30 Years of Project Excellence: RPC 2022
When RPC began in 1992, it was with small groups of delegates in Pete’s converted garage being trained in Primavera P3. 30 years on, we’re still specialising in the Oracle Primavera toolset and we’re still delivering world-class and now worldwide training, but offering so much more besides: look back with us over some of the successes and developments RPC has seen in 2022.
The past year has continued the company’s trend of growth, development and innovation. As with last year, Oracle Primavera Cloud Service continues to go from strength to strength as more and more clients see the benefits of it as a flexible, multipurpose, out-of-the-box solution. Our OPC licence sales have increased by 20 per cent, this year, with a healthy renewal rate on existing customers and we now have clients including a Gold Mine in Ghana, Space Manufacturer, several Energy and Renewables businesses and a company trailblazing augmented reality in construction. It’s a really exciting area for us and Matty joined us in January to meet this need and to work with and support Pete around OPC and its training.
We’ve been continuing to innovate and implement our Unifier Solution Sets, offering pre-built project controls solutions in key areas of the business, including Contract Management (particularly NEC4), Cost Management, Strategic Risk and more. We’ve expanded our team of Unifier consultants to support this, moving Russ and Holly across from other parts of the RPC business to develop new skills and recruiting Mat to join the team.
The Solution Sets have continued to create a lot of interest and excitement within the industry and have been the conversation starter and presentation topic at all the conferences and events we’ve attended throughout the year. We’re really excited about the potential these offer and for next year are looking to package them in conjunction with Oracle’s Unifier Essentials product as a really competitive out-of-the-box solution. Watch this space for 2023.
We relaunched our website in the spring to reflect the wider range of solutions we are now offering and to improve the look and feel of our window out to the world. One key new feature is the Live Chat, which we’re proud to say is monitored by real RPC employees, not bots, guaranteeing you a personal response, whatever your query. Tina and Natalie are pleased to help you with advice that is fast, friendly and tailored to you or they will direct you to the best person for your enquiry, as appropriate. Read our blog to find out why we think Live Chat makes a difference.
What's new in the business?
We continue to be a proud member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork and value our close relationship with our Oracle colleagues. We were pleased to be able to support the Oracle Construction and Engineering sales team with Pete’s extensive knowledge of their toolset in helping them to understand the nuances of difference between P6 EPPM, PPM and OPC in order for them to better serve their own clients. It’s a feather in our cap to be the people Oracle turn to for advice!
We’ve also been part of a number of joint ventures and events alongside Oracle this year, and have been working together and exploring how RPC might be able to provide integrations between the various Oracle products, including the Textura payment solution and NetSuite, which we’ll be continuing to refine in the coming year.
As we grow as a team and in business, we’ve recognised a need to build partnerships that can help both RPC and our partners to expand our capabilities and reach. Having worked with Raymond Poole and his team at PMIS in Ireland for some time now, in February we were really delighted to formalise a strategic alliance between the two companies. Working together, we can strengthen and extend the range of solutions that both organisations are able to offer to new and existing clients alike.
This year we were also proud to be welcomed as an Oracle NetSuite Alliance Partner, enabling us to take advantage of their industry-leading ERP system to help our customers to improve operational efficiency and create new revenue opportunities. Developing an ERP practice alongside our existing business will add real breadth to the solutions we can offer and we’ve got some exciting plans for building on this as we move into 2023.
Some of our on-going major projects have hit significant milestones this year. In June, Dublin Airport launched Unifier in their Infrastructure division, introducing the integrated programme controls solution we have developed with them and incorporating a number of our Unifier Solution Sets. This is a really inspiring demonstration of how our solutions can transform working practices and efficiencies, but it represented a major cultural shift within their organisation, so we were delighted to be able to support that change management process with an internal launch video (in addition to the Case Study video you can see above) and a suite of on-demand video-based training modules.
Our Earned Value solution with DE&S also went live in the summer, helping to drive efficiency in procurement within the Defence Equipment and Support arm of the MoD. But that’s only the beginning of the wider project and work here continues, with the development of a Cost Management solution to be followed by subsequent phases, including Portfolio Scenario Planning, Pipeline Planning and more, to build into a full suite of project controls solutions.
