Growth initiatives moved forward with no standardized way to plan, execute, or track value, and the resulting missed dates eroded trust with the field advisors who depended on new capabilities landing on time. The organization had tried to build a PMO before, more than once, but each attempt lived inside the IT department and never earned credibility with the business side it was meant to serve. A better project plan wouldn't fix that. Only a PMO built to live outside IT, and built to last, could.
Case Study
The PMO didn’t need more process, it needed a home outside IT.
A financial services organization had tried to stand up a PMO from inside its IT department multiple times, watching each attempt quietly shut down. We built a business-led Enterprise Portfolio Management Office with the governance, methodology, and technology to outlast us.
Engagement at-a-glance
Industry:
Financial Services and Insurance
Organization size:
~ 3,000 employees & $2.2 billion in revenue
Services:
Enterprise PMO & Portfolio Management
Change Management
Strategic Initiative Leadership
Change Management
Strategic Initiative Leadership
The Challenge
Most PMOs last three to five years. This one had already failed twice.
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Projects with no shared methodology or experience
Growth initiatives moved forward without a standardized way to plan, execute, or track value, and the resulting missed dates eroded trust with the field advisors who depended on new capabilities landing on time.
-
A PMO that could only take root inside IT
The organization had tried to build a PMO more than once, but each attempt lived inside the IT organization and never earned the credibility to serve the business side of the house, the same side its field advisors depended on.
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Trust with the field already running low
Years of inconsistent project experiences had left field advisors distrustful of home-office delivery, and every new miss widened the gap between the field and the people building for them.
Our Approach
We built a crawl-walk-run PMO sized to the organization's actual maturity, not a template.
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1
Assessed current state through interviews across the business
We interviewed stakeholders across the business and IT, meeting directly with the CFO, COO, and head of advisor operations to understand where planning broke down and where trust had eroded.
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2
Built a standardized framework grounded in PMBOK, Prosci, and ADKAR
We designed an end-to-end methodology covering intake through value tracking, tailored to the organization's maturity through a crawl-walk-run approach rather than a one-size-fits-all template.
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3
Stood up a technology backbone in SmartSheet
We built a SmartSheet library for project planning, RAID logs, and status reporting that fed into a portfolio-level reporting layer, giving leadership visibility into every in-flight and potential initiative.
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4
Embedded with leadership rather than running scheduled workshops
Rather than delivering the framework and stepping back, we stayed embedded with the leadership team, listening for where trust needed to be rebuilt and adjusting the approach as three initiatives moved through the new model.
Value Delivered
A PMO built to outlast the reasons the last ones didn't.
Gave executive leadership a governance structure to step back into
Leaders now have defined organizational boundaries and a formal process for managing risks, change requests, and decisions, freeing their time for enterprise priorities instead of every project call.
Replaced ad hoc planning with one end-to-end delivery framework
A standardized EPML framework spanning intake through value realization gives the organization a repeatable way to move initiatives forward while staying connected to strategy.
Built a portfolio reporting backbone in SmartSheet
A connected system for planning artifacts, RAID logs, and status reporting gives leadership a clear, standardized view of in-flight and potential work.
Launched three initiatives under a model the organization now owns
Three initiatives have moved through the new operating model successfully, giving leadership the confidence to pursue larger, more complex work under a framework the organization runs on its own.
Results that reflect the work behind them.
8–10 months
To stand up an operational Enterprise Portfolio Management Office, moving the organization from repeated unsuccessful PMO attempts to a functioning governance, methodology, and tooling foundation
3
Initiatives successfully launched under the new operating model, giving leadership confidence to pursue larger, more complex work
1
Unified enterprise framework established from intake through value tracking, replacing inconsistent project planning practices
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Work With Us
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