A major water utility in the Dutch Caribbean had over 40 capital projects in execution and no reliable way to track them. We built a near real-time monitoring platform that replaced weeks of manual reporting — and uncovered hidden data problems nobody knew existed.
A major water utility in the Dutch Caribbean, responsible for producing and distributing drinking water across the region. The company manages a substantial portfolio of capital investment projects — infrastructure upgrades, network expansions, and facility improvements — with a combined value exceeding $100 million.
The company’s CIO recognized a growing problem. Over 40 capital projects were in execution, representing more than $100M in investments. Yet there was no centralized way to monitor them.
Project Managers tracked budgets and progress using individual Excel spreadsheets. Some created their own reporting formats. When senior leadership asked basic questions — How much budget has been used? Which projects are behind schedule? — the answers took weeks, not minutes.
A single Project Manager needed roughly three weeks to gather, compile, and cross-reference data from multiple disconnected systems. Errors were common and sometimes went undetected until they surfaced during presentations to senior leadership.
The CIO had explored alternatives for months. Most were financial controlling systems that required the organization to adapt its processes to the software. That approach was not only complex and time-consuming to implement — it was the wrong fit. The company needed a solution built around how they actually worked.
Keen Analytix proposed something different: a bespoke solution built on top of the company’s existing systems — one designed to match their processes, not replace them.
The engagement started with extensive alignment sessions across departments. Through this process, the team mapped how project data flowed from execution to reporting — and where it broke down.
A key discovery emerged during this phase: multiple discrepancies existed in how costs were allocated across the company’s legacy systems (IBM Maximo and NorthStar) versus how the accounting department reconciled them. These inconsistencies had gone unnoticed beneath layers of manual workarounds and were a root cause of the reporting burden. Addressing this became foundational to the solution.
The company’s project data lived in two primary legacy systems: IBM Maximo for asset and work management, and NorthStar for utility-specific operations. Neither system was designed to produce cross-project portfolio views.
Keen Analytix developed custom APIs in close collaboration with the company’s internal IT developers and application owners. Query integrity, data validation, performance, and security were top priorities during this stage. The APIs automated the ingestion of project data — budgets, actuals, milestones, cost allocations — eliminating manual data entry and spreadsheet exports while ensuring the underlying data discrepancies were resolved at the source.
The centralized data fed into a Power BI platform with tailored views for different audiences. C-suite leadership received portfolio-wide dashboards showing budget utilization, project health, and investment status at a glance. Project Managers received detailed monitoring dashboards — down to individual invoice items — giving them the granularity they needed for day-to-day oversight.
The platform refreshes data every two hours between 7 AM and 7 PM, delivering near real-time insights throughout the working day.
The platform went live within 6 months.
The CIO’s original vision was a sound solution that would last. Seven years later, it has.
Keen Analytix remains the company’s trusted technology partner. The platform was recently modernized with updated layouts, performance enhancements, and deeper insights. The relationship has since expanded well beyond project monitoring.
When a client keeps working with you for seven years, that says more than any case study ever could.
Build bespoke, don’t force-fit. Other vendors demanded the organization change its processes. We built a solution that fit theirs — and grew with them.
Diagnose before you build. The discovery phase uncovered data integrity issues that were silently driving the manual reporting burden. Fixing root causes made the difference between a dashboard that looks good and one that actually works.
Collaborate, don’t outsource. API development happened shoulder-to-shoulder with the client’s internal team — ensuring quality, building confidence, and creating a solution they truly own.
Tailor the view to the audience. A CEO and a Project Manager need different things from the same data. Distinct dashboards turned raw data into actionable intelligence at every level.
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