WorkPack platform has been helping teams from different verticals to manage their infrastructure and industrial projects.

When it comes to managing an infrastructure project, cost control is a very important aspect and closely linked to procurement management.

So many of our customers use WorkPack to digitize their procurement process using our workflow engine.

A digital procurement workflow helps in –

• Tracking material movement
• Quantifying actual expenses against the budget
• Monitoring progress of long lead items

Long Lead Items

‘Long lead items’ are generally material items which have long enough procurement and delivery timelines to have a significant impact on overall project schedule. If their delivery is delayed on project site, bulk of the subsequent construction work gets delayed.

Hence, placing purchase orders of such long lead items is usually a high priority activity for any infrastructure project managers.

For solar power projects, solar PV panels, inverters and mounting structures are usually the long lead items.

Progress leaks through communication gaps

One of our customers who is a solar EPC contractor, used WorkPack to digitize procurement operations and to have a project wise overview of material procurement.

Ramesh (not real name) manages these solar projects and keeps track of overall progress for all of them.

Suresh (not real name) is in charge of procurement process. Dinesh (again, not the real name) is a buyer working in Suresh’s team.

This team usually manages 15-20 projects simultaneously, at any given time. So, often it becomes difficult to keep track of each and every item for all of these projects.

Which is why they started using WorkPack about 6 months ago.

A few weeks back they were working on a solar rooftop project with a very tight deadline.

They had decided to use imported solar PV panels of a particular brand for this project. And it was important to place the PO within first week of starting the work.

So Dinesh checked all different available models, worked with the engineering team to finalize the one to be purchased, finalized the pricing with vendor and prepared the PO.

He then got it approved from Suresh, but somehow missed out on actually sending the PO email.

Next day, Ramesh checked with Suresh regarding procurement’s progress, he was informed everything was on track. Because Suresh had already signed the PO, he had assumed that the PO had already been emailed by then.

So Ramesh came to a false understanding the solar panel purchase was already going as per schedule.

WorkPack saves the day

Luckily, he had made it a daily habit to cross check progress updates from his offline notes, with WorkPack’s online progress reports.

And on WorkPack dashboard, the solar panel PO was still shown to be pending – precisely because it had not been emailed yet.

So the very next day Ramesh reached out to Dinesh and understood that PO had been approved, but not emailed yet. Then it was promptly dispatched within an hour.

When we asked Ramesh for his feedback on WorkPack, he had this story to tell us.

He acknowledged that, without the warning from WorkPack, he would not had followed up with Dinesh and delay could have escalated further, until someone else decided to follow up.

Automated progress tracking

Ramesh further added that his work routine before WorkPack involved going through a mess of emails, excel sheets, receipts, chalans and trying to map them with project schedule.

WorkPack has automated that part of his day so he can focus on delegating work, following up with team with a clear head.

Value of accurate and timely information

Project managers often ask us – how to quantify the value of a project management platform like WorkPack? Or in other words – how to quantify ROI.

So the best way is quantify the potential loss of value in absence of WorkPack.

In Ramesh’s story, any delay in project delivery directly translates to commercial loss in the form of ‘late penalties’.

That makes it is easy for him to quantify WorkPack’s value as the avoided cost of ‘late penalties’.

Many other solar project managers like Ramesh have trusted WorkPack to manage their projects.

Do you think your team will also benefit from it? Find out for free by creating a trial account.

Let us know if you need any help or talk to our consultants to know if this is the right tool for your team.