For companies in regulated industries, information management is critical. It doesn’t matter how good your products or processes are: if you can’t produce the required documentation to demonstrate compliance, then you risk penalties or even closure.
A large domestic utility enlisted Access Sciences’ services after an internal audit reported negative findings around its management of technical data. During the audit, the company had been unable to produce complete documentation of operating pressures for the full length of a pipeline. They sought out Access Sciences because of our prior experience with utilities, and our familiarity with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) guidelines.
A utilities company had a short timeline to complete a current state assessment and gap analysis in order to respond to negative internal audit findings.
Access Sciences was tasked with reviewing all of the company’s technical records management practices and identifying critical gaps. The goal was time-sensitive, since the company’s audit committee required a response before the end of the year.
Our approach included a thorough assessment of the current state of technical record keeping and benchmarking against industry leading practices. The project team conducted a complete review of the company’s policies and procedures as well as relevant industry standards. To gain insight into how the organization generated and used records across the company, the team also interviewed key management stakeholders and fourteen groups of employees from departments and functional groups that rely on accurate technical records.
Access Sciences structured the assessment tools to convert qualitative responses into quantitative data. This made alignment with standards easier to measure, and also gave the company a useful baseline and a repeatable process for future metrics.
Our project team delivered the assessment and gap analysis well in advance of the year-end deadline. More significantly, with the meaningful, measurable benchmarks in its findings, the team was able to present a long-term strategic plan for the company to mitigate risks and improve its technical records management for years to come.
Based on the value of our work, the client has engaged Access Sciences on a series of follow on projects to address the identified gaps.
