Do You Ever Feel Like IT Consultants Are “The Thing That Never Leaves”?
One company did until they worked with Midwave!
Our Client
They are the second largest electric utility in Minnesota, based on generating capacity, and the fifth largest generation and transmission (G&T) cooperative in the U.S. in terms of assets.
Their new headquarters facility is currently under construction in Maple Grove, Minnesota. They anticipate moving to their new, LEED platinum certified building in early 2008.
They provide wholesale electric service to 28 distribution cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Those member cooperatives distribute electricity to more than 600,000 homes, businesses and farms.
Our Client’s Dilemma
The company had outgrown their facilities and were moving into a brand new headquarters building in Maple Grove, Minnesota. They were scheduled to move into the new building on or before April 8, 2008.
One of the first things the client’s Information Technology group had to do before they could move was to separate two interconnected data centers.
One of the data centers was focused on monitoring the power grid to ensure uninterrupted power flow to homes and businesses. The other data center performed all the “back office” business applications that keep the company operating, including financials, file sharing, printing, and other essential applications.
The problem was that while these two data centers generally operated independently of each other, there were dependencies between them. So they couldn’t move the business applications data center without it impacting the power grid monitoring center. And they couldn’t shut both of them down and move them at the same time.
Midwave’s Rapid Response Solution
The company initially hired Midwave because they saw a good breadth of talent and Midwave understood the existing technology in the client’s data centers. They also recognized that Midwave had a wide consulting capacity and wasn’t just in the business of selling equipment. They felt they could rely on Midwave as an intellectual partner.
Midwave’s solution was to help them identify the dependencies and develop a remediation plan to eliminate those dependencies. The plan was broken down into five phases. Phase one was the re-engineering of the business data center so it could be moved independently. Phases two through four involved planning the move. Phase five was the actual move itself.
However, the client saw this as a daunting project. And before the plan could move beyond the first phase, Midwave had to prove itself. Could Midwave’s team finish the first critical phase on time and on budget?
Results
Midwave actually completed the first phase of the project ahead of schedule and on budget. Then to the amazement of the company’s management, Midwave’s staff signed off on the first phase, packed up, and left.
While Midwave had proven they had the talent to manage the project, set a pace, keep everyone working to meet that pace and finish on time, they had done what no other consultant had done before at the company. They didn’t try to become a permanent fixture.