When you’re making big investments to drive growth or operational efficiency, like implementing new business software or launching a new product, it’s easy to get stuck trying to move that project forward.
Many internal teams just don’t have the time or expertise to manage a project. They may not understand the full scope of what project management involves or know which methodology (agile? waterfall? hybrid?) would work best. Or they make the mistake of delegating project management to a technical expert who doesn’t understand the interdependencies with other projects and doesn’t have experience breaking roadblocks.
Managing transformation is hard. Even small projects can achieve higher success rates with an experienced project manager. More complex projects may require a resource with experience leading large teams and making challenging decisions, who can guide development of the project plan.
If the team that will be doing the work doesn’t have the capacity or capability, the solution may be outsourcing your project management to experts. Here’s how project management as a service (PMaaS) can help you make transformative change and deliver your critical project on time and within scope and budget.
PMaaS is a customized consulting service that gives you access to project management experts who can drive all or part of the planning, execution and oversight of a project to achieve specific goals within a defined timeline and budget. These flexible resources can integrate with your internal team to get projects off the ground, back on track or to the finish line.
PMaaS consultants handle tasks such as gathering requirements, managing budgets, outlining resource needs, communicating with project stakeholders and tracking progress. Broader PMaaS services could include program management (groups of projects), strategic advisory to make critical decisions that are needed in any project, or the ability to take on tasks within the project plan.
A PMaaS expert can also deploy sophisticated project management software, data-driven tools and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate repetitive project tasks, predict project outcomes and manage resources more efficiently.
Large-scale change and capital improvements can derail efficiency because you need dedicated resources to move the project from idea to completion. That can take internal resources away from your strategic business functions, compromise your product or service quality and burn out your star players.
PMaaS can protect your core business operations, lower project management costs, speed up delivery times and even improve operational efficiency. Here’s the impact we’ve seen it have on our clients:
Lowers project management costs. With PmaaS you don’t have to hire someone in-house to do the work or backfill an internal role. PMaaS services are flexible, so they can be right-sized to get a highly competent team member at a lower cost.
Allows your experts to do what they do best. Companies often enlist internal experts to deliver capital improvements or technology transformations, but this can backfire because the experts don’t have time to fully focus on the project. An external project manager can allow your people to concentrate on their main roles and give them the capacity to add valuable insights, tackle complex issues and educate internal teams on the project outcomes.
Promotes collaborative thinking for faster project execution. When an in-house specialist leads a project, they often focus on their business area and miss the interdependencies and the overall big picture. An experienced project manager can coordinate across departments, ensuring all project stakeholders are involved and responsibilities are clear. This accelerates collaboration and project performance.
Clarifies project needs and risks. A large transformation, like upgrading to a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, requires much more planning than you may think. Without a dedicated project manager, critical needs and risks might be overlooked, leading to delays or failures. A project manager with significant technology implementation experience may even be able to reduce the project timeline by weeks or months.
Helps you avoid quality issues and deliver expected results. The PMaaS consultant can ensure that the project incorporates quality measures at every project stage. These checkpoints, such as testing phases or stakeholder reviews, prevent quality issues from being discovered too late in the project cycle.
Offers ongoing project guidance. Planning doesn’t just happen at the start. PmaaS experts are adept at navigating change, managing risks and creating feedback loops to maintain scope, budgets and timelines. For example, if the project team detects a bug in your ERP implementation, the project manager tracks it from identification to resolution, ensuring that any changes are approved, communicated and implemented efficiently.
Streamlines communications and improves cooperation. A productive, efficient project team needs someone to act as the central hub to lead communications and troubleshoot issues. A PMaaS expert uses proven skills and tools to keep the project team aligned, informed and engaged. This helps reduce misunderstandings, minimize delays and ensure project success.
Access specialized project management expertise. External project managers work across industries and companies, so they can bring a fresh perspective and best practices that optimize your project workflows and decision-making processes. They can also determine what methodology will work best. Do you need an iterative “agile” approach, a structured “waterfall” progression or some combination of the two?
With expertise in mapping projects to long-term goals, PMaaS experts can support your bigger picture and tie project deliverables and timelines to your strategic objectives. Here are a few ways they can help you align action with strategy:
PMaaS can streamline operations and boost efficiency across your organization. Here’s how it makes teams’ lives easier in different parts of your business:
Have a key project that you need to keep on schedule and within budget? If your in-house team lacks the expertise or time to to manage it, PMaaS can be a great solution. See how external project management helped manufacturer Rawlings manage a divestiture and M&A. And explore how our Strategy and Transformation experts can manage your project for you to deliver optimal efficiency and outcomes.
