PMOGA PANEL DISCUSSION ( with Finalists – Edited version focusing only on few sections)
Top 5 achievements in my professional journey:
- Received award from Group CIO of current organization.
- Received employee share for four times ( ESOP) in the current organization which is given only for staff who deliver top notch value / outcomes.
- Received outstanding award for 5 consecutive times in HCL. Outstanding award is given for employees who receive the top most appraisal rating. I have received it during my entire tenure in HCL.
- Received the top most rating in Polaris ( 4/4) for four consecutive times which is a record.
- In the last 5 years, have worked on 14 CI projects which have delivered benefits of more than 5.5 M USD.
Top CI Projects – TOTAL BENEFIT 5.5 M USD:
- PMO As a service
Scenario: As lot of projects could not utilize PMO capability to the fullest, to ensure that even small/large and medium sized projects can work with PMOs, we did a pilot for a new initiative – PMO as a service .
Action: Basically project team can opt for a PMOs for the entire life cycle or for specific stages of a projects. They can pick and choose the entire bouquet of services or ala carte services from the 9 service offering with a total of 50 different activities. Project & Business team took keen interest and started providing lot of requests for PMOs. Lot of requests were raised with less lead time. Utilized numerous approaches to fulfil the demands, created cookbook for all the 50 activities, created bootcamp for all new joiners, and organized buddy services to paired experienced resources with new PMOs.
Impact: Within a span of 18 months, have onboarded 50+ resources with 100% billability. Therefore there is zero escalation. Good part is despite most of the team members are new to the department, received more than 85% score in yearly customer satisfaction feedback as well as in People survey.
2. Resource Ramp up for a multi-million dollar program:
Scenario– We had to ramp up 200+ resources in 2021 across multiple teams with varied skills for a massive Transformation program that spans over 5 years. This is a multi-million-dollar programme.
Action – Organized multiple meetings with 25+ stakeholders for alignment and ensured that all the demands were entered in enterprise resource management tool. We continued to have biweekly sessions and identified the resourcing gaps. We had to reallocate few resources to fulfil internal gaps and similarly worked with few suppliers in a phased manner to fill the external gaps. Moreover, utilized Power BI tool for data analysis during governance meetings. Though we had faced lot of challenges especially in fulfil niche skills, having a good focus and close collaboration / relationship with multiple stakeholders helped us to resolve the gaps. RM team played a pivotal role totally.
Impact: Despite working virtually in 2021, we were able to allocate more than 300 FTEs this year across multiple hubs – India / UK / NL etc. This is an extremely successful initiative from resource management perspective. Savings of 70K USD/annum.
3. Rolled out the P30 setup for the first time in department/company for a 40 M USD portfolio.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
- PMO team got opportunity to implement and relaunch the PMO role for one of the biggest portfolio within IPPD which has budget of 50M USD comprising of numerous sub portfolios, programs and projects.
- There are 90+ projects and the team faced numerous issues in billing, managing project risk and creating consolidated summary.
THE SOLUTION:
- After brainstorming multiple options to manage the large portfolio effectively, it has been decided to implement with P3O model.
- Head of Portfolio has been supportive of this model.
- Permanent PMOs and COE model has been created. Location Wise hub portfolio ( permanent) bas been created.
- Temporary project and program office has bene created.
- The entire team has been trained on the model of P3O along with detailed training on the various service catalogue.
- Created Governance model for effective stakeholder management and to track the progress and results.
- EUP Training to PMs- Onboarding of EUP PMs have been started which is well received.
- Checklist & Milestone for PMs in EUP have been created:
- For PMs on finance and non finance activities.
- Checklist for PMOs on PI, Assurance & Finance.
- 6 major milestones for PMs which is very well received
Templates – PI Template & PO creation template has been launched.
THE BENEFITS:
- Most successful P3O model has been created and the portfolio and business team appreciated the benefits derived from the below:
- Portfolio on a page / Snapshot view – Portfolio on a page details has been shared with the leadership team on monthly basis detailing the milestones, RAG status, timelines, RAG of project as part of steerco meeting.
- Reporting – All in one report prepared for EUP which gives one snapshot on financial and nonfinancial transaction.
- Portfolio PMO team chairs the steerco and tracks the action items to closure.
- Project Accounting Variance – Due to the roll up of bottom-up approach and with regular tracking using the automated budget tracker, the approved Budget Vs LE Variance for EUP has been less than 3% for 2019.
4) Automated the project Finance tracker with savings of 140K USD/annum.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
- Project Accounting is a substantial PMO support offering provided by the PPS team. Inadequate training and the lack of standard processes and templates have resulted in a support environment where PMO Analysts are not delivering up to the expectation for the Project Accounting service as outlined in the Catalog Service.
- Numerous complaints regarding accounting, billing, finance set up and other project accounting related tasks have been raised consequently resulting in negative perceptions regarding the level of support provided by the PPS organization.
SOLUTION : Automated the tracker by working with Finance, PMO, Delivery and automation team.
THE BENEFITS:
- Automation tracker has been created and L2 benefit of 140K USD has been realized and below are some of the advantages of the tool.
- Budget tracker is quick, efficient and human error free. It helps to track OP/Current approved budget vs actuals, which might not be the case with PPM tool. Delivery lead can get a bird’s eye view of his/her entire portfolio.
