Project Portfolio Management - Acert Associates

P3O & Project Portfolio Management (PPM)

The Portfolio Management of programs and projects ensures that an organisation can better manage its selection of initiatives to achieve the implementation of strategic objectives.

Portfolio leadership encompasses management across the project pipeline to control resources, change, financials and risk

Whether public or private sector, today’s enterprises can benefit from experienced help to meet the challenges of multiple change initiatives, prioritisation and planning

Seasoned, talented PPMs with relevant Sector experience and knowledge
Strong communication and stakeholder management capabilities

Safe hands able to steer your transformation & transition objectives through to success

Program Leadership

Organisations are complex beasts and their change initiatives equally, if not more so. The Program Leader is the key function overseer who leads (not manages) the project teams and stakeholders to successful outcomes.

Acert Program Directors bring the critical functional elements and governance to the table, along with the intellectual flexibility to make it all work in your environment.

Cost-efficient, high-quality program value – day in, day out

Capable, flexible and affordable Program leaders, covering a wide scale and scope of projects
Interim, full and part-time consulting deployments based on delivering results, not just resources

Multi-project delivery success to meet your transformation goals and value objectives

Project Management

Adherence to PM standards such as Prince2 is crucial to ensure attention to detail like RAID tracking and reporting, as is overall great governance, the ability to manage upwards and to keep a constant focus on communication.

Dedicated external expertise – both short and longer-term
Actionable knowledge and skills transfer, to embed changes in key business processes, operating models, teams and systems
Many years of seasoned experience and successful project delivery

Fresh insight and energy, underpinning successful delivery of your project

What we bring:

Access to specialist skills and experience
An external independent viewpoint
An augmented management team
Backfill for medium/long term absences
The ability to design a bespoke team
People who inspire and build momentum

Change Management

What factors do we believe will lead to optimum success in change programs?

Work with networks not hierarchies
Establish a sense of shared purpose early
Show progress, widely and often
Commit to success, top to bottom – there’s no way back…

At Acert we have the capability to drive affordable change programs with the flexible contribution of highly experienced, expert collaborative resources

Skilled and talented Change leaders, to translate, communicate and realise the vision with you
The options for a Program, Project, long-term Portfolio or Consultancy approach, and modified in-flight as suits you best

Your organisational transformation objectives delivered, with maximum agility and cost-efficiency

Software Asset Management (SAM)

21% of software installed on computers in the UK in 2017 was not properly licensed, according to the 2018 Global Software Survey from BSA | The Software Alliance.

The commercial value of unlicensed software in the UK was 1.4€Bn in 2017. With SAM in place organisations typically see an average of 30% savings on Software License costs in year 1.

Acert can help you build an ROI-based compliance solution, on a significant benefit-fee ratio

From initial study & investment proposal, through to definition and delivery of an effective and embedded SAM solution
Experienced practitioners, whether for a project, long-term SAM role or high-value specialist input

Software asset management improvement – flexibly, affordably, effectively

Related work

Channel management support

In building a partner network in the UK associated with its Printless service, our French client knew they would need a simple but comprehensive contract structure and content: a partnering Master Services Agreement with individual Customer Engagement Schedules, and back-to-back terms to enable partners to contract the service with their clients as well as a preliminary agreement of partnering ‘intent’, or Heads of Agreement.

Market entry for a multi-year managed service

Nearing the expiry of a 5-year IT comprehensive managed services agreement, the POA wanted assistance with market entry and scoping of replacement services, as well as a chance to compare the incumbent provider with current market offerings.

Data Asset Register towards GDPR compliance

With important historical data and records spanning many decades, the TUC takes data protection and security very seriously; new legislation in the Trades Union Act and the General Data Protection Regulations brought that further into focus during 2016.

Development of a self-drive ‘Digital Health-check’ tool

Many of the UK’s trade unions have embraced the digital age in seeking to reach new and younger audiences, manage and improve their membership strategies and turbo-charge wider communication. This is not yet the case everywhere however, and some have yet to meet data security requirements as effectively as they should. As thought leaders in this area, the TUC digital team was keen to help and provide member unions (and others) with a toolset to measure their level of maturity across a range of categories: Strategic Approach, Membership, Communications, Web Presence, Data, IT and Systems.

