Article originally appeared on the Oracle EPPM Blog.
In September 2015, the US government pledged US$160 million in new funding as part of a sprawling smart cities initiative. It came on the heels of new commitments for new infrastructure projects throughout the world, including China’s announcement that it will spend US$1.1 trillion dollars for roads, bridges, and other resources in the years ahead. In the following interview, Oracle Director, Industry Strategy and Business Development for Oracle’s Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Guy Barlow explains how public sector agencies throughout the world can derive the most value from large-scale infrastructure investments while mitigating risk.
Q: What’s behind the ongoing interest in smart cities initiatives?
A: Technology initiatives can benefit public sector resources in many ways. For example, the use of sensor technology enables traffic engineers to more effectively monitor and manage traffic flows and intelligently alter traffic patterns depending on the time of the day or if a special event might produce bottlenecks. That’s just one way sensors and meters, the Internet of Things, and big data can be embedded in new or existing infrastructure to help planners analyze what’s happening in their jurisdictions.
Q: What role does project portfolio management play in these types of projects?
A: All the major elements of smart cities—the digitally connected roads, airports, utilities, and educational or healthcare facilities—start as projects that governments must manage effectively to deliver on the promises they’ve made to their constituents. Successful management begins at the planning stage by helping leaders decide where it makes the most sense to invest money. Establishing smart cities, like any large-scale infrastructure project, comes down to determining strategic, long-term goals and then mapping those goals to specific projects.
Q: What are some of the ways Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management supports these activities?
A: It helps government entities prioritize projects, oversee schedules, and ultimately manage the cost of projects. We’ve seen studies where organizations have shaved the costs of projects thanks to planning efficiency resulting from better project portfolio management. In addition, when organizations are deciding how to spend limited resources for infrastructure, the solution can help them analyze all the various pros and cons in a quantifiable way to rank and prioritize proposals based on anticipated results, whether that’s return on investments, an opportunity to improve the quality of life of citizens, or other meaningful metrics.
Q: What are some of the advantages public sector agencies are seeing from moving to a cloud implementation of Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management?
A: We’re finding that running and maintaining IT operations isn’t necessarily an efficient use of resources for the public sector. Moving to the cloud can help government entities scale back their overall IT investments and redeploy resources for higher-value–add initiatives.
