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Sultan Business Centre Oud Metha Road, Office 320 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 (0) 4 4072 569 |
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Clients and Success Stories
Our consulting solutions range from individual and corporate assessments, health checks, seminars and workshops, to mentoring and coaching to ensure the delivery and transfer of knowledge fits your organisations requirements. Here are a few of our success stories:
The State of Michigan wanted to increase the success rate of its information technology projects to better serve its customers and decrease project costs. Top officials in the governor’s office decided the solution was to implement commercial management techniques, based on recognised and repeatable best practices. This idea launched the governor’s Office of Project Management (OPM), which expanded the programme to include all of the state’s projects. In order to educate its work force and managers, the executives at the State of Michigan had to find a first-class training organisation. After careful review, Michigan chose ESI International as its training partner, in large part because ESI offers both general and IT project management courses.
Continuing with the idea of using a commercial management methodology, the members of the OPM started a process to continually review industry best practices and to work closely with organisations such as the Project Management Institute (PMI®). ESI’s courses closely follow PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and therefore help prepare employees for their PMP® certification exam. ESI’S Certification and Quality of Instructors Meet Michigan’s NeedsAnother benefit of ESI’s curriculum includes the certification of its students, a key feature for Michigan. This certification, a Master’s Certificate in Project Management or Information Technology Project Management, awarded by The George Washington University, offers Michigan employees a chance to earn credible recognition for having a common knowledge base. This certificate also provides a clear incentive to enrol in the programme since it defines a clear path for career growth and self-improvement. “We made a decision early on in the establishment of the state Office of Project Management to identify the best, most versatile and comprehensive company to provide project management training. ESI has filled every criterion perfectly, providing a solid base in building the project management culture across state government. Top-quality instructors, curriculum and account support have made ESI a true partner as we continue to expand project management knowledge and discipline throughout the State of Michigan,” says Beth Rigby, PMP, Project Manager/Quality Management Specialist for the State of Michigan Office of Project Management. The quality of ESI’s instructors has also played a major role in the success of the training programme. “The knowledge, experience and enthusiasm that these instructors bring to the classroom helps keep the students motivated and interested,” says Rigby. “The employees who have attended classes keep coming back because they feel good about how they are learning,” continues Rigby. “Everyone involved feels a sense of excitement about the programme and this furthers the changes necessary for this type of organisation-wide culture transition.” Centre of Excellence and ESI Courses Broaden Scope of TrainingAs the sophistication and knowledge levels of Michigan employees have increased, Michigan has broadened its contract with ESI because the training company offers in-depth courses that can grow along with the employees’ expanding knowledge base. In addition, ESI has customised its courses to include specific project management challenges such as civil engineering. OPM’s confidence in ESI’s training programme has grown even stronger since the company’s broad base of relevant courses and ability to tailor the curriculum meets the needs of many varying projects. Michigan launched a Centre of Excellence as another focal area of the OPM. This centre provides a forum to foster greater knowledge of best practices and acknowledge statewide achievements in project management excellence and builds on the established state project management methodology, tools and training curricula to support application of project management across agencies. The Centre serves as a repository of experience, information and recognition for the state’s project management improvement initiative and successes. Stage two of the initiative involves a much larger breadth and depth of the curriculum. Through the Training Advisory Group, which monitors the project management training portion of the programme, internal and external training effectiveness is monitored informally with feedback forms and questionnaires as well as with formal bench marking. ESI’S Project Management Training Contributes to State’s Project SuccessIn a little more than a year after implementing this broad-based project management initiative, Michigan employees are using project management in a structured approach to managing projects, ensuring more successful projects. As the programme matures, the state will continue to conduct bench marking and to identify successes and gaps in its project management methodology. This is the beginning of incorporate project management into the state culture. Recognising employees’ achievements and nurturing their career paths is a part of the state’s initiative. Michigan realises that by offering this training programme, the state can increase job satisfaction and employee retention. This effort will help to foster consistency of team members during a project’s life cycle, which increases the success rate of projects. Executives have also seen an increase in project managers with credentials, such as a master’s certificate or PMP® certification. Rigby notes that one of the challenges in any elected government organisation is not only implementation of a programme of this kind but also the continuation of the programme once there is a change in administration. She feels that ESI’s broad range of courses, enthusiastic instructors and the involvement of Michigan’s employees have helped the OPM to start changing the culture of the organisation. Rigby hopes that the success of the programme can transcend any change in administration and that the programme will continue to provide the State of Michigan with the project management training, tools and support that lead to project success. 
When the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) identified a need for intensive project management training, they turned to the experts at ESI International for support. The BLM manages more than 265 million acres of land throughout the United States. Obviously, ensuring the safety and output of such an enormous area of land on a government budget — while answering to a list of customers that ranges from environmentalists to wealthy cattle ranchers — is quite a management undertaking. Several years ago, the agency’s leaders discovered a significant problem among their employees. Although “project management” was a term used frequently, little knowledge of basic project management theories and practices actually existed throughout the agency. With no standardised processes, consistency between projects suffered, and the mismanagement of risk, scheduling and cost control issues caused projects to be delivered late and over budget. On top of their own internal findings, the General Accounting Office (GAO) — the investigative arm of Congress — issued a report on the BLM placing a moratorium on any major IT projects until the agency was able to show improvement in project management. The GAO’s report stated, “The Bureau of Land Management lacked a stable environment for developing and maintaining software, overcommitted staff to projects and abandoned procedures when executing projects.” The agency’s project management difficulties were due in large part to a number of changes occurring toward the end of the 1990s. “Much more emphasis was being placed on information technology (IT) project management and construction project management,” says Kurt Ballantyne, Project Management Specialist with the BLM. “More and more projects were requiring things like Land Use Plans and Environmental Impact Statements.” In order to stay up to date and to succeed, the BLM was going to have to make some significant changes. The Bureau Chooses ESI InternationalAfter recognising its problems and receiving the moratorium from the GAO, the BLM went into action quickly to find a project management training vendor to meet its needs. Three separate vendors were evaluated on criteria that included course content, cost and requirements for certification. After an intensive review, the BLM chose industry leader ESI International, whose qualifications closely met the agency’s criteria for comprehensive training.
This was not the BLM’s first experience with ESI. As far back as 1990, ESI was hired to teach 25 BLM employees to become project management trainers. The objective was for these individuals to train the rest of the company on how to bring project management processes into their projects. Unfortunately, the BLM did not plan on the rate of turnover. “Although the training was a success, within a year, most of the project management trainers had left for other organisations,” says Ballantyne. This time, the BLM would have to make a more intensive effort to ensure training success. Directing the Training ProgrammeFrom the start of the programme, the BLM’s objectives were clear. “We wanted to create a group of between 45 and 60 project managers with master’s certificates from ESI and The George Washington University,” says Ballantyne. The BLM called this their target group, which was made up of half IT employees and half business employees. This was done to create a balance between the two that would allow all projects to be completed consistently, regardless of whether they had an IT scope. Next, the BLM and ESI worked together to develop the specific training programme for BLM employees. They decided that to receive a master’s certificate, employees must complete seven out of ten ESI courses that most applied to their needs. The BLM created separate groups of employees with about 15 members each to take the required courses together. The agency spaced the courses out over a four-month period to allow employees to move through the programme quickly without keeping them away from their homes and offices for too long at one time. Immediately, demand within the BLM for ESI courses was high. “Competition among the members of each group was pretty intense,” says Ballantyne. Similar to a graduate programme at the university level, BLM employees applied to the training programme, stating why they felt they qualified. A panel of members from the BLM’s management team reviewed the applications and made recommendations, and then the final groups were chosen by the BLM’s Chief Information Officer. Later on, based upon the BLM’s successful relationship with ESI, the agency took advantage of ESI’s ability to customise its curriculum. ESI created the course Project Management for Planners specifically for the BLM’s Land Use Planners. The Next Step for the BLM and ESISince beginning its project management training programme with ESI, the BLM has accomplished its goal of acquiring a sizable group of certified project managers. “Although many have just recently been awarded their master’s certificates, we have already noticed significant improvement at the planning stage of recent projects and we are very optimistic about applying ESI’s training to upcoming assignments,” says Ballantyne. This is significant since the BLM is currently managing more than 50 national-level projects valued between $500,000 and $15 million. The organisation is working to match its recent master’s certificate recipients with projects suited to their new skills. The agency also plans to put upper-level managers through ESI’s project management training programme as well, making solid, proven project management theories and practices a part of the BLM from top to bottom. 
