Client story Towngas migration of project management system to the cloud
Insight helps the Hong Kong-based utility company migrate its project management system to the cloud to deliver productivity, performance and cost benefits.
By Insight Editor / 31 Oct 2024 / Topics: Consulting services Cloud Microsoft Azure
Overview
Hong Kong’s first public utility, The Hong Kong and China Gas Company (Towngas) has evolved from supplying fuel for street lamps in 1862 to one of the city’s largest energy suppliers. The company has also expanded and diversified into renewable energy, building services, telecommunications and other sectors across 29 regions in China. As a result, Towngas manages thousands of large-scale, business-critical projects.
The company developed its own Corporate Project Information Management (CPIM) system to enable it to manage its projects. However, the system was nearing 10 years old and based on a legacy version of Microsoft Project running on an on-premises server. It was also suffering from growing pains, with the system now supporting over 20,000 projects and more than 1,000 external parties, including subcontractors and suppliers.
Towngas realised it needed to upgrade to the latest, cloud-based version – Project Online – to ensure the system could scale and support its current and future requirements. As part of the upgrade, the company wanted to ensure the CPIM system was a flexible, mobile-capable application that would help boost its teams’ productivity and the efficiency of its project management processes. However, as a highly customised Project application, the CPIM upgrade would require much more than a ‘lift and shift’ migration. Towngas turned to Insight for help.
Migrating to the cloud
Insight helped the Towngas IT team throughout the entire project, from planning to implementation and even change management.
Migrating the CPIM system to Project Online required rebuilding almost every element of the application, from project planning to financial budgeting, resource planning, procurement and project auditing. It also required migrating data from the legacy server to a new Microsoft Azure instance and upgrading the integrated Microsoft SharePoint site.
The project’s complexity posed significant challenges, especially ensuring data integrity and security during the transition and delivering the desired functionality. Furthermore, the teams were given a deadline of less than a year to complete the data migration and system reprogramming. The pressure was on the Insight and Towngas teams to work efficiently and collaboratively to meet milestone deadlines without compromising the quality of the upgraded system.
The project also required effective change management to ensure a smooth transition for the CPIM system’s large user base. Towngas and Insight had to carefully plan, execute change management strategies, and provide training to minimise users’ resistance and maximise their engagement.
“Maintaining our Corporate Project Information Management system was becoming unwieldy and costly. It was based on an onpremise legacy version of Project and we really needed to migrate to the latest cloud-based version,” Susanna Shen, Head of IT, Towngas
Enhancing productivity and performance
Despite the challenges, the CPIM system was successfully upgraded on schedule. Importantly, the migration did not disrupt daily operations and the transition to the new system went smoothly for a project of this scale.
The upgraded CPIM system is already paying dividends, with Towngas seeing significant productivity, performance and cost benefits.
The new system requires far less maintenance, reducing costs and allowing the IT team to focus more on value-adding projects. At the same time, it takes advantage of the more advanced functionality offered by the latest versions of Project and SharePoint.
For the company as a whole, the upgraded CPIM system provides enhanced mobility and flexibility, along with real-time data access and new collaboration features, empowering its teams to work more efficiently and effectively on projects. The result is a 20% increase in productivity in daily operations.
In addition, upgrading its CPIM system has enabled Towngas to streamline and, in some cases, automate its project management processes, leading to significant cost savings and improved operational efficiency. Enhanced visibility has also improved resource utilisation.
“The CPIM refresh was originally a technical project designed to upgrade Project and SharePoint, but it delivered so much more. It gave us the opportunity to overhaul our project management processes and deliver positive business outcomes.” Susanna Shen, Head of IT, Towngas
Building a strong partnership
The partnership between the two companies started with Insight providing licensing services for Towngas’s Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Veeam Azure backup requirements. Since then, Insight has also helped Towngas on other projects, including a comprehensive security assessment of its Microsoft Copilot implementation and a cybersecurity training exercise involving phishing simulations.
The CPIM upgrade is Insight’s biggest engagement with Towngas to date and the project’s success illustrates the importance of developing a strong partnership with trusted technology service providers.
