Tag Archive: efficiency

1. Efficiency and Effectiveness Assessment: Could You Benefit?

   August 2, 2021 12:00 pm Leave a Comment

   

   When your annual budget is heavily reliant on grants or federal, state, or local funding, your financial resources are limited. Trying to allocate them in a way that drives down expenses and maintains (or even improves) services can feel impossible.

   Does this sound familiar to you? Is it time to think about new ways to save? Core Catalysts might be able to help you, leveraging our proprietary efficiency and effectiveness assessment methodology.

   We work with clients to review their existing and past budgets, evaluate current operations, and develop recommendations in a streamlined and targeted manner.

   Working together, we seek to propose recommendations that are practical, quick to implement, and around which consensus can be built. We provide detailed roadmaps for any key recommendations, including:

   • Estimates of the financial and personnel resources required to achieve these savings
   • Likely timeframes to implement recommendations and accrue the projected benefits
   • Detailed information on critical action steps, considerations, and relevant assumptions
   • Suggestions on the deployment strategies, communication management, and other aspects necessary for successful implementation

   Using proven processes and approaches, our experienced teams collaborate cross-functionally with client subject matter experts to identify achievable opportunities for both revenue growth and expense reduction. These savings typically amount to between ten and twenty percent of total projected expenditures during a five-year period (i.e., if your planned expenditure over the next five years is $500 million, we typically identify potential efficiency and effectiveness savings worth between $50 and $100 million), with at least a ten times return on investment for our clients versus the cost of the assessment.

   Below is a sanitized real-life summary of the results of a recent engagement, for a client in the transportation industry:

   Functional Area	Recommendations
   Operations	Successful implementation of improved recruitment and retention processes in key operational positions offers significant bottom-line benefits Improvements in staff scheduling and labor optimization offer cost savings with zero impact on front-line services Leverage of predictive maintenance techniques offer opportunities to improve operational KPI’s (such as vehicle up-time and cost-per-mile to operate)
   Procurement	Review of procurement processes, current vendor agreements, expenditures, and other relevant measures suggest modest potential savings opportunities Additional savings opportunities, via implementation of shared services and collaborative procurement arrangements, offer large and worthwhile benefits
   Finance	Alternative approaches to employee benefits, such as an on-site primary care clinic, offer potential efficiency and effectiveness savings while also delivering a superior employee experience
   Technology	Significant opportunities to leverage technology to digitize systems and processes and improve automation, to deliver both top-line and bottom-line benefits Large opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness through expansion and improved use of the existing technology systems and architecture
   Real Estate, Facilities, and Other Assets	Under-utilized land, buildings, equipment, rights of way, and facilities offer significant monetization and savings opportunities Multiple savings opportunities available from improved energy efficiency, any of which could be funded 100% by outside sources
   Revenue Enhancement	Multiple opportunities to increase revenue from existing operations Several potential new revenue sources also identified

    

   To be clear, our approach is not about unrealistically reducing the budgets allocated to core service, or about reducing operational standards through cutting corners. What we do is help our clients look outwards for sensible benchmarks and viable solutions to the individual challenges and unique situations they face.

   If you are interested in finding out more about our efficiency and effectiveness assessment methodology, which is part of our Growth Services offering, then please give us a call!

   – Mark Jacobs, Client Service & Delivery

2. PMO: Basics of Project Management Office Start-Up

   February 4, 2021 10:00 am Leave a Comment

   There are so many challenges when an organization decides to setup a Project Management Office (PMO). These challenges range from strategic to tactical, theoretical to practical. The question is how do we implement an effective PMO?

   Understand Your Environment

   It is essential that you understand the environment in which you will be setting up an effective PMO. For example, does your company produce software? If so, you may be best served by setting up a PMO that leverages an Agile framework and methodology. Maybe your company is service related? In that case, it may be beneficial to setup a PMO that leverages a Waterfall/Phase-gate framework with an Agile methodology.

   Regardless of the framework and methodology that you choose it is imperative that you consider the skillsets that you have in your organization. There are a few questions to consider:

   • Does the PMO have top-down buy-in?
   • Have you properly prepared leadership for the setup of a PMO?
   • Does your current staff have the appropriate skillset?
   • Will current staff require additional training?
   • Will you need to hire on new staff/roles?

   Crawl – Walk – Run Mentality

   

   There’s always room for improvement, and you will always need to mature into that improvement. Regardless of where you are in the project management maturity model, it is important to remember that you must crawl before you walk, and walk before you run. This expectation must be set early and reminded of often. Too many times the perception is that the PMO will solve all of an organization’s woes. This simply isn’t the case. The implementation of a PMO will definitely help certain aspects of the initiatives that an organization undertakes, but to be highly effective takes maturity, and the cost of that maturity is time.

   Crawl: Standardize and Improve

   When first learning to operate a PMO, you’ll want to focus on two critical components. First, standardize the way you plan and execute your projects. This is commonly referred to as your framework. A good foundational framework is key and will ensure that everyone understands how you, as an organization, will plan and execute your projects.

   Some great elements of a solid framework are standardized projects and program governance. This covers things such as how to scope a project (what is and isn’t included), how to manage risks and issues, how you manage change, and even how you will communicate. Setting these foundational elements up front will allow you to mature your framework and methodology to best suit your organizational needs and wants.

   Walk: Improve and Increase Efficiency

   

   Now that your PMO has mastered the basics, it’s time to mature the model. You have some experience under your belt and this is key in advancing your maturity level. For example, you may have now moved through several projects and know how your organization likes to communicate. Take this experience and refine your Communications Management Plans to fit the needs and wants of the organization. Perhaps it’s time to become more efficient and accurate on the estimation side of a project. There are tools and techniques that you may want to help you in maturing your ability to estimate project duration and cost.

   You have near-infinite options on what you choose to mature, but keep two things in mind as you do. First, you’re always going to be refining and maturing the model. Doing so only makes things better for you and your organization. Second, if at first you don’t succeed try, try again. Yep, that old adage was bound to come up! Not everything you try will work, but don’t give up.

   Run: Refine for Optimal Efficiency

   There are a ton of PMO maturity models out there on the world wide web. I’ve used many of them and can say that some are good and others are not. What I can say, definitively, is choose the maturity that is right for you and your organization. Some organizations need a ton of structure while others require more flexibility. Finding that sweet spot and optimizing it is the key to success.

   Encourage everyone to keep their eyes open for waste. Even in highly mature models, it isn’t uncommon to find waste. This typically manifests itself in wasted time. For example, if your project managers are creating a project artifact that is used only in the rarest instances, perhaps it is best to reevaluate that document. You may find that you can identify the types of projects that the artifact is used in up front, and create it only for that project type. The opportunity for refinement and operational efficiencies are boundless.

    

   – Matt Craig, Client Service & Delivery