Digital Consulting Project with Texas811

As Fall'22 draws close, I am delighted to share my experience in MIS6349: Digital Consulting Project course under Prof. Gaurav Shekhar .

The course was structured in a way where we got exposed to various aspects of digital consulting through topics like the 4S Method, TOSCA Framework, Cost-benefit analysis, Design Thinking, ITIL, and Digital Transformation. This course also provided students with the experience of working as consultants/technology practitioners for businesses. It was amazing to have the chance to gain hands-on experience and witness how a project you worked on can influence and affect the actual world.

Through this course, I got the opportunity to work with Texas811 . Texas811 is the largest one-call notification center in the country. With a mission to facilitate damage prevention and promote public safety, Texas811 serves as a link between utility companies and their plans to dig.

The project's overall goal was to determine the statistical significance of external factors on Texas811 call volume and predict the staffing variance. Through this project, we conducted an in-depth analysis by calculating the correlation coefficients between the call volume and different external factors like Temperature, Precipitation, and Consumer Price Index(CPI). Apart from the correlation analysis, we also created linear regression models in PowerBI based on the statistical relationship between the call volumes and different extreme temperature segments. With the help of the regression models made, we forecasted the call volumes that could occur during severe weather.

Based on the forecasted call volumes, we used Erlangs Calculator to predict the potential staffing variance during extreme weather events. Seeing how much financial impact this expected staffing variance could generate was compelling. Being a non-profit, It is essential for Texas811 to allocate funds appropriately for each department, and the prospective funds saved through the forecasting made through this project could be allocated to technology, innovation, and more projects like these to understand the other infinite factors that can have a bigger statistical significance on the call volumes.

Overall, the real-time learnings that this project presented us with were big takeaways from this course. During this project, our team was grateful to have Samantha M. as the mentor, who provided us with the key insights which played a massive role in the success of this project. And it was a pleasure working with Jon Rollins , who constantly provided us with feedback on our progress. Finally, I would also like to thank my team: Jorge Andrés L. , Vaishnavi Acharya , Simin Yin , and Priyanka R. .