Tag Archive: office

  1. EPMO in 2023

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    John F. Kennedy said that “Change is the law of life.” His thoughts certainly are appropriate for the current state of employment in the US. We have seen such dramatic changes since the “Great Resignation” in 2021.

    During 2021, we experienced record breaking changes in employment. In fact, 2021 delivered the highest average on record for employees leaving their employer, which equated to an average of 3.9 million resignations each month.

    In contrast, throughout 2023 we’ve seen headcount reductions across all business sectors.  Time Magazine reports that close to 172,000 people have lost their employment in the tech sector alone. Other organizations such as Disney, Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, Bed Bath and Beyond, and many more have also reduced their headcount significantly.

    You may be thinking these data points really aren’t that interesting or you may be thinking this news really isn’t that important.

    What these staggering numbers do not address is the impact that significant attrition or staff reductions can have on an organization. When organizations lose experience, knowledge, and expertise in large numbers, most organizations have a difficult time maintaining or even regaining their momentum, let alone meeting their annual business objectives.

    There are numerous steps organizations can take to help reduce this type of impact and support their ongoing momentum. One suggestion that we will focus on today is the creation of an Enterprise Project Management Office that will provide:

    • Executive exposure to strategic programs and projects
    • Focused support and consistent reporting with the intention of improving outcomes over time
    • Consistent methods and processes for approving, initiating, staffing, and implementing programs and projects

    The structure of an EPMO provides visibility, knowledge of the strategic programs across the organization, and a clear set of methods and processes for teams to follow. All of these are key areas that help prevent loss of knowledge when an organization is facing a high attrition rate.

    Additionally, an EPMO can provide guidance on how to implement cost reporting in an organization and to build upon that reporting, can help identify and measure areas of cost savings. An EPMO is often the right organization to assist with data-based decision making as well.

    These types of consistent processes and knowledge sharing are key to supporting an effective operational structure that will provide the support needed to achieve business objectives.

    If you would like to learn more about how to implement a successful Enterprise Project Management Office in your organization, you may want to work with a small team, with deep expertise and real experience, to help you create the desired outcome.

    If you have an interest in learning more, give us a call.

    – Kellie Bryan

     

  2. Questions for 2022 Pt. 3: Cost Structure and Expenses

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    This week, we’ll further explore the pressing need to review cost structures and all major business expenses in light of how business has changed (and will never go back to how it was pre-pandemic).

    What we already know:

    Once again, let’s take what we know about 2022, and then apply it to the question:

    • Some jobs and activities will always be in-person, and some organizations now feel confident enough to mandate returns to the office. However, remote-working has become a fact of life during the pandemic, and many organizations and people may choose not to return to their old in-person, in-office schedules and ways of working.
    • Business travel expenditures are still radically below pre-pandemic levels. And yet, most organizations have found ways to overcome travel limitations to their business development, operational management, and delivery activities in the short to mid-term.
    • It’s too early to fully know what the future of the office and the commercial real estate market is, but it’s likely that many organizations’ future office space and design needs will be different (both during and after the pandemic). Warehousing and other real estate needs may also be different moving forward.

    Great, but so what?

    First off, have you re-evaluated your real-estate needs versus your current real-estate footprint, given how business has changed and how future requirements may be different in the future?

    Real estate costs (including rent, utilities, facilities, and maintenance) can be a significant expense in many businesses. If future needs translate to the need for less office space, what are you doing to realize these potential cost savings? Equally, if your real estate needs will be different, are you budgeting for any required capital investment, such as for physical updates to office spaces?

    Another outcome of the pandemic is a record demand for warehousing and fulfillment center properties, and other logistics related real estate. So, even if your office space needs haven’t changed, what about these kinds of needs? Rather than offering an expense reduction opportunity, this might even be another area of rapidly increasing (potentially spiraling) business expense that deserves further analysis and action to bring it under greater control.

    Secondly, have you adequately and effectively reallocated budgets previously allocated to business travel? Moreover, have you considered whether your organization will return to previous levels of spending after the pandemic?

    Reduced business travel has not reduced the need for facetime with customers, colleagues, and vendors. However, the fact that most organizations have managed so well despite less travel does suggest that returning to previous spending levels may not be necessary. Equally, even if spend can’t (or shouldn’t) be reduced, how is it going to be reallocated to ensure business results and ROI if old travel activities (conferences, junkets, etc.) are going to be less prevalent?

    Thirdly, collaboration tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meetings have improved significantly in the last few years, as has their utilization by many organizations. Gaps and opportunities still exist, however. Has your organization fully accounted for the likely hardware, software, and other financial and capital investment implications of the increased usage of IT collaboration tools?

    Some of these incremental costs may already be obvious and/or known, but some may be less so. As examples:

    • Giving employees regular home office “stipends” for equipment costs is becoming more common. Should you be doing this, and how should you reduce corporate office expenses to offset?
    • Providing the same hands-on hardware and technology support employees are used to in a corporate setting is harder and more expensive in a remote work setting.
    • Will a prolonged increase in remote working have subsequent bandwidth, licensing, hardware, and infrastructure implications (and if so, what are the financial implications)?

    If you haven’t already, now is the time to more deeply review the longer-term impact of the pandemic on your IT organization and infrastructure, and how this could translate to your financial bottom line.

    Finally, we’ve mentioned in previous posts that worker shortages (translating into higher labor costs) have been another consequence of the pandemic’s impact on cost structures. Reviewing labor costs should be another priority for most businesses, but this topic deserves its own deep dive and will be the topic of the next post in this series.

    Conclusions

    Changes in how many organizations do business, including the increase in remote work and reductions in business travel, offer opportunities to re-evaluate cost structures and business expenses. These changes also highlight the need to identify and evaluate future financial implications. Core Catalysts regularly helps clients assess financial and operational efficiency and effectiveness to understand and optimize business operations and cost structure. We’ve also helped multiple customers optimize their IT strategies and infrastructure to match today’s changing environment. If you believe we could help your organization with this, why not reach out to us and schedule a call?

    Thanks once again for reading and please share any thoughts or comments you have. We’ll see you again in two weeks for the final post in the series, which will cover the question of business automation during and after the pandemic.

    Mark Jacobs, Client Service & Delivery

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

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    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