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Meagan Lesher and Marleny Lopez-Sanchez, please introduce yourselves and your teams!<\/i><\/p>\n
Meagan: I am the Senior Director for the Midwest Electric Projects and Programs team at ENTRUST. I’ve been with the company for about nine years, starting as a Design Engineer specializing in electric distribution design. I now manage the electric distribution teams in this region. Our work primarily involves modernization and facility improvements for our clients, focusing on both overhead and underground electric distribution design.<\/span><\/p>\n Marleny: I’m the Senior Manager in our Electrical Consulting Group. Our group is divided into two main areas: transmission and distribution. Specifically, I support the distribution side of our Consulting group. Our team has grown from five people to approximately fifty over the last few years. We perform various types of analysis on distribution systems and support clients, including developers, utilities, municipalities, Co-Ops and ISOs. Our support extends to resolving any challenges they encounter with their electrical systems.<\/span><\/p>\n We receive a wide range of requests, such as helping clients transition from one analysis software tool to another and providing technical guidance for performing different types of analyses. Additionally, we assist with operations, reliability, and virtually any other needs related to their electrical systems.<\/span><\/p>\n Marleny: Our teams work incredibly well to develop our own internal teams. We often transfer members from Meagan’s team to ours and vice versa. For instance, while the design team focuses on technical aspects, they don’t delve deeply into analysis. Our team, however, specializes in in-depth analysis. Employees interested in this area often join us to gain more experience. If they enjoy it, they may transfer to our team permanently or continue supporting us with their expertise.<\/span><\/p>\n We find having team members with a design background is invaluable. They bring extensive knowledge of design software like AutoCAD and can train other engineers in its use. Additionally, they have practical insights into field feasibility, enhancing our team’s overall capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n Meagan: I agree, we had a significant success story with someone who worked with me for a year and a half and is now with Marleny’s team. I still enjoy collaborating with him, and it’s great that he feels like part of our team even though he no longer reports to us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As Marleny mentioned, this seamless transition is evident when we handle turnkey projects. Marleny’s team handles the planning and analysis work, and then we take over for the final design phase. I appreciate that my team is always guided by the initial planning efforts. However, when the planning isn’t done internally, it’s challenging to address constructability and design concerns and coordinate changes based on field inspections.<\/span><\/p>\n Working closely with an internal team allows us to have productive conversations early on and leverage knowledge from both sides. Marleny\u2019s team understands the equipment and its purpose, while my team figures out the physical implementation. This close collaboration from the start is much more efficient than the back-and-forth with clients or other contractors, which often delays projects.<\/span><\/p>\n Marleny: At ENTRUST, we encourage employees to try different disciplines. Even though this means losing some great people to other teams, it helps them advance their careers and improves retention by preventing frustration from a lack of growth opportunities. It’s important to support their career growth. Our company isn’t siloed; there’s fluidity in supporting employees’ interests and skills across various areas. For example, one of our top performers in distribution wanted to explore transmission work. While excelling in distribution, they started working on transmission projects and found it more fulfilling. If we don’t allow team members to pursue their interests and explore other technical areas, we risk losing them altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n Meagan: That\u2019s correct. If a top performer in electrical expresses interest in gas, for example, we facilitate conversations with the gas department to see if it’s a good fit. This approach ensures that our employees can explore different fields within the company, keeping them engaged and satisfied with their career paths.<\/span><\/p>\n Marleny: We have worked on many projects as a team, particularly focusing on distributor automation and optimization. In these projects, Meagan\u2019s team conducts all the field reviews, marks up the data, and sends it back to us for analysis. This collaboration improves our outcomes because we base our analysis on accurate field data. Consequently, our solutions are more feasible and grounded in real-world conditions. Once we complete our engineering and analysis, we return the marked-up drawings to Meagan\u2019s team. They then perform another field review and may identify any impracticalities with replacement of existing equipment or new installations. Together, we refine the design to find the best approach for the project.<\/span><\/p>\n In contrast, working with clients who have their own design personnel can be challenging.\u00a0 The clients often fail to provide us with accurate field data, leading to prolonged back-and-forth communications that can last weeks. For example, there was a project where it took months to obtain the necessary field data from a client’s busy team. Additionally, after we finish our engineering and send it to the client’s design team, it may take up to a year for them to respond with issues, such as the infeasibility of equipment placement. This delay forces us to revisit and sometimes redo the project entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n Working with Meagan\u2019s team, however, is much more efficient. The process moves quickly and smoothly, and we can address and resolve issues in real-time while actively working on the project.<\/span><\/p>\n Meagan: Many people don’t realize that we handle both planning and design. While we’re often known for one or the other, we actually have strong teams dedicated to both areas. Having a single entity manage both aspects ensures cohesive thinking, reduces frustration, minimizes back-and-forth communication, and streamlines the entire process. This level of collaboration is difficult to achieve when two separate organizations are involved.<\/span><\/p>\n Marleny: That\u2019s right. Many of our utility clients know us for our design work but are unaware that we also provide comprehensive analysis and consulting services. We can offer a full-service package, handling everything from planning to design, so all the client needs to do is send the project out for construction once we’re finished. Our additional services enable us to deliver a complete turnkey solution for our clients.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Meagan Lesher and Marleny Lopez-Sanchez, please introduce yourselves and your teams! Meagan: I am the Senior Director for the Midwest Electric Projects and Programs team at ENTRUST. I’ve been with the company for about nine years, starting as a Design Engineer specializing in electric distribution design. I now manage the electric distribution teams in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":19634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-better-together","category-blog"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tHow Important is the Support and Development of Internal Teams at ENTRUST?<\/span><\/h2>\n
How Does that Translate to the Benefit and Value Delivered to Your Clients?<\/span><\/h2>\n