BC Hydro: Spillway Gates Portal

Client profile

BC Hydro, Canada’s third largest electric utility, has flood discharge gate systems (spillway gates) at 22 facilities that are required to operate on demand for dam safety reasons. Many of these gate systems are becoming old and some are nearing the end of their service life. BC Hydro is in the process of upgrading gates to modern standards to continue safe operation of reservoirs and dams.

Business situation

BC Hydro enlisted Habañero’s help to create a SharePoint collaboration portal for members of its spillway gates project team. Objectives for the project included:

• provide a centralized view of information that is shared across project team members including BC Hydro employees and external vendors
• provide a new medium for collaboration and communication amongst project team members
• provide a common repository for sharing documents and electronic artifacts
• provide a usable, intuitive, and engaging user experience that encourages user adoption
• educate project stakeholders about the capabilities of Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) platform

Solution

Habañero completed a discovery and requirements planning project consisting of a series of stakeholder research, user-centred solution design, and planning activities. After BC Hydro chose MOSS as the platform for development, Habañero built and implemented the portal.

Results  benefits

• project team sites offering a centralized view of information
• improved collaboration and communication features and functionality
• a common repository for sharing documents and electronic artifacts
• a usable, intuitive, and engaging user experience