Project Management Consultancy We know that India has historically been a labour intensive delivery model. Now, given the speed, complexity and global supply chain of mega projects, this model no longer works. Organizations in India need the same processes, capabilities and tools their peers have leveraged in other markets. Furthermore, organizations in India have a leapfrog opportunity. As a laggard or second-mover in large scale serial infrastructure building, Indian organizations can stand on the shoulders of giants, leveraging lessons learned, and reach even greater heights and possibilities. Jordan Cram, CEO, Enstoa shares his view with Sandeep Sharma about his organisation, core competencies, need and importance of project management in large capital projects, verticals and geographies targeted, key performance indicators (KPIs), demand/supply scenario, major clientele worldwide and growth prospects in India. Edited excerpts… Could you tell us about your organisation, mission, and core competencies? Enstoa is a systems integrator for capital projects, providing innovative products and services to global organizations, managing and maintaining multibillion dollar construction programs. By enhancing communication, streamlining processes and deploying data for fact-based management, Enstoa enables organizations to reinvest resources previously spent on managing disparate information into what really matters for them. Enstoa achieves this through a combination of breakthrough software innovation, systems integration, and internal cultural change devoted to unlocking individual, team and organizational productivity. Simply put, we are in the business of mitigating anxiety and lost resources for capital project management Our clients are empowered to build and do more through decades’ worth of benchmarking data, industry-leading expertise, and a proven ability to uncover latent capital hiding in the books. Enstoa’s unrivaled diagnostic and technical skills mean even the most complex systems can be integrated to achieve true process transformation and 360-degree project visibility. Our mission is to help the world build better. We believe the best results come from an evidence-based approach to capital projects, so we are out to give our clients the rich analytics, industry benchmarks, and strategic roadmaps that make assessment, planning, and delivery of capital projects faster and easier. To integrate business operations and systems in the way that will drive the most value. To replace slow, complex and paper-based processes with quick, streamlined, digital ones. To free up cash on their balance sheets so they can build and do more. We don’t just want to ensure our clients’ success. We want to help them prove that success within their own organizations and in the marketplace at large. What is the need and importance of project management in large capital projects? In what way your company can provide holistic solutions in managing large capital projects in India? Construction productivity has been in decline for decades. Due to fragmentation and lack of managerial efficiency, capital projects consistently run over budget. Capital projects bring together up to hundreds of outside companies that may never have worked together, each with its own contracts, risks and employees. Owner organizations come up against significant roadblocks when it comes to effective management of these projects. Our clients need an efficient, productive operating model. To achieve that, they need to transform old, clunky processes into up-to-date digital ones. Instead of complex, paper-based ways of doing things, they need intuitive online systems that can be accessed from any device. Our clients need to integrate projects, finance, and procurement. They need to be able to enter data once then use it in a wide variety of transactions and decisions. Which verticals and geographies would you be catering to in India and Why? We work throughout India and across verticals; however, our main customer focus is currently the oil and gas, power and utilities, and engineering and construction industries. What are the challenges and opportunities before the project proponents in India? What level of customization can be brought to the table by your participation? There is a high degree of customization available based on the organizational needs and ambitions. Our capabilities and best practices models are based on decades of research through our partnership with the Construction Industry Institute (CII) of the University of Texas in the USA. Today in India, organizations face the challenges of delivering faster and cheaper massive infrastructure projects that are technically complicated at every level. The old management models, processes and systems are failing these organizations. As a result, Enstoa aims to bring highly customized solutions to Indian companies looking to more efficiently and effectively manage their large projects. How far the key performance indicators (KPIs) are likely to change for Infrastructure Developers once Enstoa system integration is applied? We have four main KPIs against which we base performance: • Idle Capital: Companies often have a significant amount of budget sitting in projects that should be closed out. However, most organizations don’t have the detailed visibility into all of their projects and hence, the money sits idle. Enstoa offers a project