About PTCOne of the world’s largest, independent software companies, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) provides product development systems that deliver the key capabilities manufacturers need to realize more value from product development. Their proven software solutions help companies accelerate adoption, minimize risk and speed time-tovalue. PTC has 5,000 employees in 30 countries around the world, and serves more than 50,000 customers. Headquartered in Needham, MA, USA, PTC is a publicly traded company, with revenues of almost US$1 billion. The ChallengeLike virtually every 21st century organization, PTC understands that in order to maintain its competitive edge in the global marketplace it must consistently improve project success rates, increase customer satisfaction and maximize efficiencies. PTC’s leaders recognized that as the company had grown from its founding in 1985 — organically and through acquisition — standards for project management had self-developed in regional isolation around the world. This disparate approach to project management was identified as a barrier to maintaining the company’s leadership position. Development of a global project management program encompassing standards, processes and career paths became a key corporate goal beginning in 2003. In order to realize this goal, PTC needed to address project management on several fronts:
The Solution
1. Assessment and PlanningUsing ESI’s proprietary PMAppraise: A Knowledge and Skills Assessment®, PTC was able to benchmark its overall project management competency against the nine areas of the Project Management Institute’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). With the needs clearly defined, PTC and ESI designed a program to:
2. Communication and Execution2. Communication and Execution Understanding the essential role executive leadership plays in ensuring the success of any global effort, PTC launched the program with a worldwide kick-off that included a strong showing from senior management. The courses supporting these paths are delivered through both on-site and online training methods. Regardless of where or how courses are taken, they are consistent everywhere in the world. 3. ReinforceIn order to encourage its employees to continue their project managementfocused professional development, PTC and ESI deployed a number of incentives. For example, project management progress and training are now standard elements of an employee’s annual review. Also, PMP® certification is required for promotion to the program manager and program director levels and employee compensation is directly tied to project performance. To ensure that the knowledge and skills gained in training are retained and applied on the job, ESI helps PTC provide employees with a suite of online reinforcement tools. In addition, PTC has launched a coaching program in which experienced project and program managers coach other employees based on best practices from the training program. A well defined methodology and framework (the Realized Value Platform) with an effective project lifecycle (Realized Value Project Lifecycle) based on a comprehensive set of quality assurance processes and tools applied at certain milestones in each project assures a continuous tracking of compliance to the high-quality standards of PTC. Project progress and performance is measured based on earned value management and reviewed on all management levels. Results
Finally, the global project management effort has resulted in the first PTC global workforce community at both formal and informal levels. This has created the standard for how to build similar communities for other disciplines within the company. Next StepsWith the right infrastructure in place, PTC is continuing to mature its project management capabilities — both organizationally and for individual team members — through training, assessment and coaching. 
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), with nearly $9 billion in revenues and about 570,000 clients, is one of the world’s largest providers of business outsourcing solutions. Leveraging 60 years of experience, ADP offers the widest range of HR, payroll, tax and benefits administration solutions. ADP’s solutions for employers provide value to companies of all types and sizes. The ChallengeOver the last decade, ADP’s business has shifted from single service solutions, such as payroll processing or benefits administration, to multi-service solutions that include a range of human resource, benefit, talent management and payroll services being implemented simultaneously. When client implementations involved single solutions, or even multiple solutions implemented over longer timeframes, ADP’s National Account Services (NAS) Implementation Project Management Office (PMO) was well served by project managers with significant hands-on implementation experience though they had little formal project management training.
Given the complexities and risks inherent in multi-faceted projects, ADP determined that investing in its project management capabilities would lead to better outcomes, most notably, higher client satisfaction and more successful “go-lives.” The StrategyIn 2005, ADP’s NAS PMO launched an advanced learning programme to its implementation team with a focus on project management fundamentals. This initial effort proved so successful that in 2006 ADP asked learning partner, ESI International, to assess their broader, existing project management capabilities and chart the long-term course to meet their goals. ESI tailored the assessment to explore specific issues identified by ADP. Highlights of the recommendations based on the assessment included:
The PMO leadership also wanted to promote the achievement of Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI®). The PMP® was seen as a proof point to demonstrate ADP’s superior project management capabilities. The SolutionAfter helping to ensure ADP’s PM methodology met the company’s needs and aligned with PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), ESI tailored courses to close skill gaps identified by the assessment. Courses were offered at ADP locations throughout the U.S. as well as online. As the PMO moved forward on
education and resources to drive a
project management centric culture, it
also evolved its business approach. To
support the business, the PMO expanded
from a few team members to more
than 25 programme managers who are
assigned to the largest and most complex
engagements. The PMO also ensures all
project management professionals have
access to appropriate courses and have
achieved, or are on a fast track to, PMP®
certification. Unlike many PMOs that focus on
standards and auditing, the NAS PMO
actively engages in the business and
ongoing projects. Not only do project
managers from each functional area
monitor project implementations, the
PMO does as well, providing weekly
coaching, if not daily. “It is this active
role in day-to-day project implementation
that drives business and customer
success,” said Martia Newell, Vice
President of the NAS Implementation
PMO for ADP. “Over the last three years we have seen
a significant improvement in on-time,
on-budget client project delivery,”
said Newell. “A few years ago, troubled
projects would often find their way
directly to the division president’s
desk. With a solid project management
structure in place, fewer escalations
are needed, and issues are resolved
more quickly by the right individuals at
the right level of the organisation. The
division president is no longer the first
point of escalation.” Additionally, ADP has made significant
progress in many areas: While ADP has achieved enormous
success in a few short years, they
intend to continue to grow their
PM capability. Currently they are
focused on conducting a second
assessment to gauge success to date
as well as recalibrate the identified
knowledge gaps. Additionally, ADP plans to: “Collaboration, partnership and a
willingness to be flexible, along with
direct access to ESI’s thought leaders,
continues to help ADP achieve many
great successes,” said Newell. Contact one of our Business Development Managers by calling +44 (0)20 7017 7100 or by sending an email to enquiry@esi-intl.co.uk 
The BackgroundASML is the world’s leading provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, manufacturing complex machines that are critical to the production of integrated circuits or microchips. Founded in 1984, ASML is publicly traded on the Euronext Amsterdam and NASDAQ. With more than 6,500 employees worldwide, it enjoys an approximate 65 percent market share. ASML spends an average of €460 million annually on research and development and has more than 3,000 engineers in R&D. Working on five major products, along with other applications and products, ASML’s engineers can have more than 200 simultaneous projects occurring at any one time. In 2005 ASML decided to assess its project capabilities. It determined that while the company had long enjoyed successive growth and strong profit margins, there were opportunities through improved project management to realise even greater results. The assessment showed that while there was no agreed ASML project management methodology, many engineers applied a range of project management skills and tools to gather requirements, plan and track their projects. However, since less than ten percent of project plans were “good” based on ASML’s criteria, this hampered company executives’ ability to evaluate and track projects against corporate goals and ensure effective resource allocation. The review also found that individuals fulfilling the role of project manager had often been selected for their technical expertise, rather than their project management skills, knowledge and experience. It was determined that ASML could greatly benefit from:
The StrategyIn order to achieve its project management goals, ASML recognised it would need a partner that could help develop the methodology, design and deliver the learning programme as well as help ensure the project management practices became part of ASML’s corporate structure and culture. In 2006, ASML selected ESI International to help drive and support their programme. Together ASML and ESI identified several core components for the programme:
TacticsThe programme consisted of three completely integrated elements: the methodology, the training of the individual and the coaching of the integrated project teams. The first part of the programme focused on the development of the ASML-specific project management methodology. In order to be successful the methodology needed to follow best practices as set out in the PMBOK® Guide while taking into consideration what was already working at ASML and the specific project management needs of the business. With the methodology well defined, ESI developed and delivered instructor-led courses designed around the tailored methodology. Once team members completed the courses they were given time to review their current projects and develop an understanding of how to apply the methodology. After a few weeks, coaching workshops, as well as individual one-on-one coaching sessions, were made available to all project managers and their project teams, a potential audience of more than 200 people. They were asked to identify high-priority projects with a focus on R&D projects for this real-time learning component. The coaching sessions and workshops were spread over several months and allowed project leaders and teams to agree upon working procedures for:
ResultsWhile many organisations struggle to see a significant impact early on from project management learning and develop programmes, the scope of ASML’s project portfolio combined with the comprehensive nature of the programme delivered clear, up-front benefits. In addition to the knowledge and skills gained through the instructor-led courses, individual coaching and coaching workshops delivered to ASML team members, results to date include:
Next StepsDespite its rapid progress, ASML recognises that project maturity is a long-term effort. The company continues to build upon its success by:
“Driving through this much change in such a short period of time was not an easy effort,” said Bernardo Payet, EUV Programme Management Office, ASML. “ESI has helped us identify the real need for project management and embed the change, quickly delivering results and benefit.” 
Project success for Brasil Telecom’s employeesSince that time, approximately 150 out of the 250 employees required to participate in the training have completed the program, Ramos says. "Employee feedback has been very positive," he says, adding that students have been extremely impressed with ESI's instructors. "All of ESI's instructors have brought real-world experiences to the classes they have taught. It's clear they have worked as practitioners and know what life is like on the front lines of project management." The programme also offers an added bonus: it acts as a retention tool. Ramos says all 150 employees are still with the company. They now network with their counterparts in other states to exchange best practices and share information about how their competitors are performing. ESI training the key for future successBrasil Telecom reports that they have been so pleased with the programme that they are planning to train 500 project team members this year and 1,500 more over the next three years. "The training couldn't have come at a better time," says Ramos. The Brazilian government recently identified 45 goals that each telecommunication company must now meet. He says the company is in great shape, due in large part to the training Brasil Telecom has received from ESI. "In fact," Ramos says, "earlier this year, the Brazilian government recognised Brasil Telecom for its high performance in meeting quality objectives." ESI's project management training is already proven to be worthwhile for Brasil Telecom. "Our project managers are using the tools and techniques they learned from ESI's program and are delivering projects on time and within budget," Ramos says. "We now have consistency that we didn't have before. I feel confident this will be a key to our success in our industry." LA County Department of Mental Health Case Study
New York State Office of the State Comptroller Redefines Standard of Business Analysis Excellence
The Solution
To support the programme launch, ESI designed and delivered a two-day, project kick-off workshop that centered on the programme’s four-part learning framework and targeted development of knowledge, skills, ability and attitude.
