By John Zipperer

Italian energy-services firm Saipem isn't taking the troubled economy lying down. Instead, it's focusing on making better use of existing staff.

While many companies have reacted to the current economy with layoffs and cutbacks, Saipem has instead improved its ability to deploy staff to targeted projects. This improvement now applies to hundreds of projects being worked on by the many offices and companies that are part of the Saipem group.

Saipem, a Milan-based unit of Italian corporation Eni S.p.A., provides onshore and offshore services for the oil industry — drilling, maintenance and operations in some of the world's most difficult mining areas, including remote areas and deep water. With more than 35,000 employees in some 35 countries, Saipem needed a resource management tool to help its managers determine which office can best execute a specific project. Saipem also needed help planning and tracking its vast, blended workforce, which includes both internal employees and third-party contractors.

Saipem began the project in 2007, initially focusing on Snamprogetti Sud, an Italian plant-design firm it had then recently acquired. Snamprogetti Sud was small enough that the project could be contained on a manageable scale, yet large enough that it could serve as a model for the rest of the company. That helped Saipem meet two important goals, says Alessandro Tintori, Project Management Manager with Saipem's Human Resources Organization and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) division. First, to implement a new resource management system. And second, to identify workable solutions that, once approved, could later be rolled out to other parts of Saipem.

While Snamprogetti Sud already had in place a solution derived from its ERP system, Saipem wanted a scalable system, one that could be expanded to serve other companies within the Saipem group. For the foundation, it selected CA Clarity™ Project and Portfolio Management (PPM), which helps organizations gain optimal results from their staff. The CA Clarity PPM solution, by maximizing resource utilization through capacity planning, helps managers reduce organizational costs while delivering successful programs. The solution's advantages are quite evident, Tintori reports, in terms of balance and making the most efficient use of the group's talent. It was important for Saipem to manage resources and measure hours spent by these resources.

The CA Clarity PPM solution was implemented in October 2008 to support Saipem's onshore business unit. The effort was a large one, involving more than 300 users and some 400 projects, what Tintori calls a "sort of big bang." The solution also helps Saipem engineers tame the complexity of managing a worldwide staff.

For example, while a project performed in Saipem's India branch will likely be less expensive than one performed in Italy, other factors need to be considered, too. The resource manager could show how many workers are available at each location, and with which skills. It could also show how many hours a project is likely to take, an important consideration for projects that typically take months, even years, to complete. It also helps Saipem be flexible enough to compete in a complex environment.

"The ability to track current projects in real time provides organizations with the ability to make tactical decisions around critical staffing areas," says Gareth Doherty, a Research Analyst with Info-Tech Research Group. "This helps them ensure that projects are properly aligned with the business goals from a staffing perspective."

That alignment is the bottom line for Saipem's resource management automation efforts. This is definitely a project driven by business requirements.

JOHN ZIPPERER is a San Francisco-based writer and editor, and a former editor of Internet World and Windows Server Systems magazines.