Building a partnership with SSE

The start of a journey

In 2012, SSE, as part of a joint venture known as Multifuel Energy Ltd., embarked on the construction of a new multi-fuel plant at Ferrybridge – a vast £300m project to develop a power station capable of delivering around 70MW of low carbon electricity – enough to power 160,000 homes.

Due to the high-profile nature of the development, SSE and contractor Hitachi Zosen Inova commissioned Sypro to implement their software to help ensure efficient project management by the construction teams.

By using Sypro, SSE were able to ensure that all project management processes were contractually compliant to NEC standards, thereby reducing risk, saving time and providing piece of mind throughout the build.

As this was SSE’s first foray into using project management software, Sypro’s easy to use dashboards plus on-site training were critical in ensuring the successful adoption across the project team and all the contractors involved.

Setting the benchmark for future projects

Following the success of Ferrybridge, SSE wanted to have the same consistent and compliant standards of project management across other developments in their portfolio. The Sypro roll-out started locally with it initially being used to manage the Hornsea gas storage facility build, before the platform was then adopted by the SSE Renewables teams for the Caithness-Moray HVDC cable project in 2014 and the Clyde Wind Farm development in 2015.

Today, Sypro is being used across over 30 SSE projects, and is increasingly becoming their standardised project management platform.

Key to its continued success is that the platform is available to all employees across SSE’s 36 subsidiaries, allowing project teams to continue using from project to project. And from a senior management perspective, the platform provides a single-view of each project’s status at the click of a button whilst helping reduce costs and risks by driving more efficient working practices.

Simon Hunt, Sypro CEO commented: “We’re immensely proud of the work we’ve done with SSE since 2012. It’s been especially rewarding as we’ve seen first-hand the difference Sypro has made to their teams in helping deliver a consistent process for project management and enabling them to adhere to contractual obligations. Also, our close working relationship with them has been invaluable in providing insights into how they operate and allowing us to continually evolve the product to better fit their needs.”

How is Sypro being used today?

Today, Sypro is being used across over 30 SSE projects, and is increasingly becoming their standardised project management platform.

Key to its continued success is that the platform is available to all employees across SSE’s 36 subsidiaries, allowing project teams to continue using from project to project. And from a senior management perspective, the platform provides a single-view of each project’s status at the click of a button whilst helping reduce costs and risks by driving more efficient working practices.

Neil Farmery, SSE Commercial Manager, said: “Sypro kept everything in one place so that we and the contractor could see the live project all in one place. The dashboards are really high level too.”