6 Rules for PMOaaS Service Centers

10 December 2020

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Our client is a major French car manufacturer that we have worked with for over 25 years. During that time, the automotive industry has undergone many transformations with hybrid and electric engines, connected vehicles, and autonomous driving.

Currently, we are facing a new challenge that isn’t unique to automotive – reducing the cost of engineering and development. This issue has become a matter of survival. A company’s ability to focus on know-how while entrusting its PMO to a specialized partner becomes a strategic issue and a source of economy and performance gains that no major industrial player can ignore.

Rule 1 - Start Small to Grow Tall

In this context of continuous transformation, the creation of a Service Center or PMO as a Service (PMOaaS or PMaaS), makes sense. PMOaaS accompanies the client as they achieve their objectives. PMOaaS lets clients focus on what they do best while rationalizing their approach to the PMO.

The budgetary benefits are unmatched. Our partnership has reduced the average price of our work units by 30% over five years. How did we do that? By optimizing the load in relation to the capacity, we created new efficiencies between projects and automated reports.

At the beginning of our partnership, we collaborated with our client to plan the project. In 2015, we created our first PMO work package with a team of 70 consultants. Since then, we developed a comprehensive PMO Service Center. It included configuration management, resource load management, resource availability, and an additional team in Spain in 2018.

Today, we work alongside Engineering, Manufacturing, and Design. Thanks to our 120 consultants in the PMO Service Center, we also bring added value on complementary activities, such as:

Project manager assistance
Load/resource adequacy monitoring
Reporting
Project cost monitoring
Engineering

Rule 2 - Define Your Goals and Identify the Desired Benefits

An organization in the Service Center is cross-referenced to contributing departments. It creates synergies, increases the flexibility, and responsiveness of teams. In short, we break up the silos. MIGSO-PCUBED is made up of several Business Managers, Heads of Missions, Focal Points, and Technical Relays.

They organize the relationship with purchases, contract customers, and operational customers. This management guarantees:

The excellence of delivery.
Customer satisfaction.
The quality of the overall service.

It is important to define your objectives and to combine the expected benefits. In order to meet our customers’ expectations, we rely on three major areas:

Our Mastery of the Customer Environment

Our consultants always meet the requirements of the client, whether that is their expertise, experiences, or human qualities. This mastery of the environment also allows to establish a high-performance operational organization that ensures a quality of service.

Our Robust Integration Processes

This allows us to be up and running very quickly. We have built a common core of training, plus specific training for each mission, training on our client’s project management tools (based on Planisware) and training in soft skills.

Our Ability to Ensure Many Cross-Cutting Projects

To maximize the benefits of our services, we implement Agile, digitalization, standardization, and capitalization.

Rule 3 - Go Through Key Milestones

It takes time to set up a Service Center of this size. It’s built up as work is being done, so it must do the following:

Establish clear and shared governance and organization.
Create steering instances at all levels.
Introduce performance indicators specific to the PMO Service Center.
Bring changes to the catalogue of Works Units.
Demand excellence in delivery.

Thanks to this approach, we now have a complete catalogue of over 100 Works Units, covering all customer branches in France and Spain. This allows us to cover all the needs defined jointly with our client. Specific Work Units meet the specific needs of customers, which keeps PMOaaS flexible.

Rule 4 - Be Aware of Sticking Points

You must know where the sticking points are, be open to change, and articulate your expectations and objectives. When setting up PMOaaS, the basics remain the same as those of any project:

Don’t burn the bridges.
Accompany change.
Trust your team and client.
Demand impeccable deliverables.

Rule 5 - Accept Creativity

Thanks to the trust of our client, we have set up cross-cutting work groups to optimize and evolve the deliverables of the PMO Service Center.

The deployment of trainers (welcome book, development logic, project management tool) and the creation of the Digital Factory in 2017 to automate and digitize reporting tools (VBA, Power BI, Spotfire …) are some examples of actions we have taken. Since then, the Digital Factory has also been in action on other projects and with other customers.

Rule 6 - Give Feedback and Focus on Goals

Dialogue, feedback, and progress from your partners shouldn’t be underestimated. The implementation of PMOaaS requires strategic sponsorship, a significant change drive, and support for all your teams.

Conclusion

Beyond the direct economic benefits from an effective PMOaaS, we are constantly looking for improvement within a Service Center. Our teams are like to create and innovate. An effective PMO as a Service brings out spontaneous proposals and opens the door to many cross-cutting actions for the benefit of the customer.

In everything we do, we strive for excellence in customer satisfaction. Our PMO expertise is recognized by our customers, and we thank them warmly.

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