Championed by executive sponsors Belden and Schanzenbach and project manager Ash, the internal team continues to recommend and oversee BA learning programmes and progress, as well as support the advancement of BA maturity. 
Delta Technology (DT), a wholly-owned IT subsidiary of Delta Air Lines based in Atlanta, is committed to leveraging technology to create a competitive advantage for the airline. The ChallengeAs DT began relying more and more upon the use of outsourcing for its mid-tier server engineering and limited application development, the company identified the need among its employees for a consistent methodology to more successfully gather and clearly document requirements. In developing what DT called its Business Analyst Practise, the company was faced with several key decisions. These included determining:
The centralisation issue was particularly complicated because most of DT’s business analysts are also subject matter experts in their respective areas. As a result, they're often involved in tasks that stretch beyond business analysis. This, obviously, makes centralisation difficult. DT determined that in order to succeed, its business analysts must be able to fulfil their specific roles and then move on to their next projects. So, DT decided to keep its current decentralised group and also create a centralised group of business analysts within the Practise to be "matrixed" to various projects. The StrategyUpon creation of its Business Analyst Practise, DT implemented a number of successful initiatives, including the use of SharePoint™ to post and share information throughout the company, and the implementation of a coaching and mentoring program. They also more clearly defined their business analysts’ responsibilities based on a newly created Business Analysis Lifecycle, which aligned with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA™) Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®). "ESI helped us build the team of skilled business analysts we need to become a more effective, successful organisation." Still, to create and maintain a consistent methodology organisation wide, which was its ultimate goal, DT knew that it needed to provide its employees with a comprehensive training program. For that, in January 2006, they turned to the leader in project management and business analysis training, ESI International. Together, ESI and leaders from DT chose a training program that would create a baseline for success and ensure consistency in gathering and documenting requirements. The program consists of a suite of courses from ESI's curricula in business analysis and project management along witha four-hour workshop for managers that presents the expectations for the program and how it will ultimately benefit the organisation. ResultsThe initial phase of the ESI-DT training program lasted nine months and—despite the usual corporate challenges, including resistance to change and adaptation of new processes—it was a rousing success. In April 2007, DT found itself with a core team of business analysts equipped with the skills to coach and mentor others and to promote a set of best practises and consistent methodologies. The Next StepWith Phase One of training complete, ESI and DT are now preparing to begin Phase Two, which will not only enhance the newly established coaching and mentoring program, but will help DT's business analysts continue to effectively develop metrics, governance standards and assessment methodologies. The focus will be on identifying any existing knowledge and skill gaps as well as identifying any opportunities to further increase the overall effectiveness of DT's approach to business analysis. "ESI understands that every company is unique. From the very beginning of our relationship, they were interested in helping us choose the training options that were best not only for our individual employees, but for our organisation as a whole."
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ESI works with many of the top Fortune 500 companies across all industries from Energy and Pharmaceuticals to IT and Defence.
The State of Michigan recognised that
it needed to develop and promote the
use of a statewide, consistent project
management methodology, including
tools and methods. There was also a
need for broader project management
training opportunities and clear
project management career paths.
ESI had many attractive features
to offer the BLM. Their project
management curriculum culminates
in a Master’s Certificate in Project
Management or Information
Technology Project Management
from its academic partner, The
George Washington University. Also,
ESI’s courses are offered publicly at
training sites located in cities all building talent, driving results www.esi-emea.com +44 (0)20 7017 7100
across the United States. Another
distinguishing feature of ESI is its
ability to customise its curriculum
for its clients and to bring that
curriculum directly to the client.
“This was a big selling point for us,”
says Ballantyne, “because we wanted
training designed specifically for our
needs. ESI could do this.”
PTC leadership determined that in
order to accelerate the transition and
ensure the program delivered maximum
ROI the first time around, strong leadership from internal and external
resources were needed. PTC chose ESI
International for its understanding of
PTC’s business, its global reach and its
reputation for outstanding customer
service. Together ESI and PTC developed
and implemented a three-stage,
worldwide initiative.
Improvements in project management
are delivering the full range
of benefits. First and foremost is
increased customer satisfaction
being driven by improvements in
product delivery. This is reflected in
recent customer satisfaction results
as well as internally by improved
project margins through better project estimations and managing projects to
scope, schedule and budget by professional
project management standard
processes and tools. Additionally:
As the trend toward multi-service
implementations gained momentum
over the past several years, ADP saw
an opportunity to differentiate itself
from the competition through superior
project management that achieved
higher levels of client satisfaction.
To achieve this, ADP’s traditionally
independent approach to delivery of each
service — benefits, payroll, tax services,
etc. — meant that project managers
would have to be brought in sync.
After receiving a large funding increase, the LA County Department of Mental Health (DMH) was inundated with requests for new IT projects. To meet this challenge, DMH's CIO selected ESI to provide his staff with the formal training and consistent methodologies required for success.
Background 
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Background
Leading pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has a very clear mission: to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. For GSK and its 100,000 employees around the world, turning this mission into a reality requires the management of many large-scale medicine discovery and development projects—projects that can typically run the course of a decade, include a broad range of business units and consume vast amounts of resources.
In 2006, GSK Research and Development (R&D) launched its iPlan initiative, a global programme sponsored at the highest levels of management. The initiative sought to improve people capabilities, processes, enabling technologies and support services to deliver integrated project and portfolio planning. Key aspects of the approach include—
- Defining the planning process, responsibilities and key practices
- Live piloting the new processes, practices, work breakdown structures and IT enablers within various medicine development teams to learn, refine and confirm the effectiveness of the changes
- Extensive project management education and development
- Selecting and validating an enterprise project management system
- Integrating project and clinical development planning
- A targeted communication strategy to engage and build momentum for the change programme
To make this ambitious initiative a success, and to roll it out effectively throughout such an expansive organisation, GSK leaders knew they would need help from experts in the delivery of large-scale performance improvement training in project management.
Strategy
One of the several performance improvement providers that GSK turned to for assistance with iPlan was ESI International. ESI, who has worked extensively with GSK since 2002, was chosen for this new initiative because of its impressive experience and its proven ability to meet tight deadlines and tailor its programmes and services to meet client needs.
Jacqui Alexander, Director of Project Management Learning & Change Management summarises the main reason for selecting ESI as follows: "Having forged a strong and collaborative relationship with ESI over a number of years, it was clear that ESI would be our ‘partner of choice’ in further extending our professional project management development programme."
After meeting with ESI representatives, it became clear that tailoring, cooperation and internal support would be keys to GSK’s strategy. In order to ensure relevance of content for its employees, GSK asked ESI to not only customise its courses to cover specific GSK topics, but to allow GSK experts to work along side the ESI instructors to co-teach the courses
Along with relevance, GSK leaders also understood that internal support was vital to the success of the iPlan programme. The company alreadyhad executive support; however, to ensure support among its employees throughout the organisation, GSK took to recruiting internal line champions from various business units. These champions were tasked with assuring that the course material was relevant and, equally as important, that it generated awareness and enthusiasm for the overall training initiative. To date, the company has 40 active line champion.
Tactics
GSK and ESI worked together to craft a number of courses for GSK employees, including an introductory course that defines the roles within a project team and how to be an effective team member, as well as a more advanced course that focuses on project planning for project team members. ESI also delivered courses on accountability and practical risk management, which helped participants understand the risks and opportunities that are inherent in drug development projects.
For the delivery of courses, GSK chose to take advantage primarily of ESI’s on-site training ability, which sent instructors directly to GSK locations to teach courses.
Results
With more than 1,000 GSK employees trained to date—and many more currently queuing up for courses—the company has managed to change individual behaviour, particularly regarding risk management. Project team members now use a common language in identifying the risks on their projects and approach risk management in a more consistent way, which is having an effect throughout the entire organisation. There is a clear mandate from senior management in place that all new projects must come with a detailed risk plan to be reviewed before that project is given the green light for large-scale development.
Speaking of the partnership with ESI, Karl Donn, Vice President of Global Project & Portfolio Management said, "This has been a great partnership between ESI and GSK. ESI brought both content knowledge and training skills to complement the knowledge in GSK R&D on how to apply the ESI capabilities to obtain maximum benefit. The joint efforts have allowed us to derive benefit immediately after the training programmes have been completed across the organisation."
This has been a great partnership between ESI and GSK. ESI brought both content knowledge and training skills to complement the knowledge in GSK R&D on how to apply the ESI capabilities to obtain maximum benefit. The joint efforts have allowed us to derive benefit immediately after the training programmes have been completed across the organisation.Karl Donn
Vice President of Global Project & Portfolio Management
GlaxoSmithKline
Next Steps
GSK's commitment to performance improvement through training shows no signs of relenting anytime soon. The company has now begun working on the development of a center for project management resources for the entire R&D organisation. In addition, GSK leaders plan to continue reviewing employee feedback regarding individual training courses, measure progress against its many performance benchmarks and build a 2008 programme of training that will take project management to the next level of maturity within the R&D enterprise.
Need More Information?
