Customers

Northern Gas
Networks

Background

Northern Gas Networks is responsible for distributing gas to homes and businesses across the north of England, an area covering West, East & North Yorkshire, the North East and Northern Cumbria. Their network comprises of 36,000km of gas pipes – enough to travel from Leeds to Sydney, Australia, and back again. They do not own the gas; they transport it on behalf the companies who do, delivering it to users 24 hours every day.

www.northerngasnetworks.co.uk

The Programme

Northern Gas Networks acquired the North of England Distribution Network from National Grid Transco. Subsequently, Northern Gas Networks initiated the Gas Distribution Network Solution (GDNS) programme to deliver a new front office solution to effectively manage their newly acquired network asset. The company selected a consortium of suppliers led by Wipro Technologies to deliver the solution. To support this large Systems Integration project Exception was chosen to programme manage the creation and implementation of the new IT infrastructure.

The GDNS programme encompassed the following key objectives:

  • Migrate more than 20 legacy systems to a new front office solution in 12 months
  • Maintain business continuity during transition to the new service
  • Improve management priority setting by enhanced management of the asset information
  • Minimise the total cost of ownership of the new front office solution
  • Provide a scalable solution that can be used in an expanded business or replicated
  • Ensure cost effective implementation and maintenance
  • Utilise best of breed technologies.

Within a year, the programme successfully delivered a fully implemented front office solution, including a fully documented business model and processes, within budget and to deadline. The GDNS programme is a major systems integration success, one of the largest utility IT integration projects in Europe in recent times.

Why Exception?

Northern Gas Networks viewed Exception’s reputation for quality and delivery and their ability to operate against tight deadlines, without sacrificing quality, critical to their appointment. They also viewed Exception’s experience in working with a range of partners in complex high pressure projects as key.

Enhanced Value

Exception took on the demands of the project with confidence borne out of experience and made a key contribution to the success of the project. Working with 9 other subcontractors, in itself a logistical and communication challenge, Exception helped to deliver the project’s first phase four months early. The subsequent second and third phases were also delivered three and two months early.

“Exception’s commitment to quality, their solid experience and their ability to work with others made a major contribution to what is arguably the most successful utility IT integration project in Europe in recent times.”