South African system architecture and analytics company, MOYO Business Advisory has rolled out PPO, Project Portfolio Office’s simple to use, cost effective and scalable project portfolio management (PPM) application, using the tool at an operational level for improved service delivery.
“MOYO plays within the complete ‘change your business’ space, providing services such as process optimisation, regulatory compliance, change management, as well as system and business analysis, data analytics and so on,” explains Pierre le Roux, managing director at MOYO. “As a company providing this type of service, our involvement with projects falls within two different contexts; firstly, projects being run for clients, where we use their tools, and secondly, within an internal context, involving MOYO’s own strategic drives and initiatives. It was with a view towards enhancing our internal projects that we decided to look for a PPM tool.”
And while the company had well-established business processes in place, these were being run manually. MOYO’s different business types and divisions within the group, as well as the widespread geographical areas within which it operates, meant that management of these internally-facing projects had become increasingly complex, also impacting efficiencies.
In addition, it needed centralised access to updated PPM information for improved decision-making, in terms of resource allocation, client actions, issues to be addressed, and more.
“MOYO opted to implement PPO as an operational tool to allow for better internal delivery. However, it became much more than that, assisting with our complete lifecycle of service delivery. Each business within the group has now been set up on PPO, showing far broader use than mere project execution.”
Le Roux maintains that the organisation decided to partner with Project Portfolio Office, due to its good understanding of MOYO’s unique challenges, and ability to apply it specific needs to the PPM tool. “Project Portfolio Office undoubtedly understood our issues, and right from the first demonstration, we could see PPO within our own context. The company differentiated itself completely from competitors, who tended to be focused on selling product instead of solving problems.”
From a functionality point of view, MOYO is utilising PPO’s complete lifecycle management ability, with a focus on resource management and all project management functionalities, including risk, actions, dependencies and so on.
“PPO’s API (Application Programming Interface) gets extensive use within the company,” Le Roux adds. “The tool is integrated to several of our internal technologies, and we wanted unfettered access to all PPM data within PPO for management decision-making.”
From a benefit point of view, the company has been running more effectively, with access to the most current information on a daily basis. “PPO is used as the central database for all operational data, ensuring that everyone is on the same page at all times. Not only does it seamlessly integrate to our other systems, it also provides us with more effective PPM reporting.”
In terms of lessons learnt across the implementation, Le Roux advises companies looking to go the same route to plan well beforehand. “It is of tremendous assistance to have your own business processes in place, to understand how the new system architecture works, and then to adapt it to your own processes. In addition, ensuring that you have a clear scope is critical. MOYO used an incremental approach, and also implemented compulsory usage. All of these factors led to a seamless, smooth integration and implementation.”
Says Guy Jelley, CEO and co-founder of Project Portfolio Office: “As has been emphasised through MOYO’s experience, the centralisation of information is a key element to greater project and process success for professional services organisations. Storing, retaining and providing easy access to documents, knowledge and lessons are crucial actions for any project team.
“We’ve seen a large increase in professional services organisations wanting to improve their service delivery to customers with a specific focus on resource capacity planning and utilisation, in addition to improved PPM information for decision making purposes in the last year, and welcome MOYO to the PPO family.
“Executive support and following the recommended PPO implementation approach, allowing for incremental changes and stabilisation periods to ensure user adoption all played key roles in the success of this implementation. Our monthly steering committees allowed management teams to constantly assess the user adoption and overall implementation health. From the initial kick off, the requirements, scoping and planning were completed quickly, with the system going live within 30 days.
“The stabilisation period has allowed MOYO to gain prompt user adoption and embed the usage of PPO into its day –to-day operations. This implementation has been a great success and will allow MOYO to meet its defined strategic objectives,” adds Jelley.
Benjamin Govindsamy, Senior Consultant and Strategic Programme Manager at MOYO Business Advisory, echoes these sentiments, stating that the PPO has played a pivotal role in the changing face of the organisation, enabling it through a critical time of growth.
