Enabling Structured Engineering Execution at Scale 

Substation projects require coordination across engineering teams, contractors, project managers, and operations groups. Multiple engineering deliverables must align before work can move forward.

At one major IOU, project teams used project management tools to track schedules, while engineering updates were collected through spreadsheets and email. As projects progressed, information became fragmented across teams and systems. Supervisors relied on manual updates to track project status, and engineers spent time gathering information instead of advancing engineering work.

Without clear visibility, teams struggled to track engineering progress, verify completed work, and identify delays early. Engineers and project leads also spent significant time coordinating updates, collecting status information, and managing follow-up communications after meetings. This administrative workload reduced the time engineers could dedicate to technical work.

“EKN removed the admin burden from our engineers. They now focus on advancing engineering work. With better visibility from the dashboard, we can plan resources proactively and keep projects moving forward.” — Transmission Line Engineering Supervisor, Major IOU

Visibility in a Single Dashboard 

EKN addresses these challenges by improving work visibility, workflow execution, and coordination across stakeholders. Project Tracking Solution provides centralized visibility into engineering work and key data points, supported by our team to ensure information is consistently updated and tasks are completed on time. 

Centralized dashboards enable supervisors, project engineers, and leadership to monitor milestones, workloads, resource capacity, and project status across teams. The dashboard provides leadership visibility into key metrics such as project bottlenecks, review status, project health indicators, recovery plans, and overall progress. This visibility allows supervisors and directors to identify risks earlier and manage engineering portfolios more proactively. 

Supervisors use dashboards to view their direct reports, track project assignments, and monitor commitment dates throughout the year. This provides a clearer picture of team capacity across multiple projects, helping supervisors allocate work more effectively, avoid overloading internal teams, and determine when external contracting support may be required. 

Improved visibility into upcoming projects also helps teams plan resourcing earlier. Work that requires external contractors can be scheduled further in advance, reducing delays caused by contracting timelines that previously pushed project schedules back.

For engineers, the solution significantly reduced administrative workload. EKN facilitates coordination activities such as communications, meeting updates, and post-meeting summaries, eliminating much of the manual follow-up work previously handled by engineering staff. This allows engineers to focus more time on engineering deliverables while maintaining accurate project updates across teams.

As a result, supervisors can coordinate work across teams more effectively. Coordination meetings also become more efficient, shifting from time spent gathering updates to focused discussions on project status and issue resolution.

EKN actively supports the Project Tracking Solution by establishing the infrastructure for teams to update project information, while monitoring activity, flagging missing updates, and sending reminders to ensure data remains accurate.

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Traditional Project Management Tools Fall Short 

Most utilities rely on generic platforms or spreadsheets to manage projects. These tools track schedules, milestones, and tasks but focus mainly on project management and they are often unable to support the complexity of technical engineering workflows. As a result, leadership teams often struggle to answer key operational questions.

EKN’s approach connects project oversight with the workflows that move engineering deliverables forward. Instead of relying on spreadsheets and email updates, engineering workflows are tracked in a centralized platform. over.vu connects engineering teams, contractors, and supervisors within a single system, allowing teams to monitor progress and address issues earlier in the project lifecycle. 

Across more than 160K engineering jobs reviewed, improved workflows have saved over 7 million resource hours by reducing review cycles and improving submission quality. 

Scaling Engineering Delivery Through Visibility and Workflow Execution 

With EKN’s solutions in place, the utility improved visibility into engineering work, reduced administrative tasks, and strengthened coordination across project teams. Centralized dashboards and structured workflows provided:

  • Leadership with a clearer view of project progress
  • Supervisors with the ability to identify risks earlier and manage resources more effectively
  • Supervisors with better insight into workloads, upcoming commitments, and contracting needs
  • Engineering teams with the ability to increase throughput without adding internal staff

By integrating the Project Tracking Solution, EKN helps utilities build the infrastructure needed to support engineering execution at scale. These solutions replace fragmented oversight with a coordinated system that provides clear visibility into work progress, resource capacity, and project outcomes.

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