Case Studies

Randal M. Senn Chief Information Officer SCANA Corporation

Randy is a rarity in our often-fickle technology world, in that he has been a member of the SCANA family for 24 years. Prior to his current role as head of the company's Information Services and Technology Organization, Randy has performed roles as a manager in the Company's Accounting Department, Customer Billing Department and Stockholder Records Department. Randy has "cut his teeth" on hard-core IT initiatives, like replacing the Company's legacy mainframe general ledger system with a client server based Distributed Management Information System, the Year 2000 compliance project and the information technology consolidation project associated with the merger between SCANA Corporation and Public Service Company of North Carolina.

In addition to being an accomplished IT practitioner and executive, Randy lives his life by setting deliberate goals for family, his work and himself, in that order. Skydiving is in Randy's future as is staying within the guardrails of the law but experiencing speed with his Viper (the automobile).

As a long time member of a values-driven organization like SCANA, Randy believes (and hopes) that he does not merely live the cultural values of the company, but also plays a part in shaping them.

As an IT Executive for a market leader in electric and natural gas utility operations, telecommunications and other non-regulated energy-related businesses, what are 3 industry specific IT challenges you face?

The challenges my organization faces are most likely faced by my colleagues in energy companies across the nation. As de-regulation and consolidation become more pervasive, I will certainly not be alone in fighting my IT battles. Some challenges that are "rising to the top" for me these days are:

• Navigating around being a "victim of our own success." When we entered Georgia as a result of de-regulation we thought we would put our toe in the water and see what we needed to do to acquire customers. We planned to get about 40,000 new customers through "blocking and tackling" marketing and before we knew it, we had over 400,000! The cascade effect of this is that IT needs to put together a robust billing related customer information system. This is a non-trivial initiative and also high value.
• As a diversified energy and telecommunications company, we utilize a variety of Work Management Systems (WMS). These systems are the framework for work done by people and by machines. The WMS for our nuclear plant is different than the one for our Fossil plant and they are both different than the one used for our energy distribution function. In order to achieve organizational efficiencies, IT is evaluating a large integration initiative to integrate all these WMS systems into a single WMS, inventory and procurement solution - and creating a single system!
• A third challenge is in the arena of customer e-business initiatives. Customer self-service to enable customers to check their bills on-line, their energy usage and then pay us in one fluid motion will not only reduce operating cost, but will increase customer satisfaction-growing the revenue line over time. This is a big deal for IT.

What benefits would you tell your fellow IT Executives to seek when considering outsourcing application maintenance & development?

Three benefits that every IT Executive should seek when considering outsourcing are:

1. The ability to bring in skills - rapidly - that are not available in their organization and would take time to build organically.
2. Flexibility to staff up or staff down - rapidly.
3. A "round the clock" operation - when leveraging offshore services decreasing time to market for new applications and providing constant coverage in application support.

What are the top 3 characteristics you think every reputable IT Services Partner should espouse?

• An IT services partner should not just provide technical expertise, but should also have the ability to come in and rapidly learn your business. They don't have to have existing domain knowledge in the industry or business - they just need to demonstrate a willingness to learn - business process and cultural aspects of "how you do things."
• A partner should also have the flexibility to quickly scale up or scale down resources based on project demands. This requires not just volume of resources, but a breadth of skill availability - the right people, in the right amount, at the right time!
• The most important characteristic I think a partner should espouse is the ability to develop a good working relationship with existing employees. In an outsourcing arrangement, a partner will not be able to do it all themselves. In order to be successful, they need to invoke point one (understand your business) and in the process make sure they understand and build an understanding of themselves with- your employees.

What is your favorite quote that best describes the dynamics of today's IT shops?

Lou Holtz is a phenom around here - and one of my personal heroes. A quote from Lou that I think is poignant (for life as well as IT shops) is:

"I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary".

About SCANA and Covansys
SCANA is a $7.4 billion energy based holding company. SCANA market leading businesses generate and distribute electricity to more than 537,000 South Carolina households and businesses. SCANA businesses also deliver natural gas to nearly 1.1 million customers in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. SCANA businesses also provide fiber optic telecommunication services. Covansys Corporation (a CSC company) is a global technology services company founded in 1985, and headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Covansys and SCANA have formulated a strategic Application Maintenance & Development Outsourcing relationship

For more information, contact us.