Case Study: Distributed Energy Storage

OPPORTUNITY

The executive team of a Fortune 500 company identified a strategic growth opportunity that required rapid product development within their Distributed Energy Storage (DES) unit. DES incorporates a multitude of applications in the global market, including the ability to efficiently leverage stored electricity for price hedging and physical operations continuity.

The company needed a trusted technology and business management consulting partner to oversee the engineering and productization of a new solution. The end goal was to replace multiple heavily customized, non-scalable, third-party subsystems with a productized, scalable, in-house solution in a highly accelerated timeframe. The scalability and cost-efficiency of the new DES product would position the company as an early-to-market industry leader.

CHALLENGES

• The company needed to rapidly develop an internal replacement for a third-party, end-to-end, competitive solution that required a high level of custom engineering at each installation site. Speed to market was a critical factor.
• The DES business unit was operating with a leadership team stretched thin by competing demands; they had limited capacity to provide the necessary technical and project leadership for the internal engineering teams tasked with developing the solution.
• The company’s internal engineering teams were globally dispersed and operated within independent business groups under multiple management hierarchies.
• Internal and contracted resources were drawn from existing teams. The teams had multiple projects competing for their time and lacked the ability to provide the dedicated attention required for this type of large-scale, far-reaching program with an aggressive timeline.
• The initiative required aggregated energy domain expertise held by resources within other areas of the business who were not available to work on this program.

THE SOLUTION

SysLogic was selected as the company’s strategic partner, trusted to lead the mission-critical DES project from start to finish and manage multiple teams across the globe.

SysLogic provided a core team that delivered leadership in the areas of technical architecture, program management, quality assurance, and business analysis, as well as specialized energy industry domain expertise. SysLogic’s core team led the engineering and productization of the DES solution using the company’s internal and contract engineering resources. The SysLogic team:

• Managed project plan development and alignment with the company’s business objectives and priorities.
• Provided requirements data collection, documentation, and communication through a core team Business Analyst.
• Used a ‘scrum-of-scrum’ approach to program management leadership across four independently operating engineering teams, each managing their own Agile Scrum process with differing project management tools and processes.
• Through a Solution Architect/Technical Lead, led an end-to-end solution architecture design, including all aspects of the overall DES system. The system consisted of cloud-based software development, cloud-based data platform middleware, on-site embedded gateway/SCADA hardware and firmware, on-site embedded optimization algorithm development and implementation, and battery sub-systems.
• Provided QA leadership and process development, creating a structure that brought together the QA leads for each individual engineering team under a single virtual QA team, ensuring full QA coverage with no duplication of effort.

The Distributed Energy Storage initiative is a prime example of how SysLogic’s agile team can drive outcomes faster for large, enterprise organizations. Our team enables companies to reach their goals and outcomes with a focus on accelerated timelines that can ordinarily be a challenge for larger organizations.

KEY OUTCOMES

• The company successfully positioned itself as a leader in the growing field of distributed energy storage.
• Anticipated development time was reduced by developing and implementing DES at a pilot site 9 months after the start of the initiative, with commercial release following 9 months later.
• Significant reduction in per-job deployment time and installation costs due to the replicable productization of a formerly custom-engineered solution.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

The Innovation of a Small, Entrepreneurial Business Melded with the Resources of a Large, Mature Company

Large, mature companies often use well-defined processes and checkpoints to facilitate successful product development. In some circumstances, though, this structure can over-burden the business with bottlenecks that slow progress.

The magnitude of the DES initiative, paired with an accelerated timeline driven by a landscape of aggressive startup-minded competitors, required a nimble, entrepreneurial approach for it to be successful.

To ensure rapid development and deployment, success was not tied to the enforcement of processes that would ultimately slow progress. Under the leadership of SysLogic’s highly qualified core team, despite this exemption from the typically mandated processes, the team still met and frequently exceeded the desired success and quality criteria at each project milestone. In other words, the team could innovate rapidly without letting quality suffer.

Focused, Cohesive Leadership

While the company’s sub-teams participated in multiple projects and priorities simultaneously, the SysLogic team was able to maintain focus and bring clarity to this fast-track endeavor.

SysLogic’s team devoted their full attention to the timing of the deliverables from the globally distributed teams, driving forward momentum day in and day out.

Trust and Collaboration

SysLogic built on an 18-year foundation of collaboration with this client to create a unique project leadership structure that delivered strong outcomes because both organizations had an unwavering commitment to achieve success.

The cohesiveness and targeted expertise of the SysLogic team provided exemplary leadership by focusing on collaboration and communication styles. They used best practice methodologies to maximize the skills, resources, and deliverables of diverse and geographically dispersed teams.

While each team had its own methodology, work style, and objectives, SysLogic harnessed the dynamics of each team to coordinate the release of a cohesive, game-changing product for the client.

Throughout the duration of the DES initiative, SysLogic’s ability to provide the right expertise at the right time was key to a successful and timely launch. The single-team, single-voice approach from SysLogic provided the focus and speed needed to help position the client as an early-to-market leader.

ABOUT SYSLOGIC

SysLogic is an information technology consulting and services firm dedicated to helping clients conduct business more effectively and efficiently. We provide deep industry expertise and deliver solutions that leverage leading-edge technology and sound business practices in the areas of business and technology strategy, enterprise applications and architecture, information management, and cybersecurity. We’ve been partnering with clients to extend the range, reach, and value of information technology to transform the way they do business since 1995. www.syslogicinc.com