Simply ForteS.Fortes Solutions BV - Capitool 50-3 7521 PL Enschede Tel: +31 (0)534317450 Fax: +31 (0)534345 578 info@fortes.nl www.fortes.nl

Problem

Delta Lloyd Group has approximately 100 project managers, who together manage over 200 projects and programs. The Project Management Office supports these project managers in order to achieve a better project execution and to improve project results.

The Project Management Office used to spend a lot of time on accounting for all these projects. The manual billing of projects and timesheets cost a lot of time, as well as the preparation of a consolidated financial planning. Making portfolio and project reports were also a labor intensive and mostly manual process. Instead of the needs of the organization, the inflexibility of existing systems dictated the way of working.

As a result, the Project Management Office was only able to

‘mind the shop’. There was no capacity to achieve innovations. Processes and procedures where perceived as bureaucratic constraints and time consumers. With other words: there was an impasse in term of growth, and project manager didn’t feel supported by the Project Management Office

Solution

The Project Management Office therefore prepared an improvement plan in 2012, focused on delivering more added value to the project managers. The plan was ambitious: to work more efficiently and reducing manual activities with 80%, a much more simplified reporting process, more focus on quality and costs, and increasing the skills of the employees.

The selection of a new project- and portfolio management

Delta Lloyd Group is a financial service provider with insurance and banking products for private and business markets. With brands such as Delta Lloyd, OHRA and ABN AMRO Insurance, the company is active in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. In 2012 Delta Lloyd Group had more than 5.000 permanent employees and a capital of 2.3 billion Euros.

As one of the largest Dutch insurers Delta Lloyd is continuously working on further growth, without losing sight of quality and efficiency. On this basis the Project Management Office is continuously improving the quality of its services.

Project Management Officeas partner for the project manager

case study

customer case

“A frequently heard comment from project managers was: ‘finally a tool that supports me, instead of the other way around…..”Marja Bonting, Head of Project Management Office

• Supports best practices such as PRINCE2, MSP, Stage Gate, Six Sigma,P3O,MoP, MoV and others;

• Easy to configure to the specific way of working of your organisation, department or team;

• Fully web-based solution that can be implemented in any organisation in just a few weeks.

Simply ForteS.Fortes Solutions BV - Capitool 50-3 7521 PL Enschede Tel: +31 (0)534317450 Fax: +31 (0)534345 578 info@fortes.nl www.fortes.nl

(PPM) software tool was also part of the improvement plan. The former tool was too limited to achieve these ambitions. The most important selection criteria were a positive business case, flexible support of the Delta Lloyd project management methodology (1DLG Taal), and an intuitive user experience allowing the PPM tool to be used by all project members.

After an extensive selection process, Delta Lloyd selected the Principal Toolbox by Fortes Solutions. In June 2012 the Proof of Concept (PoC) started. Within a few weeks all 1DLG Taal templates were entered in the Principal Toolbox. The monthly reports could now be composed without manual labor. This created a lot of support within the project organization. Marja Bonting, head of Project Management Office at Delta Lloyd Group, explains: “The PoC went silent. We were able to transfer all on-going projects to the Principal Toolbox within 4 weeks without anyone noticing it. Moreover, we were able to get reports to management and the board that same month directly from the Principal Toolbox, without an interruption in the reporting cycle!”

Realised benefits

Project manager back in charge In the Principal Toolbox project managers are able to organize their own projects within the framework that the Project

Management Office has set up. Project managers also spend much less time on the administration of project data and creating spread sheet reports. Instead of administering they can now start to implement quality improvements in their projects. Moreover, because of the Principal Toolbox they now have insight into the status, risks and bottlenecks of their projects at any time.

Marja Bonting: “The Principal Toolbox is very well received. A frequently heard comment from project managers was: ‘finally a tool that supports me, instead of the other way around’. Feedback on the software was immediately picked up by Fortes, giving our project managers the feeling that it had become ‘their’ tool.

Highly efficient reports

The Principal Toolbox generates highlight reports automatically. In addition, the software creates a complex multi-instance report for management, divisions and programs within Delta Lloyd with just one click of a button. The enormous time savings has repaid in 25% fewer FTE’s within the Project Management Office. These were previously needed to create project reports every month. This immediately accomplished one of the objectives prior to the introduction of the Principal Toolbox: a positive business case!

One data source, one truth A major advantage of the introduction of the Principal Toolbox at Delta Lloyd is that all project data is managed uniformly and is available at one place. Instead of many separate spread sheets and discussions about the interpretation, the Principal

Toolbox is now the only source of all project data. Marja Bonting: “Discussions about what the ‘truth’ is are history with the introduction of the Principal Toolbox. That saves, besides a lot of time, also a lot of frustration for the project managers.

Intuitive to use

The introduction of the Principal Toolbox went smoothly. Delta Lloyd also helped think about new developments and modifications in the Principal Toolbox. “In addition to good support from Fortes, the user-friendliness of aaaaathe tool itself has greatly helped”, says Marja Bonting. “Project managers could almost immediately go to work with the Principal Toolbox to manage their projects and adjust if necessary. This has led to other departments and programs within Delta Lloyd now also wanting use the Principal Toolbox.

Ambitions realisedThe Project Management Office has been able to realize its ambitions with the implementation of the Principal Toolbox. “The impasse of ‘minding the store’ is broken and we have been working more efficiently”, says Marja Bonting. “Instead of an administrative function, the Project Management Office has become an actual partner in the realization of projects within Delta Lloyd. The project manager is back in charge of his project. The rest of the organization also has noticed the improvements and new possibilities, as you can see from the many spontaneous questions and enthusiastic responses within Delta Lloyd on our new approach.

Looking at the future

At the request of the users the possibility of applying the Principal Toolbox for Scrum project is currently being investigated. In addition, Delta Lloyd is also going to use the Principal Toolbox for resource management, project invoicing and timesheets.

“The Project Management Office has become an actual partner in the realization of projects within Delta Lloyd.”Marja Bonting, Head of Project Management Office

“The PoC went very smoothly. Within 4 weeks all projects were transferred and we were able to get reports for management and the board from the Principal Toolbox.”Marja Bonting, Head of Project Management Office