CLIENT PROFILE

CGER is an autonomous organization that reports to Transports Québec. It is by far the largest fleet of vehicles and other equipment in the province of Québec with more than 8,000 units. 568 Guide Ti users are spread across 66 centers and 14 regional offices in addition to its administrative headquarters. With 200 workers typically using Guide Ti at the same time, the fleet generates 16,000 transactions per day on average.

SECTOR: Public vehicle fleet management
PROJECT NAME: OPTIC (Optimisation du Traitement de l’Information)
CONTACT PERSON: Francois Wiseman
IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD: September 2006 to June 2009

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

• Optimize processes by reducing the number of manual interventions
• Improve service by reducing delays resulting from the time required to process requests and files
• Offer more flexibility in service delivery
• Bring clients and partners closer together
• Reduce and exercise more control over the inherent risks related to operations by consolidating automated processes
• Provide more autonomy to employees
• Decentralize responsibilities

PROJECT COMPLEXITY

• Maintain continuous exchanges of information between four (4) software products (each with its specific features): Guide Ti, COENCORP (fuel management), GREAT PLAINS (finance) and Microsoft CRM (customer service)
• Preserve all pertinent data and historical information from the systems already in place
• Ensure that regular activities can be pursued during migration
• Integrate change management within the organization
• Reduce to a minimum delays between the official migration and full operation
• Support an administrative structure spread across 75 sites throughout Québec, one where responsibilities are at different levels in the organization
• Provide real-time monitoring of transactions in the financial system
• Ensure distribution accounting for the various services to ensure better budget monitoring
• Respond to the needs of all clients—both internal and external—throughout the migration

DETAILS

CGER wanted to migrate features of their existing version, which had undergone customizations since 1999, toward a more generic version available on the market and to transfer certain features to software solutions better adapted to the organization’s needs. COGEP participated at every step of CGER’s reengineering process around maintenance features, service agreements, billing system and interface analysis of existing and new systems. CGER agreed to abide by COGEP’s 2006-2011 five-year development plan for vehicle fleet management.

THE COGEP TEAM

• Project manager to monitor and control all steps in the project
• Analyst to coordinate communication between the working committees and developers to define:
  Additional functional components to be implemented
  Interfaces with the other software products
• Database migration specialist to define the conversion rules to migrate from Guide to Guide Ti
• Guide Ti implementation specialist to:
  Set up new business processes and document them
  Validate administrative management rules
  Provide training documentation
  Train, prepare and provide documentation for the trainers
  Identify links between the different software solutions and their interfaces
  Identify testing plans
  Run the software parameterization
• Technical team to:
  Install, the training, production and test databases
  Evaluate response times taking into account the scale of the database and the deployment

DEADLINES AND BUDGETS

Project timelines were planned jointly with the client. We presented our deliverables within 36 months in accordance with the agreement. Delivery involved several phases to ensure that the project moved forward and to avoid the accumulation of delays that might have in turn set back the official production launch. We worked with a number of committees to share responsibilities and foster a sense of ownership with respect to the project. Although CGER prefers not to divulge the budget allocation regarding COGEP’s fees, Mr. Wiseman can confirm (upon request) that the fees were according to the authorized 2006 budget.

SUMMARY

The scope and complexity of the OPTIC project allowed COGEP to improve its project management skills and its quality management processes. COGEP showed that its long 30 years experience is a key success factor when it comes to data migration, system interfaces, change management and coaching that facilitates complete client autonomy. In addition, as the developer of its own software, COGEP was in the best position to make adjustments rapidly and in an organized manner, while eliminating the need for third parties.

“COGEP is an excellent business partner!” – Céline Routhier, Administration and Finance Director, CGER

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