloud Platform
- Google AppEngine
- Google BiqQuery
- Google Cloud Datastore
The business lacked visibility of who was doing what, and when. With no reliable way of measuring utilisation, it couldn’t improve on it.
Idea
Clearly, Ausgrid needed smart, simple, real time collaboration between managers, schedulers, supervisors and engineers. But while the desired outcome was obvious, how best to execute was not.
Working directly with a group of real users, the group's project team prioritised a foundational feature set and shipped its first release within days.
This was deployed straight to production for a small user sample, who provided immediate and ongoing feedback. Iterating like this, from core capabilities outwards, within 12 weeks the group had developed a product that was limited in scope but highly functional.
The speed and quality of this outcome consolidated trust among the stakeholders. With Ausgrid embracing our methodology, we rolled into a new cycle, delivering more features at pace and increasing the user base. With more use and more users informing the process, an elegant but robust version 2 product quickly took shape. In the final phase, we refined the UX and defined more sophisticated integration.
Working directly with a group of real users, the group's project team prioritised a foundational feature set and shipped its first release within days.
Outcome
With partial rollout it still delivered over $1M per month in increased productivity, meaning the project paid for itself in less than three months.
Ausgrid Client Lead
“This is the most rapid and successful software rollout we’ve ever done. It’s transformed the way people work here. Users love MyWork.”
Impact
After just 9 months, a full quarter earlier than anticipated, the MyWork platform was complete. The group had created a field crew scheduling and collaboration tool that Boston Consulting Group’s global utilities expert described as the “world leading solution” in the space.
MyWork immediately saved the business $2M in capital expenditure by eliminating the need for a planned SaaS platform upgrade. More importantly, even at partial rollout it delivered over $1M per month in increased productivity, which meant the project paid for itself in less than three months.
Outcome
$2M Capex Saving
Multi-million dollar productivity improvement.