- Program manager / Project manager can manage the Latest Estimates by looking at a resource level per month basis rather than the project level , this will help manage the variance at a resource level. Also, anyone can refer it offline at any given point in time and it will have the data from SERP.
- Budget tracker helps PMOs to reduce manual efforts of plugging the YtD actuals month on month at a resource level from the SERP data dump in the tracker.
- It helped PMOs to manage the LE better by effectively analyzing the data for e.g. It segregates the type of Actual cost into respective buckets (Resource, ISP, non-ISP and 3rd party cost).
5) Created a knowledge management repository for the entire department with benefit of 574K USD.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
- No One stop shop where all PMs can look at one place to gather the information they need to run their project on time & on budget.
- No clarity on the process flow.
- PMs are exposed to different versions of knowledge.
SOLUTION : Led a core team and established KM Portal for Document Management and created central repository. Training Materials related to tools, delivery rules in a flow chart model along with the process flow were created. Moreover, created detailed best Practices & Lessons Learnt.
THE BENEFITS:
- KM portal has been developed and the tool has been widely implemented at department level.
- The overall benefit results in saving of 584K USD/annum.
- Cycle time to get relevant info, process and templates has been reduced by 80%.
- Contains templates and relevant documents that are linked from the Landing and Detail pages.
- It helped in releasing lot of bandwidth and time which enabled the team to focus on delivery.
6) Automated manual process using AI and ML with L2 Savings of 178K USD.
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Previously, resource managers has to broadcast requirement to suppliers via contingent workforce team manually. This posed a considerable challenge during periods characterized by a high volume of contractor procurement requests, as each request entailed a 15-minute processing time for Resource Managers . The manual entry process was not only time consuming, but also introduced data entry errors into the workflow.
SOLUTION: Developed an automated using BOT by integrating two different systems.
THE BENEFITS:
- Engineered to optimize performance efficiency with a strong focus on business outcomes, the solution achieved a 100% adoption rate among Resource Managers.
- In line with Organization’s digitalisation strategy, this solution is a testament to our commitment towards leveraging digital technologies to enhance cost efficiency and boost productivity. This implementation has led to significant reduction in manual effort and improved operational efficiency, resulting in $178k in cost savings.
- With more than 12000 RFTs created till date, the solution has delivered a very impressive 3X ROI.
7. Created single supplier process for two projects and a competency center with savings of 37K USD.
8. Created learning path for the team with detailed skills and competency required with benefit of 81K USD.
Few Appreciation from LTs / Leaders / External Community
1) Top 3 PMO India Leader of the year 2021 – Feb 2022 : Selected from multiple leaders across industries ( IT, Construction , Financial Services, Healthcare etc) by eminent panelist across the globe.
2. My Spotlight Interview is published in Resource Management Institute Website in Dec 2021.
3. Received Performance Shares in Feb 2022 & Feb 2023 – Top 15% strong performer in the current organization in 2020, 2021, 2022 based on yearly performance appraisal.
4. Appreciation from DE CC Head and Leader in BNG – Mar 11th 2022 – For reducing the overdue of a Top 5 Portfolio in IT:
Amazing work in systemically approaching the resolution for mobility P1 tickets and the root cause analysis – which is helping us with Faster resolution and laying the process for easy tracking and managing of these overdue requests going forward. • THANK YOU Nakkeren and the entire team for moving this forward. IT.
5) Appreciation from CC Head and a leader in UK & Functional Excellence Lead – 29th Apr 2022- Zero Overdue in a large and Top 5 Programme in IT department:
• Brilliant news – well done team. Appreciate the energy and the focus on this. • Nakkeren – His drive for mission zero is infectious…abs led the ERM team to achieve this.
6) Appreciation from ERM Head for completing MSP Certification – 2nd Apr 2022:
• Great achievement! You are the perfect role model for the wider ERM team 😀 .I have no idea where you can find the time to do all of this next to a busy job and family life.
7) Appreciation from IT LTs in SWAT Meeting – 8th Apr 2022:
• Big shout out for support and helping to close out overdue resource demands together with the CCs.
8) Appreciation from CC Head (based in US ) – Jan 27th 2022 :
Have made an extraordinary contribution to our resourcing planning and process. Through the work they’ve done, we now have resourcing data and plans that have put us on track to being proactive instead of reactive in our approach to resourcing. We expect the insights they’ve enabled to begin to help relieve our team so that we have improved work life balance and time to devote to trainings and innovation. Thank you Nakkeren ..! We appreciate you!
9) Appreciation from a Business Leader in Europe – Mar 25th 2022:
For Fulfilling all positions has been filled on time.
All – This may well be a brief moment in time but, it is a moment for us to CELEBRATE that through all your hard work we have filled all the requested resource plans for a key team. A BIG THANK YOU from me and the team for getting this done. This would not have been possible without you and the efforts you have made to pull together across all the teams. I know the other teams are following and it will allow us to focus on building up our staff footprint, building capabilities and, crucially, building the software to drive the journey to being one of …leading …businesses! I am also aware that due to you continued and tireless efforts are nearing the same success across the other teams and pushing to get to the line is a great place to be.
10) Appreciation from Functional Excellence Lead 16th Mar 2022 – Also a shout out for Nakkeren too as he has been abs instrumental in helping things on strategic level and helping simply things