Contact one of our Business Development Managers by calling +44 (0)20 7017 7100 or by sending an email to enquiry@esi-intl.co.uk
Background
The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc.(NYSE: THG) is a leading property and casualty insurance provider based in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States. The company distributes its products through independent agents across the country. Established in 1852, The Hanover has grown to rank among the top 30 property and casualty insurers in the United States with more than 4,000 employees.
The Challenge
One of the core skill sets identified as being critical to The Hanover’s continued business success is that of business analysis. For the past five years, The Hanover has partnered with ESI International to deliver instructor-led learning to business analysts in its technology division. There were, however, business analysts in the business areas of the company as well.
With approximately 200 business analysts across the company, The Hanover’s leadership sought to formalize an enterprise wide strategy for positioning the business analyst role as a pipeline for analytical and operational roles. With the implementation of its Future Leaders Program in 2009, work was begun on developing a consistent profile for entry-level business analyst talent at The Hanover.
The challenge before ESI and The Hanover was to develop a learning program for the Future Leaders Program effort that could indoctrinate new team members within various business units quickly and focus on raising the bar for the entire company, steering a course for continuous leadership development.
The Strategy
With approximately 200 business analysts stretching across multiple lines of business, bringing enterprise-wide focus to this role as a career-growth opportunity is a winning strategy. Planning for the program focused on a number of key strategic goals, including:
- Identifying and effectively recruiting outstanding university students and recent graduates
- Determining a consistent, common approach and language around business analysis
- Delivering learning through arange of modalities to ensure skills and knowledge are reinforced and effectively applied
The Hanover chose to partner with ESI International to guide the development and implementation of this new program. “It was clear that ESI was the ideal choice as our partner for this program,” said Irene Brank, Assistant Vice President and Director of The Hanover’s Future Leaders Program. “Their direction, commitment and support have helped us chart the path to this initiative.”
The Solution
The Hanover and ESI began by mapping a set of core competencies for the Future Leaders Program, which was divided
into two broad career focus areas: business management and risk management. Assessment tools to effectively benchmark and evaluate the progress of program participants were also developed.
Once recruited into the two-year program, candidates are assigned an IT or non-IT career track. At the conclusion of the two years, candidates will find placement in a role that allows them to continue to grow their career. To ensure participants have the skills and knowledge they need to be leaders, the Future Leaders Program guides participants through a range of learning opportunities:
- Traditional instructor-led classroom curricula
- Reinforcement workshops delivered in person and via webinars
- A participant forum promoting formal group interaction, including program coaches
- Corporate-wide access to online reference materials
- Practical, on-the-job application of new skills and knowledge
- Continued mentoring after program completion
The program’s design ensures that learning and reinforcement take place before, during and after classroom training. Pre-class webinars create a foundation that prepares participants for specific learning events and reinforcement workshops conducted after courses further reinforce key competencies.
“We believe that offering a range of learning opportunities greatly increases the program’s success,” said Ken Joseph, Business Learning Manager, The Hanover. “By combining what we could offer in-house with ESI’s various, interactive modalities, we’ve achieved a robust solution.”
The Future Leaders Program also offers coaching and mentoring, as well as
the opportunity to earn professional and technical certifications including Actuarial, Business Analysis, and INS certifications.
As university graduates progress through the program, the company’s current leaders also undergo targeted learning based upon position and role, which promotes consistent knowledge across the organization. These include:
- Traditional, instructor-led classroom courses
- Executive level workshops and webinars that overview key program knowledge areas
- Skill specific workshops and webinars
Results
The Future Leaders Program builds upon the success of ESI’s ongstanding partnership with The Hanover, which has demonstrated:
- Significant improvements in project completions and adherence to budgets
- A dramatic reduction in project change requests
- A reduction in project errors
- Faster time to market for new products
While still in the early stages, the Future Leaders Program has begun to deliver decisive impact by:
- Charting a clear and fast track for new leadership
- Defining a consistent approach and language around business analysis
- Improving recruiting and retention
- Increasing organization-wide competency in business analysis
Each year, approximately 75 future leaders are accepted into the program. At this rate almost 10 percent of the company will have completed the leadership program in the next five years.
Planning Forward
The Hanover and ESI are identifying ways to further enrich the program. Specific considerations include:
- Enhancing The Hanover’s companywide business analysis methodology
- The addition to the core learning program of a “live” practicum project
- Inclusion of a set of business consulting and skills curricula focused on such topics as financial literacy, critical thinking and leading organizational change
- Inclusion of additional project management specific curricula
- Executive workshops to refine the mentoring skills of those managing Future Leaders Program participants to help them more effectively reinforce the program’s competencies
- Ongoing individual and organizational assessments to add value and uncover areas for greater learning emphasis
“Despite the early stage status of the program, it’s already delivering clear benefits to us,” said Greg Tranter, Senior Vice President and COO, The Hanover. “Much of the benefit is a direct result of the emphasis we’re placing on business analysis for decision making, which is changing the way our company approaches its decisions.”
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The Background
Henkels & McCoy, Inc. is one of the largest privately held engineering, network development and construction firms serving the communications, information technology and utility industries in the United States. Additional offerings have traditionally included installation, maintenance and training services. Several years ago, the company, which boasts 4,600 employees in 80 permanent offices and operations facilities across the U.S., identified the need to establish consistent project management throughout its organisation.
The Challenge
Upon winning significant utility infrastructure contracts ranging from the building of transmission lines to inside wiring for the Pentagon, which is one of the world’s largest office buildings, and Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, Henkels & McCoy had firmly established itself as one of the country’s premier speciality contractors.
However, as the company executed these large-scope projects—and set their sites on many more—senior executives began recognising a need for standardised project management methodology throughout their organisation. The benefits to improved project management practises, they determined, would be numerous, including increased efficiency internally and seamless communication with their many large general contracting partners.
"Our industry has become increasingly more sophisticated over the years as people look for enhanced productivity and safety," said Kathy Mills, Director of Human Resources. "The complex projects we were winning required that our staff keep pace with industry knowledge"
Why ESI?
Henkels & McCoy sought a project management training provider with the global infrastructure required to easily and consistently deliver high-impact training to its employees. Additionally, the company was looking for a partner who not only understood Henkels & McCoy’s complex industry, but who would be attentive and mindful of staff workloads and differing styles. Henkels & McCoy chose ESI International.
"We interviewed a number of project management improvement providers from around the country and selected ESI for a number of reasons," Mills explained. "One of the primary reasons was that our people could take courses on their own schedule. Our team is spread across a number of time zones, so we needed a provider that was as geographically diverse as we were. Most of our work is done in the field, meaning most of our staff members spend little time behind a computer. ESI understood this and worked within our schedule constraints to deploy a program that meets the needs of the entire company."
The ESI Solution
From the beginning of its partnership with ESI in 2003, Henkels & McCoy’s executives were committed to providing training to staff members across a variety of internal levels, ranging from project team members to senior executives. Executive involvement, which included participation from the CEO/President, COO and CFO, helped staff members understand that creating a project management culture was a significant initiative supported at the highest organisational levels.
"We strongly believed all along that, regardless of whether an employee is running projects or running operations, project management skills are important to have," said Mills. "So, we added everybody to the training program, not just project managers. Skills such as team management, motivation, resource management and planning were competencies we wanted all members of our staff to exhibit. ESI’s training program brought a formalised approach to these skills."
Skills such as team management, motivation, resource management and planning were competencies we wanted all members of our staff to exhibit. ESI’s training program brought a formalised approach to these skills.Kathy Mills
Director of Human Resources
Henkels & McCoy
In 2004, after one year of training with ESI, the executive team at Henkels & McCoy issued an internal "Project Management Challenge." The initiative challenged employees to establish and implement a methodology based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), which was customised to Henkels & McCoy’s industry and internal procedures. Continuing its project management transformation, in 2006, Henkels & McCoy established a Project Management Office (PMO). The office was created to be responsible for defining and maintaining the organisation's standards of process and acting as the internal source of documentation, guidance and metrics for all project management activities.
The Impact
"Our bottom line has improved year over year since we implemented the training," Mills said. "We used to bid a high number of projects. Today, we’ve learned not to bid as much. We have a solid methodology and bid review process in place, enabling us to look at the associated scope and risk before we get too deep. There was a time when we might have placed educated guesses on whether opportunities represented a good project for Henkels & McCoy. Now, we use our processes to more closely pursue work that fits our corporate strategy and that will deliver the return we expect."
Like any major change management initiative, the move toward a project management culture at Henkels & McCoy was initially met with resistance. Many throughout the organisation were reluctant to change longstanding habits and procedures. However, through time, leadership and unwavering commitment, employees at Henkels & McCoy have come to understand that their customers and their highly competitive market required them to apply more sophisticated methodologies to their work in order to succeed.
"Slowly but surely, you reap rewards as people recognise that the skills they are learning are helping their projects," said Mills. "When people begin speaking the project management language and using the methodology, you realise you’ve been successful in developing a project management culture."
Since beginning training with ESI, 60 Henkels & McCoy employees have earned Associate’s Certificates in Project Management, including the company’s COO, and 10 employees have earned Master’s Certificates in Project Management.
"Our team has taken great satisfaction in the accomplishment of receiving associate’s and master’s certificates from ESI," Mills said. "Another source of value is that ESI’s training is backed by The George Washington University School of Business. That affiliation is a significant source of pride for our people."
