Viridian Power
WorkPlace Systems provides a rapid implementation and scalable scheduling solution, allowing Viridian Power to support the temporary power requirements of the entire 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
About Viridian
Founded in 2008, Viridian Power has quickly become a leading supplier of temporary power services in Western Canada, offering design, engineering, installation and support for all aspects of an organisation's temporary power needs.
In 2008, Viridian Power was awarded the subcontract to provide Electricians and Labour Support for the installation and support of temporary power for all Official Venues for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. In addition, Viridian Power received contracts for supplying and installing the temporary power needs for a number of Olympic sponsor tents, including the Molson Canadian Hockey House and the Holland Heineken House.
The Opportunity
Viridian Power had traditionally provided temporary power services to single site events, requiring a core, but small team of staff to support the installation of such services. The Winter Olympics would require Viridian Power to scale up massively over a very short period of time, scheduling a hundred staff simultaneously.
In delivering these services, Viridian Power would be required to provide round the clock services of specialised personnel to a large number of geographically dispersed sites. A single Operations and Logistics Coordinator at Head Office would be responsible for managing a hundred Viridian Power staff, as well as a number of third-party contractors.
The Requirement
In providing these services, Viridian Power would be required to manage a multitude of venue specific requirements and match these against the specific attributes of available staff and contractors.
Venue specific requirements would include such parameters as; geographic location, onsite compliance requirements, job requirements, hours of operation and support requirements, all against the backdrop of critical time-frames (setup, maintain, shutdown). Staff and Contractor attributes included; availability, skill sets, geographic location, compliance, inductions and licenses, as well as personal working preferences and Provincial regulated business rules.
Viridian Power required a solution which could not only be deployed rapidly, allow for a quick scale up and scale down but also the flexibility to incorporate this multitude of business drivers. The solution needed to be interactive allowing staff and contractors to access and update their own information in real-time, so that last minute scheduling changes could be easily accommodated.
The Challenge
WorkPlace Systems needed to be able to provide a solution quickly, remotely and at an economical cost. The entire Winter Olympics would last less than three weeks, however the initial set up and dismantling of all the winter venues would run for a total of seven months. The solution would need to allow the effective simultaneous management of multiple venues, both Viridian Power staff and contractors, and ensure the right staff were scheduled at the right time performing the correct job function.
The WorkPlace Solution
WorkPlace Systems were able to deploy WorkPlace OnLine Scheduling and HR Management to fulfill the needs of Viridian Power. Deployed entirely over the web, Viridian Power management, staff and contractors were able to access the solution via any Internet connected device (including Smartphones).
The WorkPlace OnLine Schedule Management tool would allow multiple venues to be created, each with their own specific scheduling requirements. Template schedules were created for each venue, with each template reflecting the changing resourcing requirements as the Winter Olympics progressed. Incorporating the WorkPlace OnLine HR Management tool allowed an equally complex array of individual personnel requirements to be captured and managed, and allowed these attributes to filter available staff and contractors against shift requirements.
Utilising the easy-to-use browser interface, Viridian Power was able to effectively schedule personnel across all venues, even where staff were shared across multiple venues. The in-built WorkPlace OnLine communication tools ensured upcoming shifts (including shift changes) were immediately communicated to all staff via Email and cell-phone SMS.
The Benefit to Viridian Power
WorkPlace Systems were able to remotely deploy the entire solution in less than five days. Training was provided over the phone, and resulted in Viridian Power fully utilising the solution within two weeks.
WorkPlace OnLine was able to manage site specific job requirements and ensure those staff who were assigned to any shift fulfilled all required skills and held the relevant qualifications to be onsite at that specific venue.
Combined with communication tools, WorkPlace OnLine significantly reduced the time required by the Operations Coordinator in scheduling throughout the Olympics. The tool allowed a third-party contracting company to be incorporated into the same scheduling tool, without the need to maintain information outside WorkPlace OnLine.
"WorkPlace OnLine was an essential operational tool for our company throughout the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. The system allowed us to effortlessly and seamlessly schedule our employees across multi venues, while simultaneously allowing us to increase the number of staff we were scheduling by 500 percent over 3 months with a minimum of additional administrative costs."
Joe Domijan, Logistics Coordinator at Viridian Power
Viridian Power was able to cost effectively manage their staffing needs throughout the Winter Olympics and manage the rapid growth in staffing during this period.
Download the Viridian Case Study as a PDF