PMO Set-up & Sustain
A large US headquartered FMCG giant operating with multiple brands across F&B category, established IT COE (Center of Excellence) at their India Region office. The aim for set-up is to develop industry required IT capabilities & operates as common shared service platform for managing IT requirements from different verticals.
India market being a diversified, discrete and complex largely because of competition, urban/rural divide, geographical preferences, buying pattern etc. the company is required to operate on various Business models like Franchisee mode, company owned plants/trade, modern trade, traditional trade etc. IT department undertake varies Projects & Operational demand of its Business functions (Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Production, HR, Channel distribution etc.) to meet out organization’s objectives and enhance efficiencies.
Problem Statement:
At initial stage, the IT capabilities was divided into different technology verticals (function) to undertake project requests like SAP, GTM app, Legacy apps, Service Management, Technology. For undertaking large & mid-size projects, involvement from 2 or more functions was required. Cross-functional synergies were required to synchronize scoping, data interdependencies on applications, downtimes etc. The listed challenges were source of unwanted discussions, confusions, dis-alignments, ultimately a source for delay in project kick-off.
Secondly since every function holds its respective team, the department faces challenge of choosing right Project Manager and ensuring appropriate governance around project/s. During project work, the team members were required to perform project as well as operational (sustain) work. Also they need to report the same to 2 managers (PM & Functional Manager). Also at times a particular functions faces resource bandwidth challenge, while different functions have lean work.
Also there was a challenge of multiple project processes being followed by different verticals and standardization in following organization’s Project Management methodology was missing. Even the templates utilized for documentation were not standardized.
Solution:
On recommendation of corporate leadership team, IT department & its respective functions underwent a re-structuring and need was felt to establish a core capability of PMO function, as central organization was defining, managing & governing projects and other demand requests. On the other hand organization also re-structured its IT functions in alignment with Business departments. Now for e.g. any request coming from Supply Chain side, would be managed by Ops vertical of BIS.
PMO capability was set-up and subsequently the organization approached PMV Management Consulting, for establishing & sustaining project processes, defining roles & responsibilities, establishing project governance norms, standardizing review mechanisms, standardizing templates etc.
At first recommendation, PMO function started with Standardizing Cadence Reviews of all on-going projects. A defined reporting structure was created for different level of Project tiers. For classifying projects into Tiers (1, 2 & 3) a standard guidelines were discussed and agreed with other IT Functions. Gradually PMO functions works towards defining Authority Matrix for Project Managers / Leads & team members to ensure dual reporting avoidance.
After attaining a certain maturity level, PMO Function starts engaging with their IT function counterparts to define, calculate and agree upon the Project KPIs along with Business teams. Any project planned to be undertaken needs to have well defined KPIs either in terms of Growth, Productivity savings, Market Reach, Customer Satisfaction etc. (exception being Compliance project/s). Every demand gets accessed & prioritized in accordance with Business objectives & IT department’s bandwidth.