APEA Rising Star Award for Sumendra Sakya

Congratulations to Sumendra Sakya, Project Planner in Artelia UK’s Shell Programme Management team, who won the Association for Petroleum and Explosives Administration (APEA) Rising Star Award 2024 for his exceptional impact and dedication to implementing digital transformation in his role.

At Artelia, excellence is a core value and something we look for in individuals when recruiting for Shell programme management roles.  When Sumendra came for interview in 2022 he impressed Artelia’s Shell delivery team from the outset with his keenness to take on a coordinating role in a demanding project environment, even without prior experience in construction.

Over the course of the next two years, Sum showcased his self-motivation and commitment to excellence, thriving on the challenge of coordinating and tracking multiple projects for the Destination Recharge team.

In his Project Coordinator role, Sum was quick to spot the opportunities for digital transformation of processes and reports he was involved in. Without prompting, he began teaching himself skills in Power BI, Microsoft Project, SharePoint Lists, Power Apps and Power Automate, using these tools to automate workflow processes and integrate data. By creating interactive, real-time dashboards for our Destination Recharge team he ensured that all team members were working with the same information and improved coordination across sites.

Impressed with the automation and informative reports being produced, Sum was invited to join colleagues in creating a new digital Programme Management Office, christened Artelia Keystone. As well as further developing his skills in Project for the Web (Microsoft) tools he has liaised closely with Artelia’s digital team in Paris to manage the interface with Artelia’s Project Management tool, WizArt. The outcome is an easy to use, one login – client portal providing rigorous project controls, oversight of programme delivery, capital expenditure, health & safety, with the ability to drill down into individual project progress, costs and quality.

With development now complete, Sum is rolling out training on Microsoft Project and PowerApps to both team and client stakeholders – empowering everyone to use the tools and creating a seamless integration of processes between Artelia and Shell.

Sum’s success is reflected in the close rapport and respect he has from colleagues, who unanimously acknowledge the significant impact he has made to improving efficiency and automating tasks.

Shell client, Venkatesh Shreedharan, Head of Mobility Engineering, Shell UK:

I’m thrilled to commend Sumendra for his outstanding contributions to Artelia’s digital platform. As a young, curious, and enthusiastic professional, he has consistently demonstrated a remarkable ability to innovate and drive progress. His passion for technology and keen interest in continuous learning have been instrumental in enhancing our program management, making it smarter and better.