Next Steps
Henkels & McCoy has no plans of slowing down its training initiative. As of spring 2007, 119 Henkels & McCoy employees have enrolled in a total of 311 ESI courses, and the company is working hard with ESI to develop and further refine its new project management culture.
Projects are currently grouped into one of four levels based on strategic importance and complexity. The current Henkels & McCoy project management methodology applies to Level 3 and 4. The company is now developing a leaner version of its methodology for Level 1 and 2 projects.
With expanded project management expertise and systems, Henkels & McCoy is also considering new partnerships and taking on a larger number of complex projects, both of which are expected to help the company continue to grow and cement its reputation as an industry leader.
"We’re committed to continuous improvement," Mills said. "We have a solid understanding of what has worked historically, and we’re also keeping an eye on what will make us successful in the future. A commitment to further developing the Henkels & McCoy project management culture is an integral part of our future success, and our continued work with ESI remains key to achieving these initiatives."
Our bottom line has improved year over year since we implemented the training.Kathy Mills
Director of Human Resources
Henkels & McCoy
Need More Information?
Contact one of our Business Development Managers by calling +971 (0) 4 407 2672 or by sending an email to enquiry@esi-intl.co.uk
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Several years ago, HP Services realised that to stay competitive in a relentlessly competitive marketplace, changes were in order. The companys business was becoming more project-focused, and HP Services recognised the need to standardise its project management practices. HP Services implemented a performance improvement plan for its project managers worldwide. The objectives were clear: reduce the number of troubled projects, increase operating margins and provide for a flexible project workforce. After a thorough needs analysis, HP determined that an outside training provider was needed to deliver the kind of comprehensive project management training required. Standardising Projects WorldwideRon Kempf, Director, HP Services Project Management Competency Development and Certification, explains: As we reviewed projects, it became clear that we needed to train our project managers in fundamental project management practices, but we also needed to provide them with a pragmatic approach for executing projects. We wanted an approach supported by proven tools and techniques, so our project managers would have a common frame of reference, allowing them to form new teams or join existing teams anywhere in the world and immediately go to work. HP Services selected ESI as its training vendor in 1996 because the company exceeded all the criteria HP Services requiredtraining based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), public classes in addition to on-site delivery, highly qualified instructors and an international reputation. We needed a training partner with established international experience, Kempf says. ESI told us of their experiences in international training, especially with respect to cultural considerations, and that was important to us. It was clear that ESI had the experience we needed. No one even came in a close second. Designing a Comprehensive ProgrammeWith HP Services, ESI developed an integrated programme that would meet the
needs of the original 1,200 project managers through training in
fundamental project management practices. (The number has since
grown to more than 2,500 project managers in 160 countries and even
more project support staff.) This well-rounded course of study prepares HP Services project managers for certification as Project Management Professionals (PMP) by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Being able to develop PMPs is critical to us, Kempf says. Increasingly, offering PMPs has become a key evaluation factor in the bid process, and now its essential to winning new business. HP Services had 12 PMPs in 1997; today, it has more than 1,000. |
Case Study Overview The Issues - Lack of standardised PM practices on a local and global level - Need to reduce number of troubled projects to ensure competitiveness - Need to increase the operating margins on projects. The ESI Solution - Establish a large-scale integrated global programme of on-site and public courses - Develop PMBOK® Guide aligned training to facilitate consistent practices in HP services - Create solid career development paths leading to PMP® certification The Result - 70% projects now running at or better than budget - PMPs have become a key differentiating factor to winning new business - Project Managers are more business savvy to realising their profit and loss responsibilities - Higher staff retention rate due to HP Services commitment to career development |
ESI continues to expand its curriculum, so HP Services is now able to offer relevant advanced courses to accommodate the growing number of programme graduates, who require a higher level of training. We offer 250 course sessions annually around the world, and ESI's delivery capability and curriculum are major contributing factors to the success of the programme. ESI has brought significant expertise and guidance in helping us design, develop and deliver our project management training programme, Kempf says. Since ESI offers its training in public classroom sessions, onsite sessions and online, HP Services project managers all receive consistent content, tools and techniques.
Understanding the Business of Projects
Before we had ESI training in place, we conducted project reviews in business units around the world, and we found that in some cases, our project managers did not fully appreciate or implement risk management practices, change control or financial management. They understood they needed to bring a project in on time and they knew they had to satisfy the customer, but they didnt realise they had profit and loss responsibility for their projects. Yet they were on the front lines of managing our business, Kempf explains.
HP Services complements its project management training in areas such as risk and contract management with training in selected business competencies, such as conducting effective negotiations, delivering presentations and managing financial aspects of a project. Not only are we developing more effective project managers, we are strengthening their business competencies as well, Kempf says.
As a result of this two-pronged approach to training its project managers, HP Services has seen a marked increase in project management knowledge, skills and abilities being applied in its business units worldwide. ESIs training programme has helped HP Services reduce the number of troubled projects and heightened its project managers awareness of managing towards increased margins. Kempf says that this performance improvement initiative has resulted in 70% of their projects running at or better than budget (well above the industry average of 50%) and has increased margins by as much as 50% in some cases.
ESIs training earns high praise on post-course evaluations, Kempf says. A clear majority of course attendees indicate that the training is directly relevant to their work and assert that the knowledge and skills acquired were a contributing factor in their efficiency and productivity.
Another result of the training has been a new confidence in the managers abilities to perform complex project activities, Kempf says. Project managers are more open to taking over troubled or leaderless projects. Because our project managers are now using a consistent approach to project management, assuming control midstream of a troubled project is less of a problem than it might have been in the past, he says.
Other, less-tangible benefits have come about as part of the HP/ESI partnership. Our employees recognise and appreciate that they have significant career-development opportunities here and, as a result, they are highly motivated. HP Services commitment to career development has given us a long-term advantage because we save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on training, recruitment and orientation.
Having well-trained project professionals on the job every day gives us a competitive edge in the marketplace, and ESI's project management training programme has helped us to achieve that.
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In early 2000, PeopleSoft took the decision to evolve their Global Services organisation so they would be better positioned to support their customers’ changing needs. This would involve a move from being primarily a provider of PeopleSoft-specialised technical skills to becoming a provider of best-in-class solutions for customers implementing, upgrading or optimising PeopleSoft products.
Mike Barnard, UK Director of PeopleSoft Global Services comments, "Our offerings and services needed to become more sophisticated to mirror the expectations of our customers. We decided that in order to extend our service offering to a full project environment, we would have to restructure our services business and embrace a project management culture. This included establishing a formal project management office to focus on process, tools and adoption of best practise in the implementation lifecycle. We aimed to create standards and to ensure that techniques and methodologies learnt in class were implemented in the real world."
One of the biggest challenges faced early on was the change to the organisational culture necessitated by the shift towards a “managing by projects” environment. With the structure aligned to support a project based environment, moving from a functional to a matrix structure brought challenges concerned with allocation and management of human resources.
To facilitate this cultural change, Gary Fitchett, PeopleSoft UK Solutions Delivery Manager, set about further developing the team by recruiting a mixed group of project management professionals from a variety of both IT and non-IT backgrounds. This, he anticipated, would create a critical mass from which to build enthusiasm for project management and kick-start the change in strategy. Recruitment was based on a standard set of criteria including, most importantly, the hiring of those with proven ability to apply the tools, concepts and processes in project environments.
Professional Certification Showcases PeopleSoft’s Commitment to Project Management
By implementing a change in capability, PeopleSoft wanted to clearly demonstrate the value this would bring to their customers. "In the IT industry, there has been many publicised reports on project failure versus success rates. This includes numbers of projects that, even when completed on time and within budget, have failed to fully deliver the anticipated business benefit," states Mike. “We decided that to differentiate the PeopleSoft offering through our people, then their skills, competencies and practises needed to be consistent and showcased through suitable professional certification."
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After much evaluation, PeopleSoft chose the PMP® certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI®) as the preferred accreditation and decided to align themselves with PMI’s Methodology – set down in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). They saw this as the most suitable accreditation that would not only complement their own proprietary project management methodology, Compass, but would also provide them with a global project management standard. In light of the large number of global enterprises who are PeopleSoft customers, a global standard was deemed essential. |
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Thus, in order to assist in the promotional process and support the new company direction, they set a goal of having all project managers within the PeopleSoft UK environment achieving at least PMP® certification.
ESI’s Certificate Programme Meets PeopleSoft’s Needs
At this time Mike approached ESI International to assist them in implementing this approach.
"We needed to find a partner that could offer us a comprehensive training curriculum and a true global presence in order to maintain a consistency wherever in the world PeopleSoft are based. After extensive research we were convinced that ESI International were the ideal partner for us in this critical programme and embarked on a pilot,” says Mike The initial approach consisted of using ESI International's PMAppraise™ assessment tool to measure the knowledge and skill base of existing project staff. This, along with a number of face-to-face interviews, enabled the company's executives to establish a base-line against which they could set their objectives.
With a complete picture of their project management knowledge and skills combined with an understanding of the behavioural competencies critical to project success, ESI and PeopleSoft devised a clear development path for all staff working on projects.
Everyone involved in projects across the organisation was required to take one of ESI’s flagship courses, Managing Projects, that provides the foundation on which to build subsequent training. Project managers went on to complete ESI’s full curriculum to earn a Master’s Certificate in Project Management, awarded by The George Washington University. In doing this they were guaranteed to cover all 10 areas of the PMBOK® Guideand be fully prepared to successfully pass the PMP® Certification Exam.
