TELUS manages multi-billion dollar project using cloud-based planning platform

Canadian telecommunications giant TELUS is on a mission to bring fast, reliable internet, phone, and other telecom services to communities across Alberta and British Columbia. To keep pace with increased demand, the company undertook a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project, one with shifting deadlines, budgets, and execution challenges. Charged with tracking everything from labor costs to shifting weather patterns to environmental factors, project managers soon realized that tracking the project in spreadsheets was too time-consuming and error-prone.

TELUS project managers turned to Workday Adaptive Planning for the robust planning, budgeting, and reporting they needed to accurately capture the hundreds and thousands of changes the massive project required. The results speak for themselves—variance-to-budget of less than 1% and the complete confidence of executives moving forward.

Challenges

• Inefficient project planning—TELUS’ multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project required sophisticated but easy-to-use tools to identify the resources needed to meet project targets. To get a consolidated view of the project initially took 10 days. Surfacing data for the use of 35-40 project managers was unrealistic using spreadsheets
• Overly complicated processes—Spreadsheets made it difficult for project managers to track projects. Consolidating data was next-to-impossible
• Slow reporting—Finance and product managers were often caught flat-footed when execs asked for reports. And 10-day reporting cycles meant data was often out of date by the time it was shared
• Inaccurate project forecasts—As infrastructure investments became multi-billion dollar projects, small forecast errors and incorrect budget allocations were amplified, and accuracy became a business imperative

Results

• Effective, efficient project planning—Workday Adaptive Planning gives TELUS the project planning resources they need to make better decisions—about infrastructure, staffing, products, and markets
• Streamlined processes—Today, everyone has access to the data they need to plan effectively and grow strategically
• Faster insights—Consolidated, integrated data gives project managers the ability to generate reports and insights
• Accurate reporting—Deploying Workday Adaptive Planning has decreased forecast variances to less than 1%, generated greater trust in the numbers, and supplied stakeholders with the data they need to innovate