Background
A leading global financial services firm’s Americas’ division had acquired several large companies and was in the midst of integrating their IT infrastructures. The number of programs, projects and operational work was becoming challenging to prioritize. The need to manage all these efforts under a common umbrella was apparent.

Challenge
The financial company required the development of tools and processes that could provide a holistic view into the IT Infrastructure efforts in order to determine how to allocate their valuable resources and budgets.

The company needed to manage their IT Infrastructure as a business to determine which projects and operational investments offered the most sensible return and to minimize their risks.

Solution Highlights
An Aeritae resource led the effort to determine the company’s requirement for a Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solution.

The development of this solution included:

• The first phase of developing a PPM for required that an inventory be taken of all project and operational efforts. A process was developed to collect and collate the status, financial information, resource requirements, and timelines for each effort under way and planned in the organization.

• The second phase focused on aligning projects with strategic initiatives and categorizing them into common initiatives, determining projects’ ROI, and developing an IT Infrastructure Steering Committee to review the Project Portfolio.

• The third phase prioritized projects based on weighting scales that were developed. This permitted the steering committed to determine which project should be pursued.

• The fourth phase consisted of grouping projects and operational efforts into common programs were applicable. This prevented overlap of resources and budgets while providing focus on common objectives.

• The fifth phase entailed the establishment of an ongoing review process to determine if objectives and budgets were being met, resources were allocated appropriately, and if projects were prioritized to meet strategic needs.

Results
The company successfully developed and deployed a Project Portfolio Management solution that took advantage of tools and processes to successfully manage their IT Infrastructure efforts. This resulted in focused program, projects and operational initiatives that were consistently reviewed to insure they met their objectives.