Project Success for PeopleSoft employees and Customers
Two years on and PeopleSoft have been able to reflect on the success they have achieved through the initiative.
Before the programme, all work undertaken by PeopleSoft Global Services in the UK was traditional skills augmentation. Now, in excess of 70% of services are delivered in a project environment where PeopleSoft Global Services is responsible for project success. This has significantly increased single vendor accountability, which is in turn recognised as offering considerable additional value to PeopleSoft customers.
"Since we started this programme our staff retention rate has been excellent, which is something that has helped us to build increasingly strong relationships with our clients” says Gary Fitchett.
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One PeopleSoft Project Manager, Gary Martin states, “Since the training it has been a great deal easier to talk confidently with clients at all levels. This has definitely enhanced PeopleSoft’s reputation. And with our professional certifications, our clients have been bowled over by our commitment to project management and our ability to demonstrate a structured, consistent approach to their projects.” |
Dave Exall, European IT Director, Bausch & Lomb comments, “Initially, having chosen PeopleSoft software for Bausch & Lomb, we engaged their consultants to implement the project as we felt that they would be the strongest in the field. What became evident was the role of the project manager in the implementation of this project. Their strength and discipline in professional project management meant that we were able to keep a tight control over the project with processes in place to monitor its progress with detailed weekly and monthly status reports. It was a challenging project with tight budgets and timescales, but I always felt that the project was under control. From both a planning and risk management point of view the attention to detail with a strong methodology was invaluable.”
“Working with PeopleSoft has taught me the importance of project management as a discipline in it’s own right,” Exall continues. “Having a manager driving a project management methodology keeps the project under control. In future projects I would certainly consider the experience and training of any project manager that we engaged, as a vital criteria in our selection process.”
Using a consistent approach has meant that all PeopleSoft’s project managers are now getting the same training and have learnt the same tools and techniques that are deployed for every project.
“Whilst you are learning new tools, techniques and processes you are also building your skills, and practical application in order to apply these to your specific industry. And the project management expertise of ESI trainers has enabled us to directly relate the learning to real life situations," says one PeopleSoft Project Manager.
Great success realised with teams now working under a consistent and recognised process and methodology has meant that they can fully support their customers and effectively measure their projects with defined criteria, such as time, cost and quality of product, service and solution delivered.
PeopleSoft Global Services can now offer a variety of engagements and commercial contracts - a goal that the programme initially set out to achieve. In the previous environment, working partnerships were based on time and materials only. Now the organisation can support its solutions business offering terms around risk/reward or fixed price contracts. Project management led through an established project office has enabled PeopleSoft to achieve this.
Now PeopleSoft is aggressively focusing on leveraging these competencies to take market leadership in the provision of software and services for the real-time enterprise and surpassing their competitors’ ability to bring these solutions to the marketplace, both in time-to-market and cost effectiveness. PeopleSoft’s success in this fast paced, complex industry is due in large part to the success of their project management transformation initiative.
Mike concludes, “more PeopleSoft customers than ever before are achieving their business goals and extending their enterprise through real-time applications. Furthermore, greater than 50% of these projects are going live in 16 weeks or less. This is in no small part down to PeopleSoft’s expanded services capability, our project management competence being underpinned by the comprehensive training curriculum and professionalism provided by ESI.”
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the Southeastern U.S., Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company, primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million residential, commercial and industrial utility customers. Piedmont’s subsidiaries are joint-venture, energy-related businesses including unregulated retail invested in natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage and intrastate natural gas transportation.
In recent years, Piedmont has evolved a healthy, high-performance corporate culture that focuses on empowering all employees to deliver:
- High-quality customer services
- Safe, reliable natural gas services
- Positive shareholder value
- Greater operational efficiencies
This healthy, high-performance culture has brought with it new opportunities to mature Piedmont’s project management structure. As total project requests increased, so have the demands, interdependencies and complexities of the projects. This evolution surrounding projects led Piedmont’s executive management team to support the formation of a Project Management Centre of Excellence (CoE) with a vision of: Leading the company in transforming business strategy into business results. With direct input from the executive management team, a set of strategic goals was developed:
- Establish process ownership and centralised accountability for project management and business analysis.
- Implement a project selection model that ensures project investments align with company strategy while maximising limited resources.
- Build a project management platform that is sustainable, standardised and transparent within the enterprise.
- Boost energy, team-orientation and systemic thinking throughout the enterprise.
Lisa T. Poole, PMP, Manager, Enterprise
Project Delivery Services (EPDS), formed
a centralised project management department
initially focused on finding the
right people with the right skills, within
functional lines of business and IT, and
providing career path opportunities.
The Challenge
With the goals set, Poole focused on accomplishing them along tracks, meanwhile managing the cultural change.
The largest cultural challenge has been moving beyond the legacy IT definition of projects.
“Prior to the department’s existence, a project implied a significant technology effort,” said Poole. “In order to achieve enterprise-wide objectives, it’s imperative that others recognise we have ‘business projects’ that may require ‘people, process, cultural and/or technology components.’”
Three months following the department’s inception, the group transitioned from Information Services to Planning & Project Management, which reports to Piedmont’s CFO. Poole credits much of the initial success to the support of her direct team and the company’s Leadership. Poole was also vested with the necessary governance authority to step in on projects where necessary.
On another front, was the continuing challenge of pursuing the strategic goals set forth in parallel. Poole worked to develop a CoE Charter and began executing its charge.
Toward Maturity
To accelerate success, Piedmont pursued a learning partner.
ESI International’s experience helping organisations around the world build similar programmes allowed them to quickly build a results-oriented learning programme. “ESI is providing so much more than our original requirements and expectations. We have had access to valuable resources throughout our journey,” said Poole.
ESI’s online assessment tools helped Piedmont identify the critical focus areas for the initial learning programme as well as to chart a longer-term course. These on-going assessments track progress and allow Piedmont to make mid-course corrections with realtime information.
ESI also:
- Conducted executive seminars on project selection
- Provided external validation and refinement of the CoE Charter
- Held a BA exhibit to help recruit internal candidates
- Provided a PM/BA framework gap analysis
- Continues to assist Piedmont in tracking its progress online with MyESI™
To help grow the value of the CoE and its individual team members, Poole, with counsel from ESI, charted a career progression path. The path includes achievement of learning objectives and active participation in IIBA® and PMI®.
Piedmont has made solid progress in refining its portfolio management decision model to choose strategic enterprise project investments. A cross-functional Strategic Advisory Board is now in place to apply an improved model and assist with cultural change. ESI provided support by delivering an executive seminar that provided direction in governance and process development. “These new methods were embraced by senior management. We are integrating the methods into our planning cycle,” said Poole.
The Results
Less than a year since the founding of the CoE, Piedmont is realising success on all fronts. One of its earliest successes helped deliver significant reductions in operational expenses to the bottom line a year early. Using a combined enterprise/business analysis approach, Piedmont developed a comprehensive decision package that allowed executive management to make an informed, quick decision while enabling the project team to develop business requirements in parallel which accelerated the execution timeline. Further driving expense reductions, Piedmont has seen a decrease in non-budgeted projects and increased efficiencies in project resource allocation. The cultural changes are
The cultural changes are gaining a foothold as well. There is increased acceptance of BA and PM methods as evidenced by the use of common language, tools and methodologies. This is particularly true around risk assessments in that project management, internal audit and enterprise risk management departments now share a common framework and language associated with risk management.
PM and BA methodologies are continually gaining acceptance. “Other departments, including Facilities Management, Internal Auditing, Enterprise Risk Management and IS, are jointly attending ESI courses. Team leaders responsible for other initiatives are requesting consulting assistance,” said Poole.
What is Next
While strengthening the CoE’s foundation,
Poole is now pursuing methods
to manage, measure, and report on
project performance:
- Identifying project performance improvement metrics to enable consistent comparisons of project outcomes, including prior projects to be used as a baseline.
- Developing standards associated with reporting project performance, forecasting resource utilisation and coordinating project interdependencies.
- Providing continuous development opportunities to staff.
- Ensuring ongoing evaluation of project management interest from other departments to serve in a mentoring role.
“In building our centre of excellence, we have benefited from the knowledge and experience brought by ESI to the process. ESI has listened and remains in-tune with our strategic development goals,” said Poole.