control system which provides visibility to management and into the lower level details of each project team. As a result, Enstoa gives customers visibility into the latent money in these projects, enabling them to use it elsewhere realize an annual benefit by keeping the latent capital down. • Staff Efficiency: Increasing staff efficiency reduces hiring needs and dependency on outsourced labour. Enstoa enables customers to streamline communications between facilities and finance, strategy and operations, meaning they are able to manage more projects and more money value across projects. • Vendor Payments: Payment unpredictability gets priced into fees as a risk premium, jacking up costs for everyone. Providing visibility into invoicing progress streamlines vendor relationships and compliance with contract payment terms, enhancing response rates and the quality of vendor interactions. Enstoa lets customers track and process invoices faster which leads directly to better pricing since vendors are confident they willbe paid in a timely fashion. • Schedule Advancement: Organizations have several hundred projects going at any given time. These companies want to be able to reduce their budget approval process so they can get started sooner. Enstoa provides an automated system to increase efficiency and visibility into complex workflow processes. As a result, organizations can decrease project schedules, reducing time to value of capital investment benefit. For an American hospital system, we anticipate that these solutions can provide over USD 12 million in annual cost savings. Have you done any study on how large projects are managed in India? Could you share with us actionable insights that can prompt companies in India to explore your services? We know that India has historically been a labour intensive delivery model. Now, given the speed, complexity and global supply chain of mega projects, this model no longer works. Organizations in India need the same processes, capabilities and tools their peers have leveraged in other markets. Furthermore, organizations in India have a leapfrog opportunity. As a laggard or second-mover in large scale serial infrastructure building, Indian organizations can stand on the shoulders of giants, leveraging lessons learned, and reach even greater heights and possibilities. The Government of India is laying emphasis on building 100 smart cities in India. What is your take in the demand/supply scenario for project management in the changing realty and infrastructure space? Enstoa believes the supply is inadequate to these ambitions and that labour automation, management processes, and controls are critical to mitigate the risks and gaps. Could you provide us insight about the emerging global trends in the project management space? There are several important global trends in project management and infrastructure development. Firstly, China will soon be entering the international market. Some of the largest infrastructure organizations are based in China and have historically been focused on domestic projects. This is changing and resulting in a new class of capable organizations entering into the international competitive market. Secondly, technology in construction and project management – from IoT to data science and mobile – is finally delivering on the promise of innovation and productivity. A third trend is the serious shortage of qualified labour as the aged construction workforce retires without the adequate number of younger professionals available to replace them and meet growing demand. Who are your major clientele worldwide? We have a broad range of customers across the globe including Cedar-Sinai, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, PG&E, Aetna, United, JP Morgan, Nationwide, Saudi Aramco, Compass Minerals and more. What kind of future do you see for Enstoa in India? Could you share with us about your plans for innovation and delivery center in Bangalore? We are very pleased to expand our presence in India further with the Innovation and Delivery center in Bangalore. We see an exciting opportunity in India to bring innovative capital project management solutions into a market that, according to PwC, is expected to hit USD 6.6 trillion by 2025 - driven by demand in transportation and utilities sectors. In addition, the Government of India called for USD one trillion spend in infrastructure for the period of 2017 to 2022 in building new airports, roads and ports alone. With this amount of investment, it is imperative that organizations have the proper technology and organizational solutions in place. We are hiring and anticipate growing our office quickly, looking for employees that have the skill sets we currently offer in the United States as each employee is expected to be involved in global projects – not just those in India. ABOUT JORDAN CRAM Jordan Cram believes technology is an essential enabler for organizations to continuously innovate and optimize performance. For over 20 years he has used strategic business consulting and smart technology solutions to enable leading organizations, worldwide, to spend more strategically on improving operations – in China, the Middle East, India, Europe, North America, and Australia. Jordan has a BS in Architectural Engineering from University of Colorado, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and an MBA from London Business School.