Case Study

PeopleSoft SCM & Financials Upgrade for ITCTransmission

Engagement Summary

Kastech's PeopleSoft Practice team helped ITCTransmission (ITC) upgrade PeopleSoft SCM and Financials from 8.8 to release 9 and add PeopleSoft Supply Planning 9 over a 14-month engagement. All of ITC's customizations were preserved where necessary or absorbed into new version functionality.

Client Background

ITCTransmission is a high-voltage electricity transmission company headquartered in Novi, Michigan, serving the central US and Canada. Its mission is to be a best-in-class transmission provider. At the time of the engagement, it reported 2007 revenue of $617 million and had approximately 2,000 employees and contractors.

Business Challenges

ITC was experiencing rapid growth, and its PeopleSoft 8.8 deployment (Supply Chain, Financials) was showing its age. PeopleSoft 9 offered many compelling features, but the 8.8 system was heavily customized, particularly Supply Chain.

Piecemeal upgrades would have broken existing customizations and required a lot of work from ITC’s relatively small supply chain staff
ITC decided to upgrade Supply Chain and Financials to version 9 at the same time
ITC wanted to avoid the customize, upgrade, break, fix cycle, normalize on a new version, and get on a schedule for upgrades
Standardization was the impetus for the upgrade, along with the new value in Supply Chain 9

The Kastech Solution

After exploration, analysis, and discovery, ITC decided to upgrade both Financials and Supply Chain to version 9 and add Supply Planning 9. It was a heavy, complex project, and ITC’s CIO knew he needed outside help to keep his team realistically allocated.

Hardware infrastructure validation: Before being awarded the work, Kastech’s PeopleSoft Practice team sent a special consultant to ITC at no cost to help validate its hardware infrastructure as ITC planned a sweeping PeopleSoft upgrade and tried to ensure its hardware architecture was appropriate
Honest scoping advice: Advised against an additional Supply Chain module because of concern that ITC wouldn’t have the staff bandwidth to implement and maintain it
Early risk discussion: Strongly suggested early on that the teams candidly discuss risks, especially as they related to Supply Chain, which had lost some key personnel to merger integration activities
Expectation management: Worked with ITC’s CIO to manage expectations so everyone at ITC realistically understood the situation
Project team: Put together a team for the large PeopleSoft project that impressed everyone at ITC

Results & Business Impact

Upgrade completed in 14 months

The PeopleSoft 9.2 Asset Lifecycle Management project was delivered successfully by leveraging Seminole State's experienced staff alongside selective use of Kastech's PeopleSoft ALM expertise

Customizations preserved

Kastech delivered workshops and planning guidance as well as support throughout the life of the project

Smooth, on-budget delivery

Seminole State staff leaned on Kastech expertise as needed, which resulted in the team expanding its PeopleSoft knowledge to include Asset Lifecycle Management

Delivered during a company integration:

The approach led to a successful on-time deployment and an extremely efficient, cost-effective implementation

Unqualified success

The project was an unqualified success

Client Testimonial

“Kastech's PeopleSoft Practice team made the strong suggestion early on that we sit down and candidly talk about risks, especially as they related to Supply Chain, which had lost some key personnel to merger integration activities. They worked with me to manage expectations so everyone here at ITC realistically understood the situation. Without this exercise, the project could have turned ugly with lots of finger pointing. The team brought veteran forethought to the project.”

— Denis DesRosiers

CIO, ITCTransmission

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