No single source of truth for project and portfolio management (OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management).
Disparate tools and disjointed processes made consistent work difficult.
Users spent too much time switching between systems.

Solution

Deployed a new powerful portfolio management solution.
Transformed data to smooth the migration process.
Integrated new solution with HR, financial, and business intelligence systems.

Results

Achieved 15% efficiency gains
Reached full ROI within 3 years
Established full visibility and real-time reporting

Challenges

Employees and managers lacked a single source of truth for project and portfolio management
Disparate tools and disjointed processes made it hard to work consistently and acted as a brake on innovation
Users spent too much time switching between different versions of tools
The existing project management system was unreliable and required dedicated IT resources to fix bugs and keep it running

The continued growth of this large financial services organization relies heavily on efficient business processes and effective management of Transformation and Change initiatives. Every year, the firm manages over 500 projects, representing portfolios worth more than $1 billion dollars.

Different business units had been using Clarity, by Broadcom, for many years to support their project management, albeit in an inconsistent manner across multiple instances of the software. The shortcomings of this environment had become very clear, as the company’s product owner explained, “We had several different instances of Clarity, implemented for different purposes in different business units, with some 10,000 users in total. The majority of people used the system to process timesheet information, while others were using it for Portfolio and Resource Management. We were also using Microsoft Excel to help with forecasting models. Our Clarity instances were heavily customized, which impacted performance, left us overly dependent on key people to know how each system worked, and made ongoing changes difficult and slow.”

Each instance of Clarity was hosted on its own technology infrastructure, which raised the costs significantly. Users also found the fragmented environment frustrating because they needed to jump between different instances to access all the necessary information. Maintaining multiple records relating to the same initiative across different systems was time-consuming. The lack of integration meant that significant effort was required to extract and combine different data sets to produce consolidated views.

The Clarity software was also unreliable and required several dedicated IT resources to fix bugs and keep it running.

The financial services firm saw the opportunity not just to change its systems but to transform its business more deeply. Existing processes had been designed in isolation, which limited the organization’s ability to innovate. The organization wanted to create a single source of truth on projects and portfolios, while redesigning business processes to ensure they were fit-for-purpose.

Business people discussing in a conference room

OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management Resource Management enabled us to sequence our projects according to resource availability. Given that we have many different teams, the lack of visibility of team backlogs and availability meant that projects would sometimes grind to a halt. OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management ensures project continuity and helps us plan to ensure that the right resources will be available at the right time.

Product owner, large financial services organization

Solution

To create a consistent environment and toolset for managing projects and portfolios, the financial services firm worked with BPM Vision on a phased deployment of OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management.

Products deployed

OpenText™ Core Project and Portfolio Management

Combine workflows and data to align investments with strategy. Powered by top-down and bottom-up analytics

Deploying an improved project and portfolio management solution

After evaluating multiple project and portfolio management offerings from different vendors, the organization chose OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management. Key selection criteria included product demos, capability overviews, implementation capability and strategies, and price.

“OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management had the functionality we were looking for and scored considerably in excess of our expected evaluation criteria,” said the spokesperson. “We liked the fact that it is a SaaS offering, which means we don’t need to maintain our own hardware infrastructure. OpenText also introduced us to BPM Vision, which proved to be a knowledgeable and trustworthy implementation partner for OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management.”

As part of a broader change management initiative, the financial services organization opted for a phased implementation of OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management. BPM Vision ran workshops within the organization to ensure that each module of the solution would meet the business objectives. The modules deployed were: Resource, Portfolio, Timesheet, Program, Project, Risk and Financial Management, and Demand Management.

Over a 12-month period, the joint implementation team introduced the systems and meticulously prepared employees for the migration.The team ran more than 300 face-to-face training sessions and produced module-specific user guides, quick reference guides, and video tutorials to suit all individual learning preferences. As the go-live date approached, the team organized drop-in sessions to encourage early user feedback, which helped optimize processes.

Transforming data for a smooth migration

Data migration was a key element in the successful adoption of OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management. It was just as important to determine what not to migrate. This was a prime opportunity to start fresh and avoid data that would either complicate the implementation or add no value.

BPM Vision developed automated scripts to extract data from the various Clarity systems as Excel and .csv files. Macros in Excel then transformed the data into a format recognized by OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management. The implementation team developed individual OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management templates for Projects, Programs, Risks, Issues, Submissions, Financials, and other relevant OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management entities, then mapped the extracted data into them.

Puneet Singh Sodhi, managing director for BPM Vision, said, “The idea was to automate the whole process with minimal manual intervention so that all data could be migrated successfully on the cut-over weekend. We did a couple of dry runs, along with rigorous testing, to make sure that the whole data migration was a success. This automated migration was well received by the user community as it meant they did not need to manually re-key existing data.”

Integrating with existing HR, financial, and business intelligence systems

Working with BPM Vision, the financial services organization has integrated OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management with its HR systems, financial systems, and a business intelligence tool. This integration enables the delivery of customized views to different internal audiences in real time.

Integrating the Resource Management module of OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management proved particularly helpful, as the product owner explained, “Resource Management has enabled us to sequence our projects according to resource availability. Given that we have many different teams working on projects, without visibility of team backlogs and availability, projects would sometimes grind to a halt. OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management ensures project continuity and helps us plan the right resources being available at the right time.”

OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management had the functionality we were looking for at a cost-effective price point. We liked the fact that it is a SaaS offering, which means we don’t need to maintain our own hardware infrastructure.

Product owner, large financial services organization

Results

Thanks to the OpenText solution, the financial services organization has reduced its IT costs, boosted employee efficiency, accelerated access to consistent data, and enabled accurate real-time reporting on projects and portfolios.

Made efficiency gains of 15%

The smooth data migration and significant investment in user training helped ensure a successful adoption of OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management from day one.

According to the product owner, user feedback was overwhelmingly positive: “Suddenly, people could use a single system instead of several. They gained enhanced functionality, access to real-time data, and could focus on delivery instead of entering the same data in different systems. We estimate efficiency gains across the organization of 15%.”

Achieved rapid ROI

“The obvious benefit of choosing a SaaS solution from OpenText is that we no longer need to maintain separate hardware infrastructure,” noted the product owner. “This provided immediate cost savings, for an estimated full return on our investment in just three years. The SaaS model also means that we can now easily upgrade and take advantage of new OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management functionality straight away.”

Released from maintaining and fixing the previous environment, IT specialists at the financial services organization can now focus on added-value activities, which increases their job satisfaction and productivity.

Delivered full visibility and real-time reporting

OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management advanced reporting functionality is very helpful to management. The product owner said, “Full visibility has been the key benefit of our deployment of OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management. We now capture data consistently and in real time. We have an entirely new set of intelligent data that supports faster decision-making and helps us with scenario planning. We can quickly identify any potential bottlenecks in projects and intervene before they cause problems to help ensure successful project outcomes.”

He concluded, “We work closely with OpenText on new OpenText Core Project and Portfolio Management functionality that will help us as we progress on our Agile journey. As a member of the OpenText Change Advisory Board we can directly influence the solution roadmap and benefit immediately from new functionality.”