Market entry support for a major IT managed services procurement

Analysis of the IT services and infrastructure landscape at the TUC as part of our strategy development had revealed the opportunity for a broad and holistic upgrade approach, involving consolidation of several service elements. Our recommendations for market entry were endorsed by the new vCIO and sanctioned by the TUC management team. The desired outcome would be a ‘one-stop shop’ covering WAN, secure hybrid hosting, Office 365 with Skype for Business and a managed backup/DR solution in a three to five-year agreement, with built-in benchmarking, renegotiation and termination options.

IT Strategy delivery projects for a national trade unions body

Following Acert’s strategic consultancy report for the TUC in Summer 2016, the senior executive team were keen to establish the IT steering group and appoint a part-time (virtual) Chief Information Officer, as well as to commission work on the IT risk register. Earlier analysis having revealed some onerous service agreements no longer fit for purpose, there was also an appetite to negotiate early savings where possible.

5-year IT Strategy for a national trade unions body

As with many corporate bodies, IT at the TUC facilitates all aspects of operational organisation including infrastructure, communications and learning support. Significant change bearing on the TUC infrastructure in 2015/16 included space consolidation and office remodelling programmes, reduced government funding for Unionlearn and its associated staff shrinkage.

Project Management methodology and training

Operational maturity challenges are common with growing businesses, as they pass the point where process ownership by individual is good enough and find the need for wider process management and disciplines. Our client was at that stage and recognised their need for a common implementations project control, seeking our help with training and materials to resolve the problem.

Service development consulting in EMEA for a global printer and managed solutions provider OEM

Well-known in the middle market for business printers, our client was gearing up to move into managed document solutions, with a wider range of multi-function devices, software and an associated go-to-market strategy. Project lead Javier Lopez needed external assistance with research in order to benchmark country capability across the in-scope markets and with sales operational materials, including Service Catalogue and collateral, partner and customer agreements.

Sales improvement in IT managed services

Our client is a £100m pa managed services business. While their responses to formal RFP documents were solid and demonstrably successful, they had identified that a proportion of their sales teams often struggled to structure and write ’freeform’ sales proposals.

Acert helped us develop our IT strategy and a five-year plan, working collaboratively and constructively across the organisation. They have provided invaluable and expert support with several key initiatives, in particular to tender for and contract a multi-year, comprehensive managed service agreement. This will benefit us by improving our users’ experience with IT, by tightening up our data security and compliance, and – not least – by saving the TUC a significant sum against equivalent prior costs. Matilda Quiney, Head of Management Services and Administration Department, TUC.

The work done by Acert on our data assets register and overall information risk management approach here at the TUC has helped enormously in tackling our compliance challenges and addressing the sheer volume of tasks we faced. Andrea Peace, Information Manager, TUC

We needed outside help to devise a comprehensive digital maturity model for the trade union movement. Acert provided us with expert help and collaboration to develop an easy-to use tool, aimed at helping a wide variety of union practitioners and leaders to understand and implement the model. The tool has already been downloaded and used by many of our affiliated unions to benchmark their digital progress and has helped us open conversations with them about our movement’s shared future digital improvement. John Wood, Digital Manager, TUC

Acert have been a key partnership for Prestige Purchasing. They not only bring a wealth of experience and knowledge that supports our IT Consultancy needs with our clients in the Hospitality and Foodservice sector, but they also share the same core values, integral to our success.Shaun Allen, CEO, Prestige Purchasing Ltd.

I’ve used Acert’s services in previous roles over several years - for help with Telecoms, WAN and Managed Print. They have the full procurement and consultancy toolkit – solution design, solid commercials, project and programme management, as well as access to good quality, available interim and project resources. Recommended. David Ewing, IT Director Cygnet Healthcare

Can we help?

Steve Pye

+44 (0)7712 050604 stephen.pye@acertassociates.com

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Project & Portfolio Management (PPM)