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| Several years ago, Siemens Enterprise Networks (SEN), a subsidiary of Siemens Information and Communication, the network services division of Siemens AG, was shifting its corporate strategy from selling hardware to selling integrated solutions. While proving to be a successful strategic move for the company, the decision to become a solutions provider also added a great deal of complexity to the company’s average installation projects. This shift in strategy drastically changed the nature of work people performed and greatly increased the need for expert project management. Kandi Miller, Vice President of Information Management, recalls
that “project management was important if we were going to remain
competitive.” Siemens also lost a significant contract to a competitor,
in large part due to a shortage of installation managers with project
management certification. Process improvement plan includes ESI TrainingAfter measuring the company’s project management maturity and finding there was room for improvement, the company’s executives devised a process improvement plan to increase the success rates of its projects. The first step was to set up a project management office that could
oversee this new professional development programme. The second
step was to compile a list of competencies that would apply to job
functions and assess what training was appropriate. Siemens Enterprise Networks’ executives recognised that the company would need a formal training programme. “We knew we had to educate our people on the fact that project management is a discipline—a methodology that works consistently across the board and around the world,” says Dave Ellebrecht, Vice President of Professional Services. Siemens evaluated vendors using several criteria that included effectiveness of training and its adherence to the PMBOK® Guide, ability to support global implementation, cost and the ability to support Siemens’ internal programmes. After extensive research, Siemens turned to ESI International, convinced that ESI met all the criteria needed for a successful training programme. As the training partner for this critical initiative, ESI could provide Siemens with tailored, industry specific project management training, as well as a full complement of follow-up services to help Siemens measure the programme’s success. Dummer says the initial goal of this process improvement plan was
to raise the company’s level of project management competency to
a level equivalent to the competition. To achieve this goal, the
company started to require that everyone involved in projects begin
taking ESI’s courses. Project Management competency, ESI Training Programme tied to job goalsSiemens' new corporate project management office coordinates the company's overall professional development programme. "We developed the PMO to create standards and ensure people are implementing the techniques and methodologies they learned in class," explains Dummer. Executives are now measured annually on their own and their team members’ project management competency and their achievement of goals set in the training programme. The goals are tied to the completion of a set of internal certificates that are built around the ESI classes and other internal courses. Everyone involved in projects is required to take one of ESI’s flagship courses, Managing Projects in Organisations, Managing Software Project Management or Managing Information Technology Projects, that provides the foundation on which to build subsequent project management training. Project leaders must complete ESI’s full curriculum to earn a Master’s Certificate in Pr o j e c t Management, awarded by The George Washington University, and top-level project managers are required to earn PMP® certification . Since the programme’s inception two years ago, nearly 3,000 managers and project employees, including personnel from other Siemens divisions, have participated in this initiative. |
Case Study Overview The Issues - A corporate strategy shift to provide fully integrated solutions meant a need for more complex project management skills - An urgent need to have certified project managers to match competitors in the market - A need to educate employees on standard methodologies and develop project management as a discipline in to the corporate culture The ESI Solution - Measure and benchmark the maturity capabilities of Siemens with ESI assessment tool, Project FRAMEWORK - Determine a tailored programme of courses to meet Siemens specific requirements - Establish full curriculum paths to attain Master’s Certificates in Project Management with the ultimate goal of achieving PMP® certification The Result - Since the programme began, Siemens have witnessed a 30% increase in project success rates - The corporate culture has shifted towards project management as a discipline - Siemens has now realised its goal to provide successful, complex customer networking solutions Find what improvements we can bring to your company – request a call back |
ESI ’s assessments measure training success
Siemens measures the success of the training programme using ESI’s Project FRAMEWORK®, a maturity model that evaluates the company’ s organisational project management capabilities. This assessment tool also identifies areas for improvement, establishes a baseline against which to set objectives and gives Siemens a roadmap to improvement.
ESI trained two Siemens employees to perform this assessment annually. Within the first 12 months following the launch, several groups improved their test scores significantly. This improvement in scores is statistically linked to participation in ESI’s training programme.
Project success rates, certifications increase
Siemens estimates that the project success rate has increased by 30%, in large part due to the expert training received from ESI, as well as the work of the PMO.
According to Siemens, the number of people testing for the PMP® has also increased dramatically due to the popularity of the professional development programme. Dummer adds: “Siemens Enterprise Networks has seen a corporate culture change that has developed as a direct result of training provided by ESI.”
Project management has proved invaluable to the progressive business tactics of Siemens Enterprise Networks. By providing their project employees with the opportunity to increase their project management knowledge, Siemens Enterprise Networks has realised its goal of providing complex customer networking solutions to their customers successfully.
Now Siemens is aggressively focused on leveraging these competencies to take the market leadership in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) convergence solutions and surpassing their competitors’ ability to bring these solutions to the marketplace, both in time-to-market and cost effectiveness.
Siemens’ success in this fast-paced, complex industry is due in large part to the success of their project management transformation initiative.
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Contact one of our Business Development Managers by calling +44 (0)20 7017 7100 or by sending an email to enquiry@esi-intl.co.uk
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The Background
Improved customer satisfaction is always top of mind at Tetra Pak. The world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company provides safe, innovative and environmentally sound products that meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world each day. Founded in Sweden in 1951, today the company boasts more than 20,000 employees and operations in more than 165 countries. In 2007, it delivered 137.3 billion packages.
In order to maintain its superior marketplace position—while containing costs for the company and its customers—Tetra Pak continually seeks to improve in four capability areas it believes directly impacts all aspects of its business:
- Leadership
- Total quality
- Customer understanding
- Project management
Specifically, Tetra Pak focuses project management toward improvements in new product development, product and service delivery to its customers, and improving its own internal operations. Tetra Pak’s capabilities development programme drives continuous improvement in the processes, systems, people and tools associated with these four capability areas—across all levels and job functions.
Acknowledging that effective project management underpins leadership, quality and customer understanding, Tetra Pak partnered with ESI International to build and deliver a globally consistent, instructor-led project management learning and development programme. The two companies have been working together on project management learning programmes since 2001.
The Strategy
Tetra Pak’s executive leadership understood that to achieve their aim of world-class project management, the capabilities development programme needed to look beyond the project management job function. ESI worked with Tetra Pak to tailor a learning programme that involves everyone from executives to front line sales and support staff, ensuring all employees have the knowledge, processes, systems and tools to contribute to the company’s world-class project management goal.
| “The capabilities development programme has benefited from support at the highest levels of the organisation,” says Matts Larsson, Director, Global Training and Development. “From the very start we knew we needed a holistic approach because if the entire organisation is not speaking the same language and applying the same methodologies to drive uniform processes, systems and tools, then the foundation for success does not exist.” |
“ESI delivers the same learning experience from Lund to Singapore to Panama, setting a standard that guarantees we will get consistent global behaviours, regardless of location.” |
Tetra Pak examined its business processes to embed project management best practices as per the Project Management Institute (PMI®). Then a thorough gap analysis was conducted to identify the competencies needed to meet or exceed the standards.
Next, to create a path to guide individuals toward the company’s goal, Tetra Pak developed and implemented competency profiles and updated job descriptions for virtually every position. “We wanted every employee working in a project to realise that he or she belongs to the project first and the specific line organisation second,” said Larsson. Additionally, Tetra Pak is working with ESI to refine their recruitment tools to ensure they bring people with the right skill sets into the company in order to retain high-performing project management-focused personnel.
Pre- and post-learning assessment tools complement the career paths. “These tools ensure that the people we invest in are fitted for the purpose and that this is the correct career path for them,” says Larsson.
To execute this ambitious capability development programme, Tetra Pak selected ESI for its instructor-led efforts to ensure consistency of the entire learning experience from classroom materials to pre- and post-evaluation. “In the past we were forced to fly personnel to centralised locations for classes,” says Larsson. “Fortunately, ESI has the reach to deliver learning wherever we need it in the world, saving us a great deal of money while minimising disruption to our employees and their work.”
Tactics
Tetra Pak’s capability development programme is tailored to correspond to the company’s methodologies. The courses focus on a broad range of topics, including:
- Project governance
- Leadership
- Coaching and mentoring
- Risk management
- Planning and analysis
- Managing projects for non-project managers
- Project management fundamentals for sales people
A key focus area across all responsibilities has been governance with an eye to ensuring all projects are properly resourced.
“Our focus is much clearer now. We are steadily improving the quality of our project management at all levels—from executive governance to sales and service.” |
“The executive governance workshops encourage a common approach organisation- and world-wide while delivering a greater understanding of how to focus on strategy, value proposition and managing risks, rather than technical matters,” says Lars Eyrich, Director, Plant Sales and Engineering. “The classes emphasise interaction, giving the management team an opportunity to discuss how to apply guidelines and ensuring they have a solid understanding of the project managers’ world.” |
Along with the suite of courses—all of which are delivered in English to drive consistent vocabulary across regions, teams and cultures—Tetra Pak demonstrated both its sophistication and commitment to the programme through pre- and post-learning assessment tools. These tools assess competencies in the nine knowledge areas identified by PMI® as well as team members’ internal behaviours and attitudes.
Two of the pre- and post-assessment tools, ESI’s PMAppraise: A Knowledge and Skills Assessment® and PM360: A PM Competency Assessment™, enable Tetra Pak to determine the strengths and weaknesses of employees and guide refinement of the learning programme. “Pre-learning and post-learning activities are essential for us,” says Larsson. “In fact, I would say they are as important as the actual instruction.”
Results
Since initiating its performance improvement efforts with ESI, more than 800 Tetra Pak employees have participated in the programme and 280 have gone through Tetra Pak’s tailored Advanced Project Management Programme. Participants have earned a range of professional certificates from ESI and its academic partner, The George Washington University in Washington, DC.
The programme also has helped Tetra Pak launch the bench marking effort essential to tracking progress toward its goal of becoming a world-class project management organisation. “Our focus is much clearer now,” says Larsson. “We are steadily improving the quality of our project management at all levels—from executive governance to sales and service— and this translates to continually higher levels of customer satisfaction.”
Next Steps
Tetra Pak recognises that an effort of this importance and magnitude will never actually conclude. Rather, this on-going effort will continue to be refined in support of consistent global business processes and to ensure, once Tetra Pak achieves its benchmark of world-class project management, they maintain that position.
