CK Projects and Engineering (MECK) has successfully rolled out Project Portfolio Office (PPO), an online project management and collaboration application, in order to improve project tracking and communication.

MECK is a South African registered, Johannesburg-based project management company, which specialises in project management and implementation services to the resource, industrial and commercial sectors. With its diamond projects partner, Oblique Engineering, the company has revolutionised the grease recovery of diamonds with the first completely hands off, safe, reliable and fully automated grease unit. MECK has also started manufacturing customised field truck load beds and trailers.

Kelvin Lourens, projects contracts and legal administrator at MECK, explains: “We were faced with the common problems of communication, the tracking of issues and risks, and roles and responsibilities, which resulted in unacceptable delays throughout the lifecycle of our projects.

“We wanted one common online project management platform that would allow us to track roles and responsibilities for a balanced workflow, but which would also help us to stay on track with key project aspects such as time and costs. Effective and efficient project communication, as well as meeting clients’ needs for information and updates were also critical drivers for MECK.”

According to Lourens, the company decided to implement PPO, an online project portfolio management (PPM) solution as it to the point and accurate. With it, MECK can ensure proper tracking, which in turn ensures a healthy, successful and effective project. “Given the demands and expectations of our clients, we needed to have active communication and tracking. No other product on the market could give us the control and holistic overview to effectively manage projects as PPO has,” he adds.

The tool is being successfully used by MECK’s project office staff and team members, project managers and administrators, as well as the project sponsors and owners.

Says Guy Jelley, Project Portfolio Office CEO: “Using PPO allows project teams and stakeholders a far greater visibility of the status of work, projects, programs and portfolios. It creates a collaborative environment within which teams can work, plan and complete projects together and provides the required communication and alerts to keep teams and clients informed.”