A Project Online customer’s journey

Implementing an Enterprise Project Management System

Scenario

Financial institution heads to unchartered territory

Sarah* works for a regional financial institution in Australia. With 20-30 projects on the go at any one time, the company’s executive management team recently decided to implement an Enterprise Project Management (EPM) System. Sarah, as head of its PMO, was tasked with finding, procuring, and implementing a system.

The business was not familiar with EPM systems but opted for a Microsoft solution, given their corporate licensing with Microsoft Office 365 hosted on Azure meant it would be a cost-effective approach. Sarah searched Google for possible implementation partners and stumbled upon Core Consulting Group (CCG). Impressed with what she saw, Sarah met with CCG and subsequently engaged them to implement Microsoft Project Online together with Power BI and SSRS for reporting and Business Intelligence analysis.

CCG influence

Providing a personalised process from start to finish

The business was impressed with CCG’s approach. Rather than convincing Sarah’s company to take an ‘out of the box’ or template solution, CCG began their journey through its ‘Concept of Operations’ workshop where they guided the business through each of the possible EPM tool functions.

CCG went beyond simply explaining the function by also placing emphasis on discussing the business’s readiness from a process and maturity perspective. The workshop outcome was an agreed set of high-level requirements and a sound basis for the development of the Data Dictionary and report mock-ups.

Wishing to keep business costs down, speed up implementation, and remain flexible, CCG went with a collaborative and iterative design-build-test approach rather than the usual ‘document to death’-then build-then test method.

This approach allowed the business to educate themselves and explore possibilities through the design-and-build process rather than somehow needing to know exactly what they needed upfront.

An example was the Issues and Risk module where options were discussed for rating and responses as the build progressed; plus, final tweaks were made once the reality of the solution was understood.

Outcome

Visibility and consistency in reporting

Sarah worked with CCG through the implementation, handling change, and communications using CCG’s advice and input, integrating training, and a pilot of the solution into the process. The outcome for the business was consistent month-end status reporting for all recognised high-risk and high-value projects.

*Name changed to protect client confidentiality

Case studies

EPM Implementation advisory services – Government department

Core Consulting Group (CCG) was engaged by one of Victoria’s State Government departments.  With a large IT project portfolio, they were trying to manage them in an older implementation of Microsoft Project Server. 

Project Management System uplift – Transport and logistics

Core Consulting Group (CCG) was engaged by one of Australia’s largest port infrastructure manager.  With capital infrastructure projects as well as business and IT, they had a diverse portfolio.  Having an existing implementation of Microsoft Project Server, our client was not happy with the way it was configured or used.

Project Online EPM Implementation – Engineering Manufacturing

Core Consulting Group (CCG) was engaged by one of Australia’s leading Engineering Manufacturers of stainless …

Project Online EPM Implementation – Health Insurance

Core Consulting Group (CCG) was engaged by one of Australia’s largest private Health insurers.  They …

Further reading

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