The Challenge
A global tech giant needed better portfolio and program management tooling and reporting to support its customer success organization. After evaluating commercial solutions, our customer determined they could not adequately address their intake, prioritization, portfolio management, and change management requirement. In addition, multiple applications and data repositories had created confusion across teams about initiative status and the anticipated impact of successful execution.
Leaders partnered with us to help define processes, enhance their ability to track the progress of multiple initiatives against strategic goals, and improve collection and vetting of time-sensitive data.
The Opportunity
Our team took a holistic view, encompassing more than 2,000 project managers and their teams. Due to the complexity and specific needs of the customer success organization, it was clear that off the shelf tools would not meet their needs. We designed a bespoke application from the ground up using the client’s internal data network and the Microsoft Power Platform. The primary goals for the solution included:
- Establishing a single source of truth for portfolios, programs, projects, and change management to improve strategic execution and executive reporting.
- Providing a systematic approach to governance, change management, and reporting for complex, disparate project portfolios.
- Enabling strategic execution for customer success to support a connected customer experience.
Our Approach
We performed an assessment and gap analysis of current state PMO tools, data, process, and culture to uncover opportunities for the future state. Then, we worked with the team to define a standard process and common data dictionary across the organization. After aligning processes and data structures, we created a new repository to capture inputs from multiple departments. Writing all data to a common system enabled extensive Power BI insights reporting across unified data sets and scenario modeling.
Although the process was aligned, each department needed flexibility to capture unique information. To accomplish this, we developed a security model that allowed individuals to provide function-relevant data.
Ultimately, the PMO application included key functionalities needed to manage their full project lifecycle and a robust data backend that incorporated enterprise taxonomies and leveraged extensive automation and validation. The tooling, data, and processes were all designed to mature alongside the organization.
The Outcome
Serving more than 2,000 project managers and their teams, this business application improved executive reporting and elevated employee experience through simplicity, requiring just a single intake point for multiple types of work. Using the new tool, the customer success organization accomplished:
Consistent methodology for portfolio, program, project, and change management
Standardized project success and adoption measurements in support of OKRs
Enhanced insights into their top initiatives’ portfolio and a federated view by stakeholders and OKRs
Real-time executive updates on the progress of key projects and initiatives
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