STO Management Software: Buy vs. Build
Industry 4.0 has led companies to focus heavily on digital tools to help boost interconnectivity, automation, machine learning, and real-time data to survive.
Due to the pandemic & ensuing global uncertainty, heavy industry reduced maintenance and capital spending by as much as 30% in addition to creating remote work arrangements for many employees. Organizations that used manual contractor spend processes were extremely challenged by this forced digital transition. Now, companies must transform digitally to survive, the motto of the future certainly is “survival of the digitally fit.”
Companies are working on this digital transformation in one of two ways, via internal “homegrown” digital projects or through strategic partnerships with technology suppliers like MCi. Unfortunately, companies often struggle through years of fruitless internally developed solutions that rarely deliver concrete financial results. Additionally, the costs of internally developed applications are difficult to accurately calculate with IT back-charging business units for digitization support. However, when companies digitize their contractor spend processes using tools like the TRACK® Platform, they have five key benefits:
- Your business can focus on what it does best (not develop and maintain software)
- Leverage continuous SaaS improvements to stay on the leading edge, at no additional cost
- Outsource software maintenance, scaling, and training
- Flexibility to meet the needs of various departments, currencies, and business processes
- Reduce your time to ROI
Customary ROI of the Track Platform Video:
For these reasons, the world's largest heavy industry firms have chosen the TRACK Platform to digitally manage their contractor spend, especially for significant routine maintenance events and large projects such as Shuts, Turnarounds, and Outages (STOs). While it is possible to manage these high-spend events using “free” software like Excel, Microsoft Project, and SharePoint; the costs quickly add up. Building new processes for each STO, manual data transfers, complex formulas, ad hoc business processes, reporting delays, corrupted files, etc. With the recent reduction in spend, each maintenance dollar counts even more, so spend it on a proven STO cost management software.
Over the past 30+ years, MCi has worked with heavy industry to digitize the software functions that matter most preparing and executing STOs, even if the support staff is remote. During the coronavirus pandemic, Customers using the TRACK Platform were able to remotely manage over $300M in STO spend seamlessly. Estimates were loaded, schedules were integrated to record progress, and actuals were automatically integrated for complete Earned Value Management of these Mega Turnarounds. As other companies struggled to control and forecast costs quickly and accurately, MCi’s customer base was able to produce precise actuals for their daily STO analytics. Additionally, remote staff were able to easily access support from MCi while their own IT resources were focused on transitioning the company workforce to effectively work remotely.
It’s time to digitally transform your STO and contractor spend management, start now with a trusted industry partner. Let us be your guide to First-Quartile performance.
About MCi:
and productivity from their contract workforce. MCi’s contractor management software, the TRACK® Platform, provides automated contract compliance and a holistic view across the entire labor, equipment, and materials spend. TRACK’s® real-time data stream can be proactively applied to optimize performance and safety for routine maintenance, turnarounds, capital projects, and operations. With the powerful addition of MCI’s customized analytics service, Insights, and its managed service offering, TRACK-as-a-Service (TaaS), companies can leverage MCi’s 30+ years of experience to get even more out of TRACK® and identify opportunities to improve overall site productivity.