British Waterways
British Waterways (BW) manages and cares for 2,000 miles (3,219km) of canals, rivers and docks, buildings, structures and landscapes, employing over 2,000 people all over the country. The 200 year-old network of inland waterways has a unique history and environment that is accessible for recreation, tourism and amenity to the widest cross section of society. BW has a proven track record in delivering major regeneration projects based on sustainable development of the waterway corridor.
Building on the success of British Waterways SAP implementation project Clearwater, Atkins helped British Waterways to establish a centre of excellence for programme and project management.
Atkins assisted British Waterways in a four month period of set-up, and then hand over a fully functioning Programme Support Office to them.
British Waterways has a solid track record of successful project delivery in their core business. However, it wanted to build on this project management success and capture its future project requirements in SAP to achieve greater value for money from its investment programme of over £200m pa on maintenance, restoration and new developments. The design of the project management process was an important part of the blueprint phase of Clearwater.
British Waterways embraced the concepts of Programme Management not only for its extensive engineering works but also for a range of change initiatives that are related to marketing, safety, IT and commercial operation.
Using Atkins’ 3M diagnostic tool and Navigator programme office model as a starting point, Atkins worked closely with key British Waterways’ personnel to design, develop and implement comprehensive programme office methods which are both pragmatic and compatible with recognised approaches such as PRINCE2 and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP).