“ESI delivers the same learning experience from Lund to Singapore to Panama, setting a standard that guarantees we will get consistent global behaviours, regardless of location,” says Larsson, “That is what ESI really contributes.”
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Contact one of our Business Development Managers by calling +971 (0) 4 407 2672 or by sending an email to enquiry@esi-intl.co.uk
Integrated Team Learning Helps ACC Acquisition Management and Integration Center Get the Job Done Right for Air Combat Command
Background
Headquartered at the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command Acquisition Management and Integration Center (ACC AMIC) provides strategic acquisition facilitation, integration and management for Air Combat Command, U.S. government agencies and allies through integrated programme management and contracting support that produce mission-focused solutions while meeting contingency challenges.
The Challenge
In the late-1990s, ACC AMIC wanted to improve the capabilities of its acquisition team and break down perceived silos between various technical areas. As an initial effort, they wanted to focus on training civilian and military technical experts in contract management and project management. The learning programme needed to be appropriate for military personnel, who rotate through the team approximately every 24-36 months. It also needed to address the reality that technical military team members arrive with varying levels of contract and project management knowledge, experience and skills.
ACC AMIC leadership wanted to implement on-going learning, enable knowledge transfer and ensure team members spoke the same language as contracting professionals throughout the acquisition life cycle — from pre-award requirements gathering, to quality assurance, through contract closeout. Additionally they wanted project and contract managers to move beyond mastery of technical skills to a broader, more strategic understanding of each other’s roles.
“We needed our managers to move beyond technical skills to an understanding of the ‘business’ of acquisitions, including the appropriate terms, processes and laws,” said Ernest Sanchez, Chief Plans & Programmes Division, ACC AMIC.
The Solution
For more than ten years, ACC AMIC has worked with ESI International to provide a dual track, project management and contract management certificate programme. Over a two-year period individuals earn either a Master’s Certificate in Project Management or a Master’s Certificate in Government Contracting, both from The George Washington University.
To obtain a certificate, participants take five courses from their chosen course of study plus two electives from the other course of study. Course subjects span the basics of federal contracting and project management to more advanced topics such as contract negotiations and project scheduling and cost control. Many of the courses have been customised to be ACC AMIC specific and every effort is made to use a consistent group of instructors.
In addition to classroom-based learning, ACC AMIC has taken additional steps to help ensure on-going programme success, including:
- Adopting the Project Management Institute (PMI®) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) as the basis for its methodologies and vocabulary
- Providing on-the-job coaching
- Delivering topic specific workshops
- Running approximately one classroom-based course bi-monthly
- Enforcing a general rule that people need to initially complete key basic courses
- Working to create camaraderie by encouraging people to work toward their certificates in groups
- Promoting and supporting an aggressive, two-year certificate completion time frame
While most courses are available on-site at ACC AMIC, team members also occasionally have the option of attending open enrollment classes. “We’ve seen real value in sending individuals to off-site courses,” said Sanchez. “Staff can meet people from different industries and backgrounds, hear what others are experiencing and bring back best practices to share with everyone.”
Recently, having achieved a strong project management culture, ACC AMIC has put aside the project management learning to explore new opportunities to build skills and knowledge and improve performance. They continue to offer contract management courses.
Results 
The programme has delivered significant positive results for ACC AMIC. Perhaps most impressive is a project success rate of near 100 percent. This compares to a 2009 Standish Group International study showing only 32 percent of all projects succeed in delivering on-time and on-budget.
The classroom based learning, certificate programmes and other efforts have broken through the silo mentality by helping team members understand each other’s roles and ensuring a clear and consistent approach to ACC AMIC business processes. Additionally, most programme participants have earned either a Master’s Certificate in Government Contract Management or a Master’s Certificate in Project Management.
By applying project management principles as a daily practice, ACC-AMIC demonstrates a progressive approach to acquisitions that helps the teams deal with the inevitable challenges of change. According to Sanchez, developing requirements and understanding the right business needs at initiation of an acquisition project is the key to ACC AMIC’s record of success.
“Our group is seen as being pretty progressive when it comes to developing on-target requirements and then building acquisition teams with the right mix of people and skill sets,” said Sanchez. “I can’t remember a time when we couldn’t get a project done. Even when missions change, we have the skills and knowledge to re-baseline without missing a beat.”
Next Steps
In addition to continuing to offer the certificate paths as needed, ACC AMIC is working on identifying additional learning areas that will help enhance team skills and knowledge particularly around those related to business analysis and strategic business skills. Sanchez and others have been attending and evaluating open enrollment courses in these areas as well as in programme and portfolio management.
“Strategic thinking is increasingly important today as the government becomes more of a strategic, rather than a tactical, buyer,” said Sanchez. “We are very keen on improving our business acumen when it comes to analysing, documenting and communicating requirements for more strategic acquisition capabilities.”
New York State Office of the State Comptroller Redefines Standard of Business Analysis Excellence
Several years ago, the US Bureau of the Census received a mandate to improve performance from the National Performance Review (NPR) after several key issues were discovered within the organization. Although these issues, which included budgetary overruns, scheduling lapses and missed deadlines, have been plaguing organizations in the public and private sectors for decades, the Census Bureau knew it needed to be proactive to ensure the success of its programs. Concurrently, the organization was preparing for its massive 2000 Census, the largest peacetime mobilization in our nation's history. More than 800,000 temporary employees were to be hired, and early estimates concluded that the endeavor would cost 4 to 6 billion dollars. In project management terms, that was one big project.
"Early on, we recognized that in order to overcome the challenges of declining public participation, hard-to-count populations and the declining ability of the federal government to attract IT professionals, we would have to create numerous private- and public-sector partnerships," says Nancy Potok, Principal Associate Director and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Census Bureau during that period.
ESI and the Census Bureau: A Project Management Team Effort
One partnership that proved to be extremely beneficial for the Bureau of the Census was with ESI International, the industry leader in project management training.
Initially, ESI met with members of the Bureau of the Census in order to understand the specific type of training the organization needed to succeed. According to Potok, this individual attention and flexible attitude was the key element to the eventual success of the partnership. "ESI was really willing to work with us," says Potok. "They were able to come in and develop a training program specifically for the Census Bureau based upon successful programs they'd established for other organizations."
From ESI's vast curriculum, a series of courses was chosen for the organization's training program that would lead to a Master's Certificate in Project Management for participants. They included Managing Projects; Project Leadership, Management and Communication; Scheduling and Cost Control; Risk Management; and Project Management Applications. Additionally, ESI customized aspects of two courses specifically for Census Bureau employees, Quality for Project Managers and Project Management Applications.
By developing a program specifically for the Bureau of the Census, ESI was able to ensure that the skills and practices learned would be able to be adapted and applied to the real-life projects that the organization was dealing with every day. In order to make training more convenient for employees, the program was designed to enable employees to take classes on site. On-site training is an option that ESI offers which sends expert instructors directly to the client's site to deliver courses, allowing employees to train in their own environment.
The Bureau of the Census embraced the training with enthusiasm and commitment, making them a perfect training match for ESI. Not only was the Bureau of the Census willing to invest the resources necessary to make the program a success, it also developed work systems such as requiring employees to attend courses, monitoring progress and putting supervisors and project team members through a customized version of the program.
Additionally, to enhance its commitment to the education of its employees further, the Bureau of the Census
created the Census Corporate University (CCU). Developed to address the academic components of the organization's training goals, the CCU manages the entire training effort by working with ESI to secure instructors, register participants, administer student records and help develop the appropriate curriculum.
To enter the ESI project management training program, Bureau of the Census employees are nominated by their supervisors to join training groups, or cohorts. Once in these cohorts, the employees move through the program together. "The cohort method promotes cross-organizational understanding, builds a strong project management network and encourages peer support for fellow cohort members," says Potok.
After completing the program, employees receive a Master's Certificate in Project Management from ESI and The George Washington University. This is a valuable, industry-recognized credential that demonstrates superior knowledge and a dedication to project management excellence. Since the Bureau of the Census began its training partnership with ESI, nearly 500 employees have received their master's certificates.
The 2000 Census and Beyond
With the help of its partners and strong project management, the 2000 Census was completed on time and under budget, and, more importantly, was an operational success. Project management has proven invaluable to the success of the Census Bureau's many other programs as well.
Since beginning the project management program, several key departments within the organization have reported measurable improvements. The Manufacturing and Construction Divisions reduced the time required to complete a new project from 13 months to just 8 months: a 40% time reduction. Similar successes occurred in the Foreign Trade Division, which used project management techniques to complete its "Import Move to Puerto Rico" project, and with the installation of the Economic Directorate's System Management Server (SMS), which helped the organization resolve more than 50% of its Helpdesk issues through SMS remote desktop.
Employee assessments, which question Bureau of the Census employees who complete the program, have consistently yielded very favorable results. Many employees have said that their project management training has given them the knowledge and skills needed to accomplish tasks that they would have been unable to accomplish prior to their training.
"A common vocabulary and work approach really helps people be more productive," says Potok. "We find we're getting projects done on time, with fewer mistakes because we're doing more planning up front. Therefore, we get a better product delivered on time and under budget."
In the future, the Census Bureau plans to continue its success with ESI as its training partner. New goals include promoting networking throughout the organization, and developing a mentoring program and criteria for Bureau of the Census best practices.