Following up on my Software as a Service roundtable, here's a case study about putting SaaS to work toward some very ambitious environmental goals. I'm hoping to post more construction software case studies on this blog and at RiverGuide for Construction Software as I hear of interesting deployments. San Diego Gas & Electric's Palomar Energy Center was designed to set a new standard in environmental stewardship in the energy industry. The 550 megawatt combined cycle power plant went on-line in March 2006 and now produces 45% more electricity than older facilities, while maintaining the lowest carbon monoxide emissions in Southern California. I like that. Besides efficiency and lower emissions, SDG&E can also boast:

1. Operating on 100% recycled water for production, landscaping and fire fighting;
   
   
2. Employing noise pollution reduction techniques and materials;
   
   
3. Recycling 1.2 million cubic yards of overburden (dirt/rock); and even,
   
   
4. Relocating endangered California Gnatcatcher habitat to an additional parcel.

Managing these ambitious green goals and traditional regulatory requirements - amidst a massive construction project - required some very sophisticated project management. As an on-line plant, SDG&E needs to manage and report on corrosion program maintenance, cooling tower inspections, water monitoring and traffic mitigation. But even before going on line, they had a massive list of requirements just to complete their operating permitting process.

To achieve this, SDG&E needed to do more than just track a complex schedule, they needed sophisticated workflow management. That is, a system that tells people what to do, when it needs to be done and "kicks some butt" when people fall behind. The system needed to alert task owners and managers or escalate a task if it is at significant risk.

SDG&E chose an Internet-based compliance solution from Enviance to meet its environmental, health and safety compliance requirements. The system was developed and deployed entirely on the SaaS model, so it offered many of the benefits we discussed in the roundtable: rapid deployment, ease-of-use and seamless upgrades.

However, the most important aspect of using SaaS in this case is the Internet accessibility of the system for a wide range of users. Users from SDG&E, the general contractor and all the specialty trades can access the system from the site, office or even their homes - just by opening a web browser. Therefore, everyone is alerted to their next tasks and can indicate when they have those tasks complete.

In a traditional client/server system, the costs of deploying the system to all these individuals would be overwhelming; use would probably be limited to a small set of project managers. Data would not be as up-to-date, rendering the workflow far less effective.

I'd love to hear more great stories of technology being deployed to meet such ambitious goals. If you know of any, shoot me at email at don@riverguideinc.com.