Technical Query Workflow in the CP2 on AWS

As we wrote in the ‘Reduce Collaboration Toil for Capital Projects Using AWS’ blog post for Capital Project Collaboration Platform (CP2), customers in the energy industry spend millions of hours collaborating internally and externally over the life of a capital project. They face numerous pain points, including the inability to collate comments, inefficient routing of information, ineffective search, lack of traceability, and difficulty in auditability. To alleviate these paint points, AWS has developed a cloud-based collaboration solution for capital projects called CP2. Using CP2, teams can reduce collaboration challenges and streamline operations with both internal and external partners.

Currently, the CP2 platform supports three business workflows—Document Review, Technical Query, and Request for Information. Each of these workflows drive efficiency in the collaborative aspects of capital projects. The goal of this article is to do a dive deep into the Technical Query (TQ) workflow.

Typically, in capital projects, an operator or its contractors ask questions that, if not answered, could cause issues or delays on a project. CP2’s TQ workflow provides a seamless way for multiple organizations to connect and ask questions, using automated algorithm-based routing of questions to appropriate individuals to allow for prompt responses. This improves administrative efficiency and reduces activity time (up to 30%*) and cycle time (up to 50%*) for the ‘question-answer’ loop. _{(*Based on comparison with a manual process)}

What is the value of TQ workflow to a capital project?

TQ workflow allows the capital project teams to resolve issues proactively, reducing the possibility of negative downstream impacts on construction. It can also act as an initiation point for the management of change requests or specification deviation requests.

How does TQ workflow reduce cycle time of a ‘Question- Answer’ loop?

The diagram below shows an operator interacting with contractors in a TQ workflow. The key steps in the TQ workflow are as follows:

1. Engineer from the contractor organization initiates the workflow by creating a Technical Query.
2. This query is reviewed and approved by the discipline lead. It then gets routed to the discipline lead from the operator organization.
3. The discipline lead from operator organization reviews and accepts the query and assigns a response author. The lead has an option of rejecting the query if it lacks merit.
4. Response author responds to the query, and it can be optionally endorsed by assigned endorsers.
5. The lead reviewer from operator organization reviews the final response and submits it to the initiating contractor organization.
6. The engineer TQ initiator receives the response and accepts it. If they need further information, they can create another query and the cycle repeats.

CP2 is set up with project organization information for both the operator and the contractor, including each individual’s role, area of expertise, management approvers, and any additional information required for the project. Then, when an operator engineer in a “mechanical” discipline wants to send a question to a contractor, he or she can select an appropriate counterparty in a “mechanical” discipline who is most likely to be able to answer the question. CP2 in the background takes care of all communication within and across the organizations in the background. This ability to select the response author and knowing their area of expertise reduces the cycle time of the ‘question-answer’ loop because most of the questions are answered correctly the first time.

How does a user collaborate with team members?

A user can invite any number of project team members within an organization to comment on the question or response. All project team members are accessible through CP2.

How does a user add supporting content to a question or response?

CP2 allows users to attach any document, including videos, as needed in the question or response. In addition, for PDF documents, users can also annotate and add comments as necessary.

How does TQ workflow support reporting and analytics?

CP2 moves all operational data into a data warehouse on a regular basis. Customers should then be able to connect this data warehouse to their preferred analytics solution for their own reporting and analytics tasks.

How does TQ workflow compare to existing solutions in the marketplace?

The key value of CP2’s TQ workflow is that it aligns closely with your organization’s business processes and capital project organization. For example, it automatically routes TQs to a specific individual because it is configured to understand project level roles and responsibilities. In addition, organizations can further customize TQ workflow as their business needs evolve over time since they have access to the source code.

Can CP2 work in capital projects outside of energy industry?

Yes. CP2 may be leveraged in capital projects related to industries such as construction, mining, infrastructure, and more. Contact the AWS sales team to see if your industry could benefit from CP2.

Are there any public customer references for CP2?

Yes. CP2 has been successfully deployed at ExxonMobil to drive savings in thousands of engineering hours. ExxonMobil presented Document Review (DR) capabilities at re:Invent 2020.

How do I get CP2 for my organization?

CP2 is available to all AWS customers and can be customized as needed for specific business requirements. Please contact the AWS sales team for further information.