Genesis Energy is a state-owned enterprise with a diverse electricity generation portfolio and over 700,000 customers located predominantly in the North Island. As a dual fuel provider, offering customers electricity and gas, Genesis’ portfolio includes New Zealand’s largest thermal power station at Huntly, hydro stations at Tongariro and Waikaremoana as well as a wind farm in the Wairarapa.
As the largest New Zealand energy retailer, Genesis Energy views technology as central to the smooth running of its business and effective delivery of customer services. With this in mind, the company recognised the need to upgrade its technology infrastructure to Microsoft XP and Office 2003 and to replace its proprietary desktop management solution, which was nearing the end of its lifecycle.
One of the primary drivers behind this was that 530 Genesis computer users were affected by slow login and start-up times, with each activity taking approximately one to one-and-a-half minutes, and even longer if there were updates in progress. Genesis Energy also had difficulty sourcing new desktops and laptops outside the two main sites of Greenlane and Huntly.
Working with partner Gen-i, Genesis Energy successfully delivered new desktop technology to business sites that included Greenlane, Huntly, Hamilton, Tokaanu, Tuai, and Wellington, across 560 computers and 530 users.
“We integrated over 100 applications, investigated approximately 300 and rolled-out over 100 core business applications,” says Andy Chong, Gen-i Senior Project Manager for the Genesis Energy project. “Once the solution design was completed … we interacted with every one of the 530 users to ensure all the bases were covered, capturing and documenting custom specifications and applications for each user and desktop using a Gen-i deployment toolset.”
Using effective project management and comprehensive user communication, Gen-i delivered one of the smoothest end-to-end technology upgrades that Genesis Energy has ever experienced.
“Login and start-up times were reported by pleasantly surprised users as twice as fast and Genesis is now able to build new laptops and computers at all of their sites easily and quickly,” says Andy Chong.
Gen-i’s certified project management methodology, based on industry best practice, meant the project was completed on time in six months, with the actual rollout taking only two months. The project was also completed under budget and met all of the business objectives.