Being a certified Crown Commercial Supplier, registered on the government’s Digital Marketplace is critical for working with public sector clients, such as DE&S and the wider MoD, and we’re proud to have been awarded Crown Commercial Supplier status – sometimes known as G-Cloud 13 certification – again this year. The Digital Marketplace launches in the new year and makes it easy for potential public-sector clients to find us and find out about what we can offer them, together with providing a set of pre-agreed framework contracts that simplify the tender process.
What's new in Training?
What we thought was a post-lockdown catch-up spike has proved to be a sustained uplift in delegates coming to us for training in person – either in the RPC offices, at their own company location or online and we’ve had a non-stop year of training engagements. We’ve refreshed our in-house training suite with a bank of new laptops and a smart new look and are thrilled to see it so busy and well-used.
Although our team of trainers is busier than ever, our COVID-inspired online offering sees them travelling far less. Simon told us, ‘In previous years I have delivered training in Kazakhstan, India, Germany, Finland and the good ol' US of A, as well as charging headlong up and down the M1. This year, in August I was in Plymouth for four days training a bunch of raw planning recruits and in September, I travelled up to Aberdeen to deliver a Fundamentals course over two days. That’s as far south and north as I’ve been.’
‘The highlight of my year this year was that drive up to Aberdeen. Making my way up the A90 through Dundee and on to Aberdeen as the sun set over the pine trees on the hillsides as the scenery became ‘Nordic’. Glorious! We trainers get to meet lovely people who welcome us into their businesses and trust us to inform, educate and entertain their staff in the pursuit of making them better at their jobs. That’s some responsibility.’
One of Simon’s regular assignments is a monthly visit to deliver a bespoke training course to a civil aerospace client in Derby. Tailoring our standard courses to the needs of a particular client or even creating custom courseware from scratch is something we’ve been doing for years, but we formalised this service this year as our Learning Consultancy Service and it’s an important part of our provision of end-to-end lifecycle solutions.
We’ve also expanded our training offer this year by forging alliances with like-minded and complementary training professionals. In addition to our core Oracle Primavera product training, we can now offer our customers Schedule Forensic Delay Analysis training via PMIS and specific NEC4 training with NEC4 expert Glenn Hide to complement our Contract Management Solution Set delivery. These are powerful additions in helping us to provide a holistic project controls solution for all our clients.
Sharing what we do
We think it’s really important to get out and about, meeting colleagues, clients and fellow professionals at events and conferences throughout the year and at many of these Nathan Lambert conducted an international conference tour, presenting about our NEC4 Contract Management Solution Set for Unifier, the case study of it in use at Dublin Airport and how it can be adapted to support compliance and governance requirements in other global territories.
In September, he was with other member of the RPC team at the PMIS Conference in Dublin, a terrific event with a well-earned reputation as Ireland’s most inspirational, educational and vocational conference for multi-track project management professionals.
We’ve been regulars at Project Controls Expo UK for many years now, and it’s always a terrific event. This year, we were delighted that Nathan could be joined in the Case Studies zone by Mark O’Brien from Dublin Airport to deliver a case study of our work with daa.
Knowing the success and value of PCE UK, we were excited to be part of the very first Project Controls Expo USA in early October, in Washington DC. We met many new people and learned a great deal about how what RPC has to offer might be applicable to customers in the US and beyond. Nathan presented here, too, introducing our Contract Management solution set and how it can help companies with their governance and compliance requirements. This time in the Case Studies zone, John Lister talked about our work with DE&S MoD. It was an interesting and invigorating event, and we’re hoping to be able to attend again next year.
As well as the old favourites, we attended some new events this year, too. We enjoyed the innovative ‘speed dating’ approach of the Construction News Meet-up run by Construction News, where – as a solution provider at the event – we had a series of short, but focused meetings with potential leads, predominantly in the construction arena, who had expressed an interest in meeting with us.
Also new to us this year was the opportunity to sponsor the NEC People Conference, organised by Glenn Hide. This invitation-only event homes in on all things linked with NEC4 Contracts and tied in well with the series of NEC4 Webinars we have been running in order to promote awareness of our NEC4 Solution Set for Unifier and was a great opportunity to share our expertise with a room of like-minded professionals.
EVA27: Performing in Turbulent Times is a similar, focused event, this time centred on Performance Management and Earned Value. The two-day conference presented a packed agenda of insightful speakers from a wide range of industries and we were proud to be sponsor and generated some really positive feedback. We’re looking forward to being part of the next in the series, EVA28, in London on 11 May 2023, looking at Building the Data Bridge from Inception to Completion.
Who's new in the RPC team?
We said farewell to two members of the team this year, as Wez Barker left us and John Shoemaker settled into a well-earned retirement. It’s always sad to see people go, but the RPC family continues to grow and we’re pleased to welcome new starters in every major area of the business: Sales, Support, Consultancy, Training and Marketing.
Matty Asquith joined the RPC Support Team in January from Leeds City College of Business. He’s focusing on Oracle Primavera Cloud Services and assisting Pete with our OPC training and, as he gets near the end of his first year with us, says he is ‘enjoying the environment and opportunities created by the members of the RPC Family’. We’re very happy to have him.
Alex Chewins came on board to fill the gap in Sales left by John Shoemaker. Living in Portishead, he joins the small South West Chapter of RPC’s team and he brings with him a wealth of experience in software sales, including project controls software in the oil and gas, and energy sectors, contract management software for NEC3 and 4 in the construction arena and online NEC training solutions, too, so he has slotted seamlessly into the team, working alongside Chris Woodbridge.
To support our growing need for consultants with Unifier expertise, Mat Seage joined us in August. He’s previously worked as a web designer for 18 years, but is finding and honing a host of transferable skills and tells us he’s ‘loving getting to grips with something different and having a new challenge!’. He’s based in Morecambe, with Senior Unifier Consultant Nathan Lambert close by with a guiding hand, and adds to our burgeoning North West satellite team, together with Neil and now also Rich Garnett, our latest new recruit, who joined us on 1st December.
Originally from Guiseley, Rich has known Russ and Pete since he was in nappies! He moved to the other side, though, and now lives in Warrington, where he’s been a graphic designer for more than 20 years. He joins us as Digital Content Designer and although he’s only been with us a matter of days, is already getting really stuck in and loving working on our new LMS platform, building online P6 and Unifier courses and content for our upcoming Learning Management System.
At the beginning of November, Alison Candlin transitioned from freelance ‘Marketing Girl’ (thanks Rachael!) to a full time and permanent member of staff as Marketing Manager. After nearly four years of getting steadily more involved in the world of RPC, this must be one of the longest ever interview processes, but she’s excited to get more involved in the business and about making sure that the world knows all about what RPC can do.
We’re always looking for ways to develop our team members and to encourage their professional growth and our participation in the Apprenticeship schemes with Shipley College is a really important part of this. We’re particularly thrilled that some of our first apprentices and trainees are now completing their studies and joining us as fully fledged members of staff. Congratulations and welcome aboard to Harriet and Steve: our first two Shipley College graduates.
The RPC Family and community
Work is important, but at RPC, community is, too and we’re always keen to support community projects and celebrate the achievements of team members.
In January, we were pleased to welcome Stuart Andrew, MP for Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough, to the RPC offices, where he met some of our apprentices, and was able to inspect the newly installed Public Access Defibrillator on the external office wall, where it is available at all times to office workers on the estate, walkers in the local area and nearby residents. We’re really pleased to have been able to facilitate this valuable community asset.
Our Sales Manager, Chris Woodbridge, has been putting in some miles this year, with two charity bike rides: the London to Brighton run in September, which raised £1845, and more recently a ‘virtual ride’ from his home in Moreton in Marsh to Ukraine cycling with a group of friends on static bikes to cover a cumulative total of 1600 miles, raising £5705. This was part of a larger fundraising effort that raised £25,000 to purchase two ambulances in Ukraine. Well done, Chris!
On a more personal note, we send happy wedding congratulations to Support Supremo Chris and his beautiful new wife Keely, wishing you both a lifetime of happiness.
As always, our company Chairman, Pete, is busy moonlighting as Santa at this time of year, raising funds for Codswallop CIC in Guiseley, and we join him in wishing all our clients